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A few trivial traveling hints...
Over the past few years, I've been on a number of trips. These are just brief summaries with some information that might inspire you to go to some of the same places. (Or not to go. YMMV. :-))
In the winter of '94, I made my now annual trek to the northeast to find snow. For the second year in a row, I went to Burlington, VT. If you haven't been, go! Burlington is one of the prettiest towns I've seen. It's conveniently close to a lot of cross country skiing places. (Downhill, too, I guess, but I haven't tried that.) It's right on Lake Champlain and in the winter, with the lake frozen, you can walk out from the ferry terminal towards the mountains of New York. Last year I watched a number of folks ice skating and playing ice hockey on the lake. But just walking on the lake, for a southerner, was a treat.
Burlington has a nice coffee shop called Noonie's where folk music is played each weekend night. Both times I've been in town, I've gone to Noonie's for the weekend music. It's small, the food isn't great, but it's never crowded and the music has been lots of fun. But, as of August 1995, Noonie's is gone and has been replaced by the Burlington Coffeehouse. I didn't get a chance to go there on my trip in the summer of '95, but hope to next time.
Burlington is also just north of Shelburne, home of the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. You can tour the factory where incredibly cute bears are put together from all-American made parts. The "factory" has signs which tell the distance to various places where the parts are made. I have a photo (gee, I should scan it in at some point!) of the sign pointing to Raleigh, NC where the stuffing is made! You can order bears which are dressed like a lot of different characters... fishermen, ballerinas, nurses, doctors, basketball players, skiers (only downhill at the time I took this trip), etc. But, you can also special order a bear dressed in an outfit of your choosing. The company has people who will design and make any outfit. One day, maybe I'll order a bear outfitted in biking lycra. :-) And, in the summer of 1995, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company moved into a brand new building! I was in the area on the day of the grand opening, but didn't go to it. (I did pop into the gift shop before I left several days later. The bears all looked healthy and happy, but I resisted taking one home with me.) (One niece and one nephew each have one from a previous trip, though.)
Burlington is just south of Winooski which is an old, revived mill town. The old mill in Winooski has been turned into a small, upscale mall. The best store in the mall is the Vermont crafts store. Lots of friends got "made in Vermont" presents from me in 1994. Winooski also has a diner I want to visit... Libby's Diner. I tried to eat there on this trip, but it was too crowded and I was too anxious to get to Stowe to ski. I'll definitely go there next time I'm in Burlington... which I hope will be for their annual folk music festival in 1995.
Well, in August 1995, I did go to the folk music festival, and I did get to eat in Libby's Diner. The festival was lots of fun. I was thrilled at the experience of eating in Libby's Diner, but was disappointed in the food. :-} And they were out of t-shirts in my size, so I couldn't even indulge in that! I might go back and try again, but it won't be a priority on future trips. Yet to come...