Jessica and Drew's Impromptu Adventures

We started out the day by trying to get an early jump on the morning. Coffee and OJ was delivered to our door, and after getting ready, we headed out!

The first stop of the morning was at Mike’s Pastries in the North End of Boston. We drove around the North End checking out the tiny streets, looking at some of the historical stuff (1 if by land, 2 if by sea!), and trying to find parking. Once we got a spot on the street, we walked up to Mike’s to get our breakfast on!

Jessica ordered an Eclair and a hot chocolate, I grabbed a chocolate chip canolli and a coffee, and we sat down to enjoy our “breakfast”.

When we were done we took a quick stroll through the North End and then jumped in the car to get our little road trip started!

We headed Northwest out of Boston towards New Hampshire. With a Fodor’s travel guide, a map from AAA Trip-Tik and 2 big smiles, we were on our way! We stopped at Robert Frost’s Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, to learn a little about the poet, read a couple of poems, and then pushed on.

The next stop on the list was Manchester, NH. Jess read me the history of the city, how it was built, why it was built, etc. etc. and then she came across the gem of the city: The World’s Largest Lego Installation. How could we not go?

Over 3,000,000 legos!!! They re-built the entire city, which has a fantastic but tragic story. For some reason I am now fascinated with Manchester, NH.

As we got closer to the New Hampshire, Vermont border, we decided to pull over and check out the State booze store. Apparently in New Hampshire, you can only get hooch at state run stores, but there is no tax. There are around 75 of em in the state, but you can’t get beer at the state stores. Beer can be bought in most convenience and grocery stores. Now you know!

We made it to Quechee, Vermont to sample some cheese at the local Cabot outlet and grab some lunch. There’s a little market called we stopped at that was full of all kinds of great stuff, including a huge table of Vermont cheese ready to taste. It was AMAZING.

We left and went to go get a scenic look of the “Grand Canyon of Vermont”, the Quechess Gorge. It was pretty cool looking:

After driving around a little bit, we made it to the spot (just in time!) for lunch: Simon Pearce restaurant. With it’s spot on the Travel+Leisure “Most Romantic Restaurants in America”, it was the perfect stop for lunch on our anniversary!

I had a roasted red-pepper quiche and Jessica ordered the sesame chicken. The food was spectacular, but this place is really all about a perfect Vermont view!

With our schedule nipping at our heels, we headed North through Vermont to our next destination! Jess got behind the wheel for a bit and drove us to Montpelier to check out the state house.

Our next stop, and one of the main reasons we came to New England, was Ben and Jerry’s in Waterbury, VT.

We made it just in time for the last tour of the day (we ran in at 4:56 and the last tour was at 5) and with our check-in on FourSquare, we got to save $16 and get a free tour!! The place was awesome and after getting some knowledge about how Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is made, we got to sample some of the freshest Cherry Garcia on the planet!

A quick run through the gift shop, and we were on our way to the tasting area to get our fill of this awesome stuff! We opted for the mini-Vermonster .. how can you not, I mean, look at the poster!

Our four flavors were: Cookies and Cream, Late Night Snack, Schweddy Balls, and Jessica’s favorite: Chunky Monkey.

Fortunately, or unfortunately you could say, we had ice cream for dinner, causing us to skip out on our dinner plans at Solstice in Stowe .. ah, there’s always next time!

We headed back to Boston for the evening. We figured we could grab a late dinner after the drive, and we did. We visited the semi-new Harborside Legal Seafood and finally got our hands on some clam chowder!

For dinner I had some baked New England Scrod and Jessica finally got a Lobster Roll!

With dinner in our belly, we headed to the hotel to get some rest after a great day and our first full official year of being husband and wife!! :)