As you may already know from a few posts/Stories on Instagram or if you’ve already watched the Vlog on my YouTube channel, my husband, Michael, and I just got back from six glorious, sunny, perfect fall weather days in Southern Vermont. We decided to go to Vermont for a few reasons. One, because it’s not hot this time of year. We live in San Antonio, Texas, and as I write this, it is almost 100 degrees outside. We are OVER the summer heat. Texas has not gotten the memo that it’s fall. Secondly, because we love mountain towns, just not in the winter. We love the trees, the beautiful scenery, the restaurants, boutiques, availability of activities, and the general feeling of tranquility that is associated with that kind of geography. Lastly, we had always wanted to stay at the Equinox Resort, back when it was part of the Four Seasons Collection years and years ago. Our travel plans never worked out when the kids were little, but now that we are Empty Nesters, we decided to finally pull the trigger and we started planning our trip to the Equinox and Manchester, Vermont in late spring.
Other than knowing where we wanted to stay and that Michael wanted to get in a couple of rounds of golf and I wanted at least one morning at the spa, we had no specific plans. This was a vacation that was solely focused on time together, relaxation, and recharging. If you’d like to see the video of some of the highlights, you can click here or scroll down to the end of the post. Below are some very casual, unedited pictures from our vacation that I took with my iPhone XsMax (or whatever the heck they’re calling it). If you have any questions about details, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments! This was one of my favorite vacations we’ve ever taken and I highly recommend both the Equinox Resort (NOT sponsored, we paid for everything ourselves) and the area in and around Manchester, Vermont.
We flew into Albany, NY, rented a car and drove on Route 7 into Manchester. Look at that view!!
Pulling into the Equinox Resort-our home away from home for the week.
Our view from the rocking chairs on the front porch of the hotel
Our view from dinner the first night. The pro shop has a great little grille with outstanding outdoor dining. They also have gluten free chicken tenders and gluten free onion rings-something that is very rare to find!!
After dinner we walked around town a bit. Manchester has over 4 miles of marble sidewalks!
This is the Orvis Flagship Store. The property goes on for quite a bit around it. It’s absolutely stunning.
More of the Orvis property. Can you see the rainbow? It had just finished raining.
Every morning we hiked (really we walked/strolled) from the hotel through the woods to a lake and then back. It was my favorite part of the day.
Meet my new friend Monty, the Harris Hawk. I was absolutely terrified at first but this was actually one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. He only weight 1.75 pounds!!
Of course we had to visit the famous Northshire Bookstore, one of the most famous independent bookstores in the country.
We found a covered bridge! We also visited the Bennington Battlefield Monument earlier and Michael still had his sticker on. 😉 I know it’s sideways-there are a couple in this post that WordPress just will not adjust no matter what I do!
We drove on (one of) the longest private toll roads in the country to the top of Mount Equinox. It was COLD! Ok, it was 53 degrees but considering it was over 100 degrees back home that was something!
Must see if you go to Southern Vermont…Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln’s “Summer” home.
I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take an OOTD selfie in a 100+ year old mirror. It was just so…odd.
Our last full day we went to one of the Vermont Country Stores and I saw they were selling vintage makeup. How cool is this advertisement?
There’s a lot more to see in the vlog footage-it was just getting so long that I didn’t want to add to any more length by adding the pictures to the end (and I have a whole lot more pictures too, but this is already getting too self-indulgent). I’ve added details about where we ate and some of the places we visited in the description box in the video, so make sure you hop over there as well! Thanks for stopping by!
        https://youtu.be/8Fwu3lmio6w            Â
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Gorgeous pictures!! Thanks for sharing!
Thank-you so much for taking us along on your journey! I live in Arizona where it’s still hot too and I’m so done with summer!!!! The views were stunning, the town & shops adorable and the falcon, amazing! Now I want to visit the Equinox Resort.????