Adventures in Vermont and Ice-Cream!

Bon matin world!
I am up and at em' super early today, as I prepare for work to continue to be ready for the business launch, (yup back to the grind already) I thought I would post a bit about my last few days.
I needed to get away, my friend has a place in the country that I run to when I have pushed too much, have depleted my reserves, have become a wretched person to be around, and need to put life back in perspective. If you were to ask Poppa Bear, he would tell you that an impatient, nasty, sailor mouthed, worst parts of an introvert, person took over his Mama Bear, for the last 2 weeks. I am so sorry babe, I love you to bits!
I struggle with needing to rest, it feels like the opposite of what I can and should be doing, I need movement, action, directed energy that is always making a way towards an outcome. This is in conflict with my introverted needs, which try as I might, cannot be denied.
Poppa Bear is an extrovert, he gains his energy from being with others and comes more alive from interaction. I become overwhelmed, drained, depleted, and a complete mess with too much stimulation. I like people, doing dinner parties, get together's, and having fun times; just on a very small scale and not too often. I am also sleepy by 9:30pm and become really cranky if I can't get to bed within an hour of my first yawn. This is not new, I have been like this since childhood, need my full 8 hours sleep, need quiet alone, me time, and I will never be a night owl. Both my son and my man are able to stay up at night, however my son is not a morning person and would love to throttle my cheery, bright, early, go-get em neck. Hehheh, payback I say for many sleepless nights.
Mornings are my thing, and I was thrilled to find that Pb wakes up happy and pleasant. What a keeper!
The last two weeks however, were definitely not showcasing my good side. I was waking up cranky and exhausted, emotionally fragile, and too stressed to do more than cuss or babble incoherent thoughts. Yup, a puddle of emotional goo would be a fair description.
So, as I was not fit to be around others, I made my get away. My friend picked me up and I proceeded to decompress. This was me on my first morning when I realized that God has been trying to get in touch with me and I have been too frazzled to hear.

I quickly fell into the rhythm of not having a rhythm but only after the first day of jitters, antsy, let's move, we have to do, (don't we?) went away. City life feels like a cork waiting and building up, ready to explode at any second, it' so, be at the ever watchful & ready.
In stark contrast country life is, we'll get there when we get there, no real plans but we could do this or not, tea is good, come sit on the porch and breathe, eat if you want, wake up later, sleep as much as you need, and let's not rush hunny. Of course there is plenty of work for those who live there and have farms, especially, if they have a farm. Right now is a very busy time of year as harvest is almost here. However, the pace is slower, the entertainment simplified, and the urgency that manifests as perpetual tension, just doesn't bother with you.
This is what passed as entertainment most early evenings on the back porch:

That's Jazz playing the, try to bite the stream of water game.

Dinner party night was proceeded by a gang of goat's making their way back to the barn:

                    And this was the peaceful scene outside my window just before the sun set:

Yup, totally different from the stress that had been eating away at my soul for the last month.
It turned out that on Monday we had to pick someone up at the airport in the evening, out in Vermont; so we decided to go earlier and get our tourist on. I have never been to Vermont before so I was a happy camper, this was me before we left.You can't tell but I was super excited and giddy for the day to begin.

I was super psyched because I have always wanted to go to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream tour at their factory. One more thing off the bucket list! Check it out.

Tickets were $4-American money only or its credit cards. The tour was 30 minutes and was actually fun. Too many cow jokes and silly puns but you have got to decide to just go with it.


                                                  They sure do like their cows!



                                            My girl found the biggest chocolate bar ever!


We got yummy tasters, the flavour of the day was cookies and cream but we're both gluten free. Our tour guide, whom we thought was super silly and a bit annoying, accommodated our allergies. We realized by the end of the tour that he was wonderful at his job, very patient, knew his stuff, and was quite funny. When we informed him of our allergies he kindly offered up a delightful blueberry and raspberry sorbet.This was seriously the best sorbet I have ever had and that is saying something! It was a great flavour, no seeds (if you were wondering), bright in your mouth and best of all it was not too sweet. I often find that sorbet is so sugary that I eat a bite and say, buh-bye. This had us craving  more over the last week we've been home, sooooooo deelish!



B&J are big on saving the environment and have loads of cool stuff they are doing. You can check out their climate change initiatives at benjerry.com/climate.
http://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about/climate-justice

At the end of our tour was the cute gift shop section and the area where they sold their ice-cream cakes, ice-cream related goods & gear.

I so want this shirt, I have a t-shirt love affair and have pulled PB into it. We now give cute, dorkie, or plain old awesome t-shirt's as surprise gifts for special occasions, I saw this and said, you will be mine. However, I made sure to bring little money, as not to be reckless, so I said au revoir, I will see you later. This shirt will be mine though.

This was our drive to the airport, I was happy because we honestly got a beautiful day for our adventure. Not a great pic but you get the idea. Champlain Lake was gorgeous and I want to go back when the season's colours are in full effect.

Unfortunately, not all was fun & games.
For supper we wanted gluten-free and I knew Domino's in Montreal was a good gluten-free alternative. We found a Domino's in Vermont and ordered 2 separate pizza's, different flavs because I don't eat pork or green peppers. All was delicious going down, however, 4 hours later when we arrived home I started to feel really bad. I mean really really awful, like, am I going to need to go to the hospital bad. Worst stomach pains ever and severe nausea was the "mild" warning I got. Thus began the food food poisoning incident of September 2015, which I am sad to say has totally turned me off pizza. Not that I was a huge pizza fan to begin with, it's really a rare choice of treat food for me, but now it's on the endangered species food list because the sicky experience was too horrible. Don't worry, I shall spare you the details, all I have to say is, DO NOT EAT Domino's pizza in Vermont! The shop and staff were super friendly though. Yes, I am a "Cup is half full" kinda person.

I will end this adventure post on a happy note because we seriously had a great day and I refuse to let the end of the evening ruin all that.

Before we left Ben & Jerry's we decided to taste their short stay, for the fall season, limited edition flavour. It was Maple Walnut and dang!!!!! Was it ever scrumptious. I also tried some hazlnut chocolate, almost like frozen decadent Nutella, slather it all over my body, ice-cream which was heavenly; but I knew it was too rich for my bird tummy. My friend can eat normal adult-sized portions, I learned a long time ago that a child size cup with one scoop is hard for me to finish. I decided to order the child cup and laughed off the servers surprise. I wish my butt and thighs were reflective of the much smaller amounts of food I actually eat compared to others but it's just not so.  Back to the Maple Walnut ice-cream. Boy was it good, I was glad I ate it on an empty stomach with loads of digestive enzymes, and I seriously think you need to try this flavour if you can. 

Down below are the directions to the factory and I have provided the link to the Ben & Jerry site so you can get all the info you need. Apparently, they will be resurrecting some flavours from their flavour graveyard-I know, how fun! This means we need to go back but only for Halloween because ice cream is a moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips kind-of pleasure. You gotta go and bring the youngin's, they will love it. Best part? For all of you gluten-free eaters, they have a list at the ice-cream counter, all you need do is ask for it and voila!


Hope you liked this post, feel free to leave your comments and let me know if you have ever been to B&J's, also flavour recommendations would be welcome. 
Ben & Jerry's site link:
http://www.benjerry.com/?keyword=%2Bben%20%2Bjerry%27s&gclid=CjwKEAjwp56wBRDThOSZ3vqGzmESJABjNaj91UuMBT7b1wvZNHWqhDcjvvnWwRGUIcMtf02ga20swhoClvDw_wcB