I’ve had this day on my calendar for a long time. I’ve tried to snag Lawson’s a couple of times before and have failed at both the Warren Store and Beverage Warehouse in the past. When I saw they were releasing Lawson’s Maple Tripple at the Waitesfield Farmer’s Market, I knew I had to go and grab whatever I could get my hands on.

We got up early and were on the road by 7AM. After driving on the greatest road of my life, (which left Elise a tad queasy since she was a big hung over from Ommegang Hop Chef), we arrived. It seemed the odds were again me: the first ATM was out of cash, the next one was not operational due to a lighting strike (?), but with the last one I was in luck. I grabbed two bottle of each that they had available, except only one of the Farmhouse Rye (for Merc since he’s into all things Brett).

We walked around the rest of the farmer’s market and did what people do at farmer’s markets: spend ungodly amounts of money on things that would normally be cheaper elsewhere: dog treats, cheese, a breakfast burrito (which ended up being meatless and, as I’m allergic to all things without meat, I threw out), lemonade, fruit smoothie and bread.

After doing our shopping I stuck around as Sean was opening another bottle of Mapple Tripple for tastings. It was so damn good I had to snag another bottle, budget be damned. And since I can’t pass a classic car without at least taking a couple of pics, here are the Chevy Pickup and Westfalia that were present at the market:

After we left, we drove through Waterbury and somehow did NOT take a detour to The Alchemist (my car was veering that way out of instinct, I had to wrangle it back into control). I almost didn’t realize we passed the Prohibition Pig on the way by, one of my next stops for eats when I’m in VT again. Instead we headed to The Farm House Tap & Grill to meet friends that were staying in Burlington the previous night.

I cracked open the beer menu and there it was Hill.Farm.Stead. Didn’t expect to see any of that on tap and was pleasantly surprised. I grabbed a half pint of the Abner so I could compare it with the Double Sunshine and Heady Topper. Needless to say, I grabbed a full pint after taking the first sip. It was phenomenal. An absolutely world-class beer that is now up there with Heady Topper, Double Sunshine, Dreadnaught, Pliny, etc.

Kinda kicking myself I didn’t bring my camera while we ate at Farm House but let’s put it this way: Burger:awesome, fries:awesome, beer menu:awesome, atmosphere:awesome (we sat out front as the beer garden wasn’t open for lunch), value:awesome. Just go here if you are ever in Burlington for any reason. You’re welcome.

The other thing I was looking for on this trip was some new glassware to go with all of the new Lawson’s I just picked up. I wasn’t expecting much but I headed to the Beverage Warehouse to look for a nice new tulip or something of the like. I was in luck- they had at least three different styles of Lawson’s glassware in their display cabinets. There were only 4 of the tulips on the shelf left so I cleard them out, grabbed a Rock Art Vermonster and another Lawson’s Big Hapi and we were on our way.

Since we recently booked a campsite for a week at Mt. Philo I decided it would be beneficial for us to go check out the campground and peeped where we could grab supplies for the week while we were there. There are some pretty cool hiking trails I’m sure Kuma will love and the campsites themselves are VERY secluded. It’s definitely not one of those “RV resorts” I’m accustomed to in NY.

We stopped at The Main Scoop for some of the cheapest but still delicious ice cream I’ve had. A small (two scoops) a medium (three scoops) and a doggie dish set me back only $6.20. That would have been twelve bucks at Coney Express at minimum. After crossing Lake Champlain and finding our way back to the Northway and I let Elise take the wheel so I could take a snooze.

Here was the total haul for the day:

• Lawson’s Finest Farmhouse Rye
• Lawson’s Finest Maple Tripple x 3
• Lawson’s Finest Double Sunshine IPA x 2
• Lawson’s Finest Big Hapi x 3
• Lawson’s Finest Knockout Blonde x 2
• Lawson’s Finest Tulip Glasses x 4
• Rock Art Vermonster (not pictured)