On the list are the Ben & Jerry's factory

Oh! You'll be right down the road from Cold Hollow Cider Mill, which has the best damn apple cider donuts EVER. It's about 2 1/2 miles north on the same road that Ben & Jerry's is on, like a 5-minute drive into Waterbury Center. Definitely worth a stop. If you have time, Cold Hollow Cider Mill also has a hard cider tasting room, and their hard ciders are excellent.

I also wholeheartedly recommend picking up some chocolates from Lake Champlain Chocolates, which is in between Ben & Jerry's and Cold Hollow Cider Mill, on the same road. (It's Vermont, and Waterbury is small, there's really just the one main road.)

(My brother worked in Waterbury for years, and I visited often enough that I knew all the fun food/drinky places to go when a person is in town. And the Ben & Jerry's factory tour is definitely fun.)

Cold Hollow Cider Mill also has a hard cider tasting room, and their hard ciders are excellent.

Hard cider is one of my favorite things, and it is likely better than the stuff my dad made! Not sure if we'll be able to do the B&J tour because it is booked up, but we'll try. We'll at least stop and do the ice cream eating. Taking notes on the other stops! Thanks.

That sounds like a great trip, Laura (and Tep's additional recs sound wonderful as well)

I did make it to work, on time and everything! My guess for where the bus would be was pretty close to right, and it's a stop where they pause for a while to keep the schedule correct so there was not much chance of missing it once I saw it coming. Actual bus ride was fine. I intended to order breakfast to pick up on the walk between the transit center and work, but then I remembered that I hadn't brought any shampoo etc for the shower so I figured I'd stop at the gas station that is right next to the office and buy toiletries and a breakfast sandwich or something, but once I got there they didn't have any shampoo or soap or anything so I didn't buy food either. Fortunately, there actually was shampoo and soap in the shower, I'm not entirely sure they were provided for everyone's use but, hey, I needed them and once I figured out which direction of the handle was hot and which was cold it was a pretty pleasant shower (although the little nook the showers are in is dark - there is a light fixture and a switch that looks like it should turn that light on, but it doesn't seem to work) so at this point I am clean and at my desk on time but very hungry. If my life is a video game I am not scoring a lot of points today.

That does not seem ideal, t, but possibly like it could work better in the future?

I am being driven nuts at work—I have multiple projects that were given to me as things that shouldn’t take much time, and I only am supposed to spend 2-5 hours a week on each of them, but they’re all messy and require a lot more than that, and it’s hella frustrating and next month I have a NEW project that I supposedly will be able to give away some of these but I’ll have to jump right into that, and meanwhile on my one steady project that is supposed to take most of my time, my Australian counterpart is taking an entire MONTH of vacation and expects me to just cover for him. Aaaargh. (Unfortunately even if I could get a replacement for him for a month it would not be worth trying to teach someone what to do in that amount of time). Like when am *I* supposed to take vacation??

I got lunch delivered (burger from nearby diner, after breakfasting out of the sorely depleted vending machine) and I went and asked the person at reception (someone who works in HR, not a full time receptionist) what the process is for that because there used to be one with a sheet to fill out with the time the delivery was expected and so forth but I guess now the process is to hunt up the HR person who is manning the desk and tell them you expect a delivery so they can listen for the chime that says someone is at the gate. So I did that, and also kept half an eye on the "where is your order" map which turned out to be a good thing becuase my poor driver did not initially understand my directions and ended up on a side street that doesn't have an entry gate, so I went out front to wave him down if necessary and he found me before he found the gate, so I ran over to the desk to tell them they didn't need to listen out for my delivery and it was a completely different person working there and she had no idea I had a delivery coming. So all's well that ends well, I guess, but I do not have a lot of confidence in any part of this system.

Oh, yeah, meara, this was a learning experience and next time should be better. Boo on the overwork situation!

Ugh indeed on the work overload, meara.

That sounds like you worked off the lunch before you got it, -t.

Ohh!! Definitely get Cold Hollow Cider donuts. And Cider. And Champlain Chocolates.

And Jeffersonville isn't close at all (it's 40 mins away) -but if you are up that way or want to go to the Smugglers Notch area and are craving a burger I highly recommend Burger Barn. Or if you are looking for a Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich (or really any kind of sandwich) The Cupboard Deli is right there. And if the weather is nice, go find a place to eat by the Lamoille River.

Cold Hollow had a really excellent looking lunch menu so I think we'll eat there.

Cold Hollow had a really excellent looking lunch menu so I think we'll eat there.

We've never had a chance to eat a meal there, but the restaurant was packed when we were there, so it must be good. There are 2 separate buildings with a parking lot in between -- one is the original building, where they make the non-alcoholic cider and the donuts (GET A DONUT) (TAKE SOME HOME) and sell a lot of merch. The newer building has the hard cider tasting room on one side and the restaurant on the other.

Now I'm missing Vermont something fierce.