A few weeks ago, we learned that one of our best friends was heading out east for work and would have an open weekend to meet us somewhere.  Since my husband hasn’t been able to break in his new snowboard yet, it made perfect sense that we plan a ski/snowboard trip.  We picked Smuggler’s Notch, VT because it was ranked #1 in the east for resorts by Ski Magazine and we found a pretty good deal to stay at the resort.

We left on Thursday morning and other than the constant work emails/phone calls on our trip north, the drive was amazing.  Vermont is incredibly beautiful.  Another state we had never been to, but we will be sure to return soon.

We passed through some beautiful little towns and some rolling hills up to Burlington.  That is a really cool town.  We walked down by the lakefront before picking Katie at the Burlington airport and heading to the resort.

The resort itself was perfect.  The village included a few restaurants, a few bars/pubs and tons of activities going on.  The snow was perfect.  We had heard that the east coast snow would be similar to the Midwest, but that was far from the truth.  We had fantastic conditions when we hit the slopes on Friday.  My favorite run was Upper Chilcoot on Madonna Mountain.  The view at the peak was amazing and the run was long and windy and wide open (on Friday at least.)

We took a beer break (or two) and explored the world of #goggleselfie which is a great hashtag on Instagram – if you are missing mountain fun, check it out.

Other highlights of our trip included the fantastic craft beer that we were able to enjoy (and maybe a shot of fireball), the jam band that played at our resort that would go right from Ben Harper to Shaggy without a pause, my run in with a dog sled team on a nature walk Saturday morning, our Sunday morning breakfast in Burlington, Ben & Jerry’s and our trip to the Vermont Flannel Company.

Before this trip, Vermont meant Green Mountains, covered bridges, Ben & Jerry’s, Maple Syrup and Burton Snowboards.  Now, there aren’t even words to describe my love for this little corner of New England.  I can’t wait to get back.

Have you even been to Vermont?  Where are your favorite New England spots?