Long Trail Brewing Company - Bridgewater Corners, VT

I'll fully admit that Andrew and I drove directly the Long Trail Brewing Company, even before checking into our hotel.  We were hungry and wanted to hit the brewery before it closed.

The lot was full, but we managed to snag a parking space and headed in:

Inside, it was equally crowded and we were told that there were 26 names ahead of us on the waiting list (at 3 pm, mind you). We added our names to the list and decided to take a look around:

There was a small horseshoe-shaped bar, a merchandise counter, and assorted booths and high-top tables scattered throughout the open space:

We headed upstairs for Long Trail's "self-guided" brewery tour, which amounted to a short catwalk overlooking their tanks:

There were signs explaining the beer-making process and Long Trail wasn't kidding when they stated that their specially-designed equipment was made for the smallest amount of space possible:

Back downstairs, we enjoyed this map absolutely filled with pins from visitors, which reminded us of our own Newlywed Map:

I was hoping to try Long Trail's Belgian White but it was out of season, so I settled for the seasonally appropriate Harvest Ale. I enjoyed it but Andrew isn't a fan of brown ales so he went for the Long Trail IPA.

We ended up having a thirty minute wait, so Andrew and I both appreciated the free, self-serve popcorn that was available in the bar area (we may have also parked ourselves next to it, deliberately on purpose):

I didn't take pictures of the food because it was your typical bar food offerings, like burgers, apps, chicken sandwiches, etc.  We expected to be underwhelmed with the food but it was surprisingly good for what it was (Andrew got a burger and I got a Philly cheese steak).  The we headed off to our mountain lodge, located on Okemo mountain:

We stayed near the clock tower, in a community that was clearly built for the skiing season. Since it was off-season, the place was nearly empty and quiet, which was fine by us:

We had brought along a few things to make the weekend even more enjoyable, including our anniversary cake:

The Icing on the Cake made us a mini replica of our wedding cake, including the design and the flavor for free (!) in exchange for a professional picture of the wedding cake.  While the colors of the flowers are way too red compared to the purple of our wedding cake, I still appreciated the flood of memories that came along with opening the box and seeing this waiting for us:

And there was nothing wrong with the Golden Raspberry flavor and buttercream frosting - much nicer than defrosting a year-old cake!

I also surprised Andrew with a selection of pumpkin beers (bless Marty's Liquors in Newton for allowing you to create your own six packs):

And even more impressive, a Green Tea IPA he had read about and wanted to try:



There was enough cake to provide us dessert all weekend, and it was nice to wake up each day and know we still had some anniversary cake to look forward to.