Looking to get
away for a few days of relaxation and change, I discovered
a midweek special offered by the Old Tavern Inn in Grafton,
Vt.
Cell phones don’t work
in Grafton (the populace voted down the necessary transmission
towers), there is no in-room television, and since even
the nearest supermarket is 15 miles away, the elegant inn
with its long, open porch and inviting rocking chairs, seemed
to offer an ideal change of pace.
When we arrived late Wednesday
afternoon, the little town (population 600) looked like
something straight out of a movie set. Pristine colonials
on rolling, green lawns bordered by white picket fences
… all perfectly maintained and in stark contrast to
a few of the faded mill towns we had passed along the way.
The inn itself, which was built in
1801, occupies a full corner in the center of town, a pillared
lady, tall and stately and aglow with lights.
That evening in the inn’s
library, Bill Toomey, the assistant innkeeper, a bearded
quintessential Vermonter who has worked at the inn for 27
years, explained that many years ago, a wealthy gentleman
by the name of Dean Mathey, fell in love with the area and
started to buy up land and properties. His vision was shared
by his aunt, Pauline Fisk, who when she died, left additional
funds.
Eventually, the Windham Foundation
was created with the aim of historic preservation and financial
support for education and nonprofit organizations in Vermont.
Today, the foundation owns 40 percent of all buildings in
town, including the hotel.
There is a small grocery store whose
bulletin board serves as the town news center, a village
garage (sparkling white with colorful flower boxes), a combination
deli-cafe-gift shop and information center, run by an incredibly
helpful and energetic lady as well as an artist’s
studio, history museum, blacksmith shop and small cheese
factory.
Our room on the third floor
of the inn (there is a small elevator) was an extremely
large corner room, furnished with antiques and two full-size
beds and complemented by a spacious, modern bathroom.
The midweek special included a country
breakfast served in a sunlit garden room. Dinner, also included
as part of the special, was an elegant three-course meal
served in the candlelit dining room. Afternoon tea and cookies
were available at 4 o’clock and were just the thing
to accompany a good book while unwinding at the end of the
day on the spacious front porch.
On Thursday, we stirred ourselves
sufficiently to make the hour’s drive north to Woodstock
and Quechee.
We marveled at the lushness of the
greenery and the number of stables and horse farms. In Quechee,
our destination was the glass blowing factory and home retail
store of the Irish glassmaker Simon Pearce.
The selection of glassware
and dining accessories inspired some early Christmas shopping.
The Pearce compound also features an excellent restaurant
where you can dine overlooking a waterfall. The site was
once home to a woolen mill with its own hydroelectric generator.
After a late and leisurely Friday breakfast,
we headed for home with a stop in Newfane at the Country
Store to see the selection of quilts and buy some of homemade
fudge.
A last stop at Deerfield,
Mass., for an early dinner at Chandlers, the on-site restaurant
at the huge Yankee Candle store and factory, which we were
told, is the second most visited tourist attraction in Massachusetts.
Yankee Candle offers furniture,
toys, household items, a Christmas tree shop and more varieties,
colors and scents of candles in every shape and size than
one can imagine. We are already thinking about another trip
to Vermont in the late fall despite an old joke told to
new employees of the inn, that the place only appeals to
"newlyweds or the nearly dead." We loved the feeling
of stepping back in time to a simpler, more pleasant way
of life.
Jean Cherni
is founder of Senior Living Solutions, a retirement advisory
service. Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or
15 The Ponds, Branford 06405. H. Pearce Company REALTORS®
is a full-service real estate company with more than 100
agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline.
Corporate and & Commercial offices are located in North
Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings
can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com. |
