Our next excursion was to Queechee Gorge (pictured above, from the bottom of the gorge looking up toward the bridge over it), in southern Vermont, just on the Vermont/New Hampshire border. Queechee Gorge is very proudly referred to in tourist literature as “Vermont’s Grand Canyon,” so we changed into shorts, strapped on our hiking boots, parked Norman at the top, and prepared to hike down into the gorge.
 
First, though, we crossed the street to a group of stores to get water in our bottle and use the bathroom before the hike. Armed only with a few leftover cider donuts from this morning, I jumped at the chance for real food when we saw a roasted corn-on-the-cob vender, set up basically in a field with a large outdoor grill: the corn was roasted in the husks, and then stripped for you and handed to you in a napkin. You could slather on butter and sprinkle on salt and (what else in Vermont?) maple-garlic powder. The result was a delicious, savory treat for $1.50 which we ate as we began the hike.
 
Of course, no one told us that it was a twenty-minute sloping walk, not a hike, albeit a pleasant one. We got to the bottom and decided to prolong the adventure by climbing out onto the rocks in the base of the canyon. Queechee Gorge looked very much like a smaller version of Zion Canyon, and as the day was gorgeous and sunny, 80 degrees and beautiful, we were sorry we hadn’t worn bathing suits. At left is Christina hiking on the rocks and eating a donut. Kids and adults were swimming, leaping from the rocks into the water, and others were wading elsewhere. There was a strong current, and a little bit of white water, but it was protected enough to be safe and fun. We wandered around on the rocks, picked paths, kept our clothes and feet mostly dry, but dabbled our hands in the water, and eventually walked back up. We walked a little past the entrance to the path, over to a dam and a waterfall at the top of the gorge, and then back to the stores we’d started from. Below right is Robert's head over the gorge and waterfall.
 
Robert bought me an early 4th wedding anniversary present in one of the stores: a beautiful black-walnut handmade 13” diameter, unfinished. I’ve wanted a bowl like this for awhile: to use both for salads and also for sushi rice, because when you cool sushi rice you need to force-cool it, and it’s best done in a wood bowl or tub. The Japanese, of course, would probably think my Vermont-made bowl was a heretical shape, but it’ll work. What’s importanat is that 1) it’s lovely looking, with a great pattern in the wood, and 2) it’s not lacquered or anything, so that it will be able to absorb the heat and moisture properly from the rice. And, did I mention it was beautiful?
 
Leaving Queechee, we drove back through New Hampshire, seeing, as we had at nearly every turn this weekend, many, many motorcyclists. We remembered, as we’d left Saturday morning, that it was the weekend of the Harley convention in Laconia, New Hampshire, and all weekend we kept seeing stray motorcyclists on their way to or from the event.

We stopped for dinner in Concord, New Hampshire, at what I’d read on the web was a good Mexican restaurant. For being in a completely white part of New Hampshire, it was indeed an excellent Mexican restaurant, actually. We had really good garlic chicken cheese nachos; dry, uninspiring taquitos; and a really excellent cheese, avocado, and shrimp quesadilla. The service was abysmally slow, but nearly everything had good, fresh flavors that blended well, and dessert (the reason, I confess, we’d come here to begin with) was suprb: El sueno de Miguel (Miguel’s Dream), a burrito stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans, and honey.
 
We left Concord and drove back to Boston, only hitting a little inexplicable (motorcycle related?) traffic. Arriving home at 8:15, we even found a parking spot just a block away, which was a great end to a perfect, almost exactly 36-hour weekend away. Robert commented on how nice it had been to have an entire weekend away planned around food. We were both full, happy, and happy to be home.

-the end-