New England side trips, part 1

Since we had come all the way across the country from San Francisco to Vermont for Andrew and Jess's wedding, we tried to take advantage of our brief time our there as much as possible. After our red eye flight arrived Friday morning, we drove up to Hanover where we crammed the following into an hour or two:

• a brief tour of the ever-changing campus
• a visit to Kate's earth sciences building to say hi to a professor
• a visit to the new Engineering School building/addition to see the completed construction
• a haircut at good 'ole Walt & Ernie's (the last people I regularly paid to cut my hair before I turned that job over to Kate) in Hanover
• a quick stroll through the HOP and Hood museum by Kate waiting for my haircut

It was great to see the campus again, I think it had been since 2005, when we got engaged, since we had been there! It was the week before classes had started, so it seemed relatively deserted, but the wide-eyed freshmen (class of '12!!!) were there for orientation. Here's a picture of the glassy, modern new part of Thayer School...

... and, turning 180 degrees in nearly the same spot, a quintessentially Dartmouth shot of Baker looking up Tuck Dr.

After that we drove up to see Andrew's recently purchased house in Royalton, VT - what an amazing piece of land they have. Rolling hills and picturesque VT countryside all around, and a beautiful house for the new couple (and their 3 horses and dog). Here's Andrew outside their new house. The photo doesn't do the hill-top views off their back porch justice, though. Nor does the picture show the barn, vegetable garden, tractor!, or basement man-cave complete with ping-pong, darts, and of course the famous dinosaur clock.

After getting the grand tour we went to one Kate's favorite breakfast/brunch places from our Dartmouth years - Eaton's Sugar House in South Royalton, VT. It's a combination maple syrup "factory"/country style restaurant.


We each had a hearty brunch on the knotty wooden benches and tables, with delicious local maple syrup. From there we drove up to Killington along the beautiful White River - site of several Greenmen canoeing adventures - for Andrew and Jess's wedding.