25th Anniversary: Continued

With an anniversary just 5 days before Christmas our anniversary celebrations have usually amounted to going to a matinée movie, and "dinner" is the early-bird special somewhere. Since this was our 25th, we decided we'd do something a bit more special. Rewinding 25 years, when we were first engaged we came to New York in August of 1984. On a driving tour of Vermont, we stopped at The Four Chimneys for dinner. It was really nice and we've always talked about going back, so that's what we decided to do.

Once in Bennington we had planned to go to a particular restaurant that ended up being closed for the evening. Instead, we got a recommendation for Allegro Ristorante, which turned out to be fantastic. The food was great, but I have to say, they really need to ratchet up the thermostat in that place. Brrrrrr!

The Four Chimneys is a wonderful place to stay and we highly recommend it. Our room had a wood burning fireplace that had a fire already set to light. However, it still took some good old-fashioned Scouting skills to get the fire going. Once we did, it was perfect for the cold winter evening. It was remarkable how not one bit of smoke ever came in our room. I guess in the early 1900's it was important to know how to make good fireplaces and this was one of them. In the morning we had breakfast, which was delicious, at the inn sitting by a sunny bay window.

When we left we drove to Manchester along historic Rt. 7A, then back to Bennington. On our way home we stopped and took pictures of some beautiful churches and drove across a couple of covered bridges.

All in all, it set a new standard for how to celebrate anniversaries.



Thanks, Michelle, for 25 great years!