A weekend escape to Brattleboro, VT
For President’s Day I decided to enjoy the long weekend and head out of the city for a little retreat to a small town in Vermont. A few friends recommended Brattleboro for its relaxed atmosphere and rich local culture, and they could not have been more correct.
I arrived Saturday around noon and checked into my Airbnb which had a rustic feel with exposed brick and lots of wood furniture. I dropped off my bag and immediately left to explore the town, first wondering through several of the antique shops, bookstores, and art galleries. One of my favorite places was a store called “Turn it Up!” which had a wide collection of CD’s, records, VHS tapes, and old video games. Another cool find was “Mystery on Main Street” a cozy bookstore which sold only mystery, crime, and suspense stories. We meandered around for awhile and then saw an advertisement for a ski jumping tournament happening that weekend and we figured we should buy some tickets since we didn’t have any plans for tomorrow.
After grabbing dinner we checked out one of the town’s main attractions, the historic Latchis Theatre where we enjoyed the movie “Fences” in their main auditorium decorated with Greek murals and sculptures and accented with paintings of constellations on the ceiling. We left the theatre very impressed with its decor (and the movie), and retired for the night.
The next day we grabbed brunch at a restaurant called “The Marina” where we overlooked the river and watched as people headed out to go icefishing. We then drove a few minutes out of town to watch the 95th annual Harris Hill ski jump that we found out about yesterday. For not knowing the first thing about competitive ski jumping, it turned out to be a great way to spend the afternoon. In addition to seeing a new hill record being set (104 meters, pretty impressive), the most exciting part had to be the sound that they made flying past you in the air. We were able to climb part way up the side of the hill, and were only about fifteen yards away from the skiers mid-flight, and it sounded like a car driving by when they would fly past us.
When the tournament ended we swung by a local farm where they made their own cheese by hand, and then made our way back into town. We ended up going to the Latchis Theatre again because we enjoyed it so much the night before, this time we saw “Hidden Figures” which just edged out “Fences” in my opinion.
The next morning I left Brattleboro, feeling very rejuvenated after a fun but calming weekend. It was the perfect small town to escape from the fast-moving city life, and a great way to decompress for a little. While it’s always nice to be back in Boston, the bookstores, diners, and mountainsides of Brattleboro gave me a healthy change of pace, and I’m sure I’ll find myself back there at some point in the future.
