One Hundred Dollars a Month

A few weeks ago the HH and I were in Woodstock, Vermont and I must admit, the town of Woodstock ranks pretty high up there on our list of quintessential New England towns.

The town has EVERYTHING.  A covered bridge, a white church with a steeple, a village green, a gorgeous library, an enormous amount of small shops, an old general store, and so much more. I think we must have spent an hour just walking down side streets and admiring the old buildings.

And well you know, all that walking can make a person hungry. So we stopped to grab a bite to eat at a highly rated local cafe for lunch.

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and avocado, and it came with a hefty price tag of $14.50. I was expecting fireworks. Yes, you read that right, I paid $14.50 for a sandwich. in a cafe type setting.

The sandwich just okay. Not spectacular, not bad, but not worth $14.50. Not even in the hippest of towns in an establishment with a nice cheerful environment.

I think if your’re going to pay $14.50 for a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and avocado, first of all, it should come with bacon and avocado. But hey, mistakes happen, I totally get that, and after nicely bringing it to the attention of the staff, and then standing there for 3 minutes waiting for them to decide {in a very calm and therapeutic tone} if they were going to just put the bacon and avocado on my sandwich or if they needed to remake the sandwich altogether, I was pretty much at the eye rolling stage.

I seriously thought I was in an episode of Portlandia there for a minute. And my husband has STILL NOT stopped talking about it, and now every time we’ve eaten out since, every meal is compared to the $14.50 sandwich.

Basically, enough with the fluff. He’s tired of the “hipster coffee house vibe” that has seem to taken over eating establishments lately. I don’t mind the hipster vibe so much as long as the food is good and the price is right, but I have ABSOLUTELY noticed a shift in the last year or so. Have you? It used to be about the food. Now it’s about the “experience” and it makes him crazy.

But hey, the bathrooms there were really cool. So there was that.

Isn’t this house lovely? One of my favorite parts about downtown Woodstock was how the stores and old homes seem to fit in so well with each other. If I was going to live in a city, I think it would be so much fun to be able to walk right out my door and down the street to get my morning cuppa, or take a stroll to the market or the library.

One of the really neat stores in Woodstock we visited was F. H. Gillingham and Son’s which has been is business since 1886. I LOVE old general stores and this one seemed to go on for ages.

Look at the old wood floors.

And the worn staircase towards the back of the store. Imagine how many generations of shop clerks have walked up and down those steps. F. H. Gillingham and Son’s is reason enough to visit Woodstock, Vermont and so far it has been the largest and best stocked general store we’ve been to on our many day trips around New England.

Maybe most people around these parts stay home during the winter months because of the weather, but I’m looking forward to more road trips and adventures. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone, enjoy the day!

~Mavis