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Our visit to the Quechee Gorge was one of my favorite moments of our whole Vermont trip. The mile hike down to the bottom of the Gorge was perfect for kids and full of quiet, easy beauty for the adults.

Down at the bottom, heaven presented itself in the form of water and rocks. Water and rocks...a magical pairing for our boys right up there with peanut butter and jelly.


This is when it got a little tricky. Jeremy and I always push the limits a bit when we travel with the kids.  We want them to be wowed. We want them to have a blast. We dont want to end up in the hospital.

We also dont want every experience to be a series of nos. The boys are at the age where they want to do everything themselves, but we bring them into places that are not exactly child-proof. At the gorge, they wanted to run from pool to pool, not minding the slippery rocks one bit.

After a stressful start, we discovered something that day. There are two ways to hold hands with your children. You can grab their hands, holding them back. Or you can let them lead you, holding on tight enough that you can catch them if they fall.

That morning at Quechee Gorge, we stopped saying no, and started saying take me where you want to go.

And that made all the difference in the world.

The Quechee / Pine Valley KOA in Vermont had me at hello.  I had emailed the campground a couple of weeks before our visit asking for a list of family-friendly hikes, and the co-owner, Cindy, sent me a friendly email that became the blue print for our adventures. So I was predisposed to liking the place before we even pulled in.  But then we actually pulled in....

It took me about 20 seconds to realize that our whole crew was not going to like it here--we were going to love it.  The campground, which has an upper and a lower level, is lovingly manicured and the tall pines make it feel like a secret forest.  The camp store, with the bright yellow bike rentals out front, has that old school KOA charm that always makes me feel like a kid again.

My own kids ended up loving the playground, which was neat and tidy, and I ended up loving the pool, which was heated for Vermonts cool August afternoons. Our double pull-through sites also allowed us to camp awning to awning so that we could create that common area in the middle that we love so much for cozy campfires and shared meals.






The Quechee / Pine Valley KOA also passed one of my newest campground quality tests--the grounds are perfect for a deeply relaxing and peaceful morning or evening stroll.  The entire campground is wooded and the lower loop and the larger upper section are connected by a shady forest path complete with a wooden contemplation bench.






I met so many interesting people during my walks, including a couple from Wales who were nearing the end of a three month motorcycle tour of the United States.  They were lovely and engaging conversationalists who shared many of their adventures with me over the course of several mornings.

But perhaps most importantly, the owners and the staff were warm, welcoming, and kind.  Joe and I particularly loved chatting with a "Work Kamper" named Paul, a retired lawyer from Colorado who used to pack up his entire family for a month every summer to travel throughout the U.S. and Canada.  He said that when his kids get together for meals they still talk about all of their great family adventures.  His only rule while on the road? NO TV. EVER.  Paul was inspiring to talk to and he got Joe and I pumped to take some of those great, big trips out west that we have been dreaming about.

But there will be time for those trips later.  For a family with young children this trip could not have been more relaxing or more adventurous.  New England has its own magical places, and the Quechee / Pine Valley KOA is surrounded by them.

And then there are those magical places that travel with us wherever we go...

 Now that they are older and a very wee bit calmer, we do okay at inside tables. But a place like the Trap Door Bakery and Cafe makes you question why you would ever eat indoors again.


 This place served up the perfect midday meal, allowing us to assemble our own tasting menu of frittata and cold thai noodles and cucumber soup and layered eggplant. Oh, and scones and cookies and croissants.

The food was delicious, and my mother and I look a little sheepish being caught with only crumbs left on the plates.


Truthfully though, the blue sky, white clouds, sun, flowers and water views may have made the food taste even better.

On our last morning in Vermont, we decided to let the campers stretch their legs before the long car ride home and headed to VINS, the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, which was right up the road from our campground.

The center is perfectly designed to blend in with its natural surroundings, and the parking lot, buildings, and educational areas dont distract from the beauty of the landscape.



The boys watched the songbirds being fed, and particularly enjoyed a visit to the bird hospital. The signs warned them to be quiet in the presence of the injured animals and I now have proof positive that my children can indeed whisper.



We were excited to see the raptor show, and although most of the content was way over the heads of our four-year olds, Max and Theo were gripped with wonder when one of the birds took off on the handler in the middle of the presentation.




The poor lad in charge was not too happy with the situation and kept trying to draw attention away from the missing bird and the nervous handlers with their walkie talkies. He obviously underestimated the tenacity of preschoolers. While he tried to soldier on, the boys (along with other young spectators) wondered loudly about the naughty bird. If the presenter had just told them that the bird was in a time out and could come back once he had apologized, we probably could have put that baby to bed.

While the boys were focused on the wayward bird, Jeremy and I were focused on all of the camp posters advertising what seemed like a pretty incredible experience for the little guys. Just imagine, we started saying, we travel somewhere cool and the boys go to a camp and we could...oh, the possibilities are endless...we could rock climb, sky dive, NAP!!!!



Camp or no camp, VINS offered us the perfect Vermont blessing that we encountered throughout our entire trip: the landscape was beautiful, the boys had a blast, and we all learned a thing or two.

See you soon, Vermont.