Stowe, a birthday and zip-wiring

Stowe is probably the tourist capital of Vermont. Its not a big town, but prosperous and full of the sort of shops that sell things no one wants, but for some reason people want to but to give to others. Yes, gift shops. A sure sign of idle affluence. But it is very pretty.

Today was also Thibault's birthday, but it seemed a somewhat unlikely place for him to celebrate it. He seemed the youngest person in town by a couple of decades. Stowe is that sort of place, at least before the ski season kicks in.

But over lunch at the hotel he sees an advert for zip-wiring through the forest canopy near the town, and as its his birthday I thought it would be churlish to say no, even though I have never been zip-wiring and I had to admit I was just a little nervous at the prospect.

So with plenty of time to reach our allotted destination we decided to take a little detour for the kitsch experience. You see the Von Trapps (of Sound of Music fame) settled here and their home has now been expanded into a resort. This is it. Suitably alpine in appearance. And very kitsch.

So, on we travelled with plenty of time to spare - until we found the pass ahead had been closed due to snow. Shit. Resetting the sat nav suggested we would just miss the latest time we had to arrive to start the zip lining. The normally placid, safe-driving Thibault turned into Lewis Hamilton on speed as we dodged traffic around the area and just made it in time. Phew!

Now I feel I need to make a plug for Arbotrek Canopy Tours. This was actually fun, even for someone who is frankly rather petrified, like me.  Alex and Derek who took us out really did do their best to make sure we enjoyed the trip. Perhaps they epitomise the best of Americans, in that this was their job, but far from going through the motions they made it feel like they were having fun, like they were just friends showing us the ropes. And they did their very best to reassure even a bona fide scaredy cat like me.

If you cannot imagine me whizzing through the forests, well there are pictures to prove it, taken by the chaps.

I should also say that if I can do this, anyone can. And I was pretty awful. All the safety precautions are in place so even I felt it was all going to be ok, even though it still took some leap of faith to, well, leap off a tree. Which is quite high up.

All one had to do, apart from leap, is to hold on and face the front, and then at the end when signalled to, to put one's (heavily gloved) hand on the wire itself to brake and so avoid slamming into the next tree. The latter was my downfall (no not literally), as I generally panicked (unlike Thibault) and instead of gently applying pressure on the wire, I grabbed at it and so slowed rather too rapidly. But all was well.

Thibault looking cool and having fun. (Note the snow on the ground. Definitely chilly)

Yes, that is me. You can make out the nose and generally rotund form. Not as cool as Thibault. Just cold.

Can't help feeling that I look like an extra from Dad's Army in this photo

Derek showing us how to make it look wonderful and produce a great photo for the folks back home.

Thibault doing a good job to imitate

Me thinking "To hell with the photos let's just concentrate on going in a straight line....." But honest that is me - note the rotund form and short legs? Yes undoubtedly me.

 Now the early zip-wires were relatively short. You could see where we were going, so when Derek set off ahead, you could see where he stopped. By the end there was a 1000 feet stretch. That got a bit more unnerving as Derek just disappeared from sight. You only knew he stopped because there was no longer the zipping sound on the wires. But actually I sort of enjoyed it. Well, enjoyed it a lot in fact, even though I needed a few deep breaths before launching. However, I should point out there will never be photos of me bungee jumping.

And what goes up must come down, so down we slid. Actually this was the most unnerving part of the whole experience. Not going down which was fine, but just swinging away from that nice safe platform and into the empty space beyond.

So how do you follow that? Well Thibault managed to persuade me that the best thing to do on a freezing cold evening before dinner would be to use the hotel's outdoor Jacuzzi. Just as it started to snow. No photos of us in it, but this is the view of Jacuzzi and swimming pool next morning, covered over against the snow. The Hotel, the Green Mountain Inn, was pretty decent actually. And very central.

So what could finish off an eventful day better than a bit of fine dining? Stowe is a bit of a foodie paradise. We went just round the corner to the Cork Wine Bar and Market, part wine bar and part modern tapas. It was really very good, especially the combined cheese and cold meat starter that we ordered. That little grin on Thibault's face said it all. I think he quite enjoyed his birthday in the end.