# Our trip to the Crafts Inn, Wilmington, Vt.



## Luvstotravel (Jun 12, 2012)

We live about 7-1/2 hours away from Wilmington, and have family in New England.  The Crafts Inn is between them, so we were happy to stay there.

This is a nice place for anyone who needs to relax and unwind.  Sit on the porch on the creaking swing, stroll the neighborhood, DO NOTHING.  If you're 16, like our daughter, you will probably be bored!  Come here to eat cheese, visit antique shops, find a swimming hole...we also visited family, so I don't mind if you think our trip was boring.

Day one was travel day.  We arrived at 4:30, and got our room.  This is a small place, all in one building.  We booked a one-bedroom, but happily, we were assigned a 2-bedroom!  Our daughter was thrilled, she's used to us booking one-bedrooms, and then she sleeps on the couch. :annoyed:  Any time she complains, I remind her of all the places she's been to since we started timesharing, places I've never been until I went there WITH HER.  Generally, she's fine sleeping on the couch.  

The unit is very nice, with a balcony overlooking the indoor pool.  Most units that face the same pool have only windows, not balconies.  It's too small to put a chair on, but still nice.  One bedroom has a queen bed, the other has 2 twins.  No air conditioning, but box fans in each bedroom.  It hasn't been hot enough to need them, but I can imagine how stuffy it can get here!!

It was interesting to see and hear how the Crafts Inn and southern Vermont in general was hit by Hurricane Irene in 2011.  The inn looks fine, but the basement was totally devastated, it seems.  It's recovered, but sadly, the town of Wilmington has not.     Lots of "for sale" signs.

Anyhow, we swam in the indoor pool for a bit.  We ate dinner at the Old Red Mill, an easy stroll from the Inn, and ate at Jerry's Deck.  It's-surprise!-a deck! overlooking the river.  We got sandwiches, about $10-$12 with a side of pesto pasta.  They had a few beers on draft.

Back to the Inn, to do one of my favorite timesharing unwind activities:  work on a jigsaw puzzle!!  :zzz:


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 12, 2012)

Sunday, we slept in.  Got ready to go out, and found a flea market about a mile or so east of the center of town, on Route 9.  We drove and explored around Lake Whitingham, or Harriman Reservoir, as it's also known.  We found Honora Winery south of Jacksonville, and tasted some wine.  

We returned to our room for lunch.  Then we took a drive up Route 100 to Mount Snow.  We've skiied and stayed there, so we enjoyed driving and walking around on the off-season.  We continued our drive and found Newfane.  We walked around town a bit, and found a local swimming hole.  Lots of people were enjoying whatever river it is that runs along Route 30 between Newfane and Brattleboro!

We continued our drive, after enjoying the river.  We found Grafton Cheese Factory, and tasted lots of cheese.

Back to Wilmington, and where to eat supper?  Our daughter is vegetarian, and we all like Indian food, so we went to the Austrian Haus, which has an Indian buffet only on the second Sundays in spring!  Perfect!  And it was awesome:  all vegetarian, of course and absolutely delicious.  $17 each.  Our daughter likes to cook Indian, so I took pictures of the food and labels of the buffet, so she can google the recipes later.  This is an interesting place, and the buffet is clearly a well-known, once-a-month treat, it was very busy.

Back to the Inn, sat on the porch relaxing with some wine.  Swam, worked on that jigsaw puzzle!


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 12, 2012)

Monday was a "get together with family" day!  

We drove north to Rockingham, to the Vermont Country Store.  Said family members drove south to get there.  We spent FOUR HOURS at that store!!  I still can't believe we were there that long!  

Here's why:  they have a nice yard, with lots of amusements like ladderball, swings, etc.  The store TOTALLY ROCKS!!  We picnicked outside-they have a food wagon selling expensive food-and every so often, someone would wander indoors and come out half an hour later with a new purchase!  

The Vermont Country Store specialized in hard-to-find candies and foods.  One relative was happy to buy little wax bottles filled with syrup.  I bought butter mints.  Another bought Sixlets candy.  On a previous visit, I bought Black Jack chewing gum.  It's a great place.  

After we left, we and our relatives drove up the interstate, to Harpoon Brewery.  My husband and one of our relatives are both home brewers, so breweries are always very popular with them.  We liked it here, very much.  They have a nice picnic area, a fire pit with big Adirondack chairs, and a restaurant.  We just got their beer samplers.  We split up with the family, and returned "home".  Back to that front porch swing!!


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 12, 2012)

This brings us to today:  a truly lazy day!  :zzz: 

We again explored Lake Whitingham.  Found a boat launch place, and collected some cool pieces of driftwood.     There's some really nice spots along the lake.  We'd read that there's a nudist beach somewhere along the lake.  If we found it, there were no nudists there, probably because it was rather cool.  Just in case, we got naked.  :whoopie:   No, not really.  :hysterical: 

We planned to walk a block or so from the Inn to Jezabel's, but it was closed.  Closed for good, or just for the day?  We couldn't tell.  We walked the other direction, to Apres Vous, which calls itself "an American bistro".  Again, closed, despite the bit "open" flag!?  Then, we walked to the Maple Leaf Brewing Co., which was ALSO CLOSED!!  They had a sign saying they open at 4, which was hours away.  Dismayed, we go in the car, and drove up Route 100 towards Mount Snow, where we knew we'd find places to eat.  

We found a wood-fired pizza place, which made an excellent pizza!  Feeling better, we drove back, but stopped at Twice Blessed thrift shop.  We stocked up on games and books-not that the Inn doesn't have some, but we always like games and books!  

We also stopped at a great grocery store on Route 100 and got locally made bread and cheese, and locally grown strawberries.  We returned to the room and again, swam.  We also napped, and feasted on homemade sourdough bread, and those strawberries!  OMG!!  Sooo much better than the stuff we normally have to buy.  An afternoon and evening spent reading, jigsaw puzzling, napping....

Tomorrow, we will head up Route 100, the "skiers' highway", to visit family and sightsee.  More to come!


----------



## MOXJO7282 (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks for the recap of your vacation. I really love reading stories like this.


----------



## shagnut (Jun 12, 2012)

Am enjoying your vacation, altho I can see Kelli (my daughter) being bored out of her mind. I've always wondered what the Craft Inn was like. Since you like old type General stores if you ever find yourself in the mountains of NC you need to go to the Mast General Store.  The candy shop has the waxed bottles also, filled with coke.  I loved them as a young girl. 

Don't throw apples at me tuggers, you know I love you but if you would like to I'd more than welcome your trip report oy on TS4MS.com . Go to traveltales 
and you will see my travel trips as well as others.  I am the moderator of that site, and it gets lonely with only a couple of us sharing our trips.  

Looking forward to the rest of your trip.  

shaggy


----------



## tashamen (Jun 13, 2012)

Luvstotravel said:


> We planned to walk a block or so from the Inn to Jezabel's, but it was closed.  Closed for good, or just for the day?  We couldn't tell.  We walked the other direction, to Apres Vous, which calls itself "an American bistro".  Again, closed, despite the bit "open" flag!?  Then, we walked to the Maple Leaf Brewing Co., which was ALSO CLOSED!!  They had a sign saying they open at 4, which was hours away.  Dismayed, we go in the car, and drove up Route 100 towards Mount Snow, where we knew we'd find places to eat.



I work about about 15 minutes away from Wilmington and live a half hour away - many of these places are barely recovered from Irene and keep odd hours.  Jezebel's was open for lunch a few weeks ago - good food but very surly service which sure doesn't help when you're trying to build your business back up.

I'm enjoying reading your trip report as I couldn't imagine anyone spending a week in Wilmington (except in ski season) but you've certainly found many of our local fun things to do!


----------



## WinniWoman (Jun 13, 2012)

tashamen said:


> I work about about 15 minutes away from Wilmington and live a half hour away - many of these places are barely recovered from Irene and keep odd hours.  Jezebel's was open for lunch a few weeks ago - good food but very surly service which sure doesn't help when you're trying to build your business back up.
> 
> I'm enjoying reading your trip report as I couldn't imagine anyone spending a week in Wilmington (except in ski season) but you've certainly found many of our local fun things to do!



I can spend a week or more anyplace in Vermont!


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 14, 2012)

tashamen said:


> I work about about 15 minutes away from Wilmington and live a half hour away - many of these places are barely recovered from Irene and keep odd hours.  Jezebel's was open for lunch a few weeks ago - good food but very surly service which sure doesn't help when you're trying to build your business back up.
> 
> I'm enjoying reading your trip report as I couldn't imagine anyone spending a week in Wilmington (except in ski season) but you've certainly found many of our local fun things to do!



We knew ahead that we would have to bring a lot of our own entertainment!



mpumilia said:


> I can spend a week or more anyplace in Vermont!


Me too!

Wednesday was a "visit with relatives" day.  We drove up Route 100 to north of Stowe.  We took our time and stopped at a lot of places.  We visited the Vermont Country Store in Weston, stopped for lunch in the Mad River Valley-Easy Street cafe.

We saw Moss Glen Falls-beautiful! and drove through Smuggler's Notch.  We stopped at Cold Hollow Cider Mill for cider doughnuts, even though we were stuffed from lunch.

Finally made it to our family member's home!  Visited with them, and we all visited a farmer's market.  We stayed overnight at their home, and today the whole crew is going to Shelburne Museum.  We'll head back to Wilmington this evening.


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 15, 2012)

Finishing up the report with the end of the week.  We spent Friday in Bennington.  Went to the museum and saw the Grandma Moses collection, and walked around downtown.  We drove up the Mount Equinox Skyline drive.  Back to the Inn to rest.  We're exhausted!

Tomorrow, we check out, and drive to Brattleboro.  We'll spend some time there, making sure to visit the Farmer's Market, then off to visit MORE family:  this time in Fall River, MA, not far from Providence, RI.  

I can easily see a timeshare visit to Providence in a year or so!

Final impressions of the Crafts Inn:  very relaxing.  They take good care of you here!  One example:  my daughter and I were walking down the street, towards the Inn.  We could see 2 of the women who are usually in the front office, getting into a vehicle.  As we turned up the walk to the Inn, one of them saw us and rolled down her window to ask if we needed anything.  They knew who we were, and wanted to make sure we were ok!  How many timeshare managers do that!


----------



## hvsteve1 (Jun 15, 2012)

We traded into Crafts Inn many years ago.  It sounds as though they have expanded as we don't recall an indoor pool.  Back then it was a simple New England Inn.

One of my favorite stories on how this was different from most timeshares was one of our first nights there.  We found a not slipped under our door inviting us down to the restaurant for a "social hour" than night.  My timeshare presentation alarm went off but we decided to attand.  I turned out that we were the only timeshare people there as it was a slow period. A number of town residents and gathered for what appeared to be a weekly get-together.  The chef was in the kitchen cooking up goodies and everybody spent the evening visiting, eating snacks a playing board games.  I don't think we ever had such a timeshare experience before or since.


----------



## Luvstotravel (Jun 16, 2012)

That weekly get-together sounds really nice!  There is no restaurant in the Inn any more, alas.  But there is a pool, hot tub, saunas, even a racquetball court in the basement.

We did end up getting to eat at Jezabel's and it was delicious.  Huge sandwiches, great cole slaw.  It's nice that there are choices to eat within walking distance-if they are open, that is.


----------

