Downton Abbey

If you haven't seen Downton Abbey yet, you really should!

 
This PBS TV series is a great drama about a noble family in the early 1900's. If you have read some of my book reviews then you know that I love this time period in England so this show is my kind of show!

A Secret Kept- By Tatiana De Rosnay

My Rating- 4 stars

A Secret Kept is set in France, mostly Paris sometime in this decade. The story is about a brother and sister in adulthood that go back to a childhood vacation spot for a long weekend. They are surprised to have a lot of forgotten memories pop up. In the months following their trip, the siblings piece together a puzzle that they never thought to question until now.

As young children, Antoine and Melanie Rey's mother dies leaving them grief stricken. The siblings accept the story they are told about their mothers death and don't give the event much thought until decades later when their return to their childhood vacation spot triggers a curiosity in them to figure out who their mother was and learn the details of her death.

I enjoyed this book and really liked that it was set in France. There was a nice mixture of mystery, romance and plenty of surprises to keep you turning the page.

So now for a little more about our trip to New England. Our itinerary looked like this,
Saturday- Fly into Boston, eat dinner
Sunday- See USS Constitution, Drive to Killington, VT
Monday- Ski
Tuesday- Ski
Wednesday- Ski
Thursday- Drive up Route 100 toward Waterbury. End with a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory! Drive to the Windy Hill B&B in Jackson, New Hampshire.
Friday- Drive to Portland, Maine and explore the coast.
Saturday- Explore the Freedom Trail, visit Harvard, Fly home

It was a GREAT week filled with new sights! Neither of us had been to New England before so we were excited to see the sights. The drive from Vermont to New Hampshire was really beautiful.

We also ate some good food! In Maine I ate some clam chowder and fried shrimp.

And in Boston I had a Lobster Roll! Or as I would call it, a Lobster Po Boy.

It was fun to tour Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory because I loooove Ben and Jerry's. They also gave us a sample. Sadly, when the machine fills the pints with ice cream and then puts the lid on, the machine sometimes spills the pint over. When that happens, a worker just throws all that ice cream away, I would have gladly eaten it.

We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast one night and it was really fun. I've always wanted to stay at a B&B and this was the perfect little spot.

I look forward to going back to New England again some day! I would recommend a trip like this to anyone who is interested in history, loves nature (it is beautiful up there with lots of state and national parks) or likes to eat.

Killington, VT

Tonight is the last night of our faaaabulous 1 week New England vacation. Here are just a couple of ski pics from our time in Killington, Vermont! 

For 4 nights and 3 days, we enjoyed getting up early, skiing hard all day, unwinding in the hot tub each night and going to sleep early early because we were so tired!

Conditions were perfect for skiing, there was hardly any crowd on the mountain and my awesome hubby was there to fix my ski boots for me and carry my stuff:) I don't know how I managed to ski before he was around:)

Of course skiing works up quiet an appetite so we enjoyed lots of chips and queso, ice cream, stouffer's lasagna, coke and kettle corn!

 I'll write more about our trip soon!