A Refreshing Hike and a Haunted Dinner

 On our last full day of our honeymoon in Vermont, we went for a lovely hike that overlooked the beautiful town of Woodstock, where we stayed. And that evening, we had a delicious pizza dinner at an inn with really great Halloween decorations.

"The Refreshing Hike"
It was refreshing because the temperature was cool and mild but not cold, and it was a good, solid hour-long hike without being too strenuous. The scenery through the woods was really lovely, too. Woodland walks are my favorite.

At the bottom of the trail before starting off

He has good height!

On the trail...

A pretty little stone bridge

Me on the pretty little stone bridge

Almost to the top! There were good views of Woodstock and the surrounding countryside here, so we stopped for a few minutes to take a break and take some pictures.

I love seeing things laid out like this! Especially quaint New England towns. 

The Vermont countryside is so pretty! Vermont is now one of my favorite places.

This is the star that's lit up at night at the top of the mountain. We saw it shining from way down below as we drove into Woodstock on the first evening of the honeymoon, so it was fitting to see it in person up at the top on our last day.

Me for the last several years of my life:

Me now! I was happy and fulfilled before, but I'm even happier and more complete now. 

Headed back down the trail...

That evening, we went to dinner at a place David found. It was a historic old inn with fantastic Halloween decorations. I give you...
"The Haunted Dinner" part of this blog post 😄

Perfection!

I had to sit there in that spookily awesome tableau. And be photographed sitting there too, of course. 😄

There were more ghostly decorations to enjoy once we were seated at our table:

So fun, all of it!

We ate a delicious dinner of bruschetta (my favorite appetizer) and mushroom pizza, accompanied by Maine root beer.

On the way back to the inn, we drove past the famous Woodstock covered bridge, lit up at night. 
(I should have snapped a picture of the star, too!)

It was also our one-week anniversary!

From the amazing owl experience to the refreshing hike to the delicious dinner, it was a great day from beginning to end.

Adventures With Owls!

 One of my favorite things we did on our honeymoon was the owl experience at New England Falconry in Woodstock. It was an especially fun thing to do as a longtime enthusiastic lover of owls! I loved every minute of it. This post won't do justice to how good it was!

We started outside with an absolutely beautiful barn owl. Those who participated got to have it fly to them a few times. This was a magical experience for me, and it was my favorite of the three owl encounters we had. David brought his camera and took good pictures.

The markings on this owl were very beautiful. It was really neat to see it up so close and to touch it gently. 

It was so soft.

I was the first person who got to go up and have the owl fly to them. The woman leading it must have picked up on my "I love owls, please pick me" vibe. 😄

Amazing!

I was entranced!

{Please ignore the Hitler mustache the sun gave me. Sun and shadows, such a nemesis!}

This is my favorite picture of us. You can see the utter delight on my face!

After we finished with the beautiful barn owl, we went inside and had the cutest little burrowing owl named Bowie fly around to us. He had a bit of an attitude and was soooo cute! At one point, he was bobbing his head up and down while looking outside, which the woman said he hardly ever does when people are around, so that was a treat!

He looked grumpy, as if he didn't want to be there and this was stupid, which made him even more endearing. 😆

He had his eyes closed for this picture. Classic! 😆

That's better!

Here's David meeting the little guy.

The last owl we encountered was a big, beautiful Eurasian owl whose name I can't remember. Eurasian owls are cousins of my favorite type of owl, the great horned owl. Because he was so big, he didn't fly around to us; we all got to pet his soft feathers instead. He was awesome!

Up close

He had beautiful markings, too. Nature is the best artist.  

Swiveling head

Here's David petting Mr. Owl.

And me doing the same...

This was such a fantastic experience, and if you like owls and birds, I highly recommend it. It is one of my favorite things I've ever done, and I'm looking forward to doing it again someday!