I've always loved the acapella singing group "Straight No Chaser". They started as a bunch of college students out of Indiana University and made a name for themselves when their video "The 12 Days of Christmas" went viral.
Needless to say, when I saw that they were back on tour, and going to be in Vermont, I jumped right in and bought tickets. Since Rutland, VT is about 2 1/2 hours away, I thought we'd make a short weekend of it, see some of the sights, and stay overnight.
Our first stop was the "Four Aces Diner" in East Lebanon, NH (right on the border of NH and VT). Typical yummy diner breakfast - and Tag not only had an appetizer (a popover, which, to be fair, he shared with me) he also had his entree and a dessert! (Piece of strawberry/rhubarb pie).
We got into Rutland, which was a bit of a disappoitment to me. It's not a cute little picturesque Vermont town......it was busy with pretty much no ambiance. However my research showed that there was the Chaffee Art Center, and they were having an outdoor art show and barn sale.
Unfortunately their "art show" consisted of two people, and the "barn sale" was leftovers from a yard sale! Thankfully the Art Center itself was in a beautiful old house - I think I enjoyed the architecture more than the art show!
The floors were all gorgeous parquet - I wish I'd taken some close up photos of those!
There was some very intersting artwork!
Our next stop was the Norman Rockwell Museum of Vermont. We had been to his museum in Stockbridge, MA several times, and were curious to see what this one was all about. We were quite surprised to see a "50% off" sign on the front of the building. It turns out the woman who owns the collection is selling the building and trying to sell the collection as a whole, so it seems like it was a good time for us to go see it!
This museum did not have any of his original work, but rather was a collection of all his works from 1910 through 1978. It included the first painting he ever did, as an illustration in a book, to his last piece. It was set up in chronological order, and must have had thousands of pieces. I was always impressed with the amount of work he produced, but I never had any idea he did so many ads, magazine covers (besides the Post) and portraits. It was truly amazing.
We still had some time before check-in, so we went to the "Historical District" which was the walking area of downtown. Again, not impressed......kind of seedy, run down, and half the store fronts were empty. But.....of course, when we found a parking space, it was right in front of this:
Yup! A used record store! Hubby was thrilled....and proceeded to go inside and find 2 good records for his next "Vinyl Night". I think he's bought used records on every single trip we've ever taken!
Time for us to go check in at the Holiday Inn. I must say, this place won't be getting a good review from me......I'll leave it at that. The only good thing was that, although the website said the pool and hot tub were closed, they were open. And being the good Girl Scout that I am, I came prepared with a bathing suit just in case!
So after a nice swim, and soak in the hot tub, we set off for dinner. I had made reservations at a place called Table 24, but on our excursion downtown I was not happy with the looks of it, and we saw this place right across from the theater, so we had dinner there:
And finally the reason for our visit! The show was in the Paramount Theater, which was an old-fashioned style place where we sat in the balcony. Straight No Chaser was absolutely fantastic! Well worth the trip and I really, really want to go see them again! Very impressed with the show!
I tried to upload the short snippet of video I took, but it wouldn't go, so I'll post it another way.
Thanks, Hubby, for always going along with my crazy ideas. It was a lovely weekend!
