The long, sunny spring days are here, and that means long sunny spring drives!

This time we shot up through the White Mountains to St. Johnsbury, VT, then we ambled along the familiar backroads of the Northeast Kingdom to Newport, VT before setting off into unknown territory: the mountain road from Newport to Enosburg over Jay Peak, and then onward to Swanton and The Hero Islands in Lake Champlain.

It was a long drive (635 miles by the time we got home), but a lot of it was through some of the prettiest countryside in New England. Spring comes late way up on the Canadian border, and it doesn't unfold in the same way that we see it in Plymouth and on Cape Cod.

Some plants respond to warming weather, others to the number of hours of sunlight they get. That means that some plants, like the daffodils, were just up, a few weeks behind southern Massachusetts, but many of the trees were not so far behind. The higher elevations were still pretty bare, especially on the northern slopes, but the lakeshores were bursting forth in spring glory.

We saw this as we drove from Newport on Lake Memphremagog west to North Hero in Lake Champlain. Along the way we crossed over Jay Peak, which still had snow remaining on the ski trails and also in isolated pockets on some shady northern slopes. It looked like we had gone back in time a month or six weeks.

By the time we got down (down, down, down - mind your brakes!) through Enosburg and Swanton to the shores of Lake Champlain, the calendar was right again.  

We had dinner at one of our favorite places, the Shore Acres Inn in North Hero, VT. Just a couple of hours after seeing the snow on Jay Peak, we were dining on a super spring special of wild mushroom ravioli with Fiddleheads and ramps, washed down with a Mint Julep (it was Derby Day).

The Shore Acres Inn is proudly locavore, and the fiddleheads and ramps, welcome ambassadors of spring, were local and fresh (as was the Asparagus on a spring salad appetizer).  

Spring is coming and soon enough will come summer, but I am not finished with my cold-weather cooking and eating. I really like dark, flavorful stouts and porters, and soon it will be too hot for such heavy brews. So I was really happy to find Kingdom Brewing as we were heading out of Newport for our journey up the mountain.

Brian and Jennifer Cook brew a full line of ales for the local folk and visiting campers, boaters, skiers, and other sportsmen. They include some interesting types. I really enjoyed the Bear Mountain Milk Stout, but they also had a sour beer (the hot thing this year) and a session ale and their Mexican-style Cha-Cha is coming soon.  

All in all it was a glorious day with unparalleled scenery, from the high, cold White Mountains through the bucolic landscapes of the Northeast Kingdom and northern Vermont in that quiet time after the skiers have gone and before the summer people arrive, up and over frosty Jay Peak and then the long western slopes down to Lake Champlain and the stately willows of Grand Isle and the Hero Islands.