When I told people I was going on a 3-day sojourn to Vermont for my 25^th birthday, everyone's first question was "why?" I'm not shy to say that I am 100% a city girl, and have made every single one of my life decisions keeping this pillar of my personality in mind. In fact, reason I picked Vermont was due to the fact that I had never on a vacation outside a big city – either in the United States, or Internationally.

Because I'm used to living my life in this fast-paced, city-type environment, I was able to see more of Vermont than I had oringially planned. In my 3 days there I was able to travel to Stowe, Burlington, Montpelier, & Waterbury. Vermont, and the east coast in general, is known for it's leaf-peeping abilities, so it's been on my bucket list for about three years. I landed in Burlington, after lunch and a walk around the city, visiting the waterfront I quickly realized that it was much cheaper to rent a car than Uber – something that is never true in a bigger city.

My hotel was located in Stowe, and while that town is known for skiing (which I have never done), a big reason I chose to go was due to the fact that I love hiking and have never seen the "fall colors" in action. As you might know, this year, fall in Chicago was around 2 days before we had the snowiest Halloween on record since I moved here, 7 years ago.

My second day was spent hiking, visiting various farm-to-table restaurants and breweries, as that is something this state is very proud of. They are the most sustainable out of the 50, and just driving around proved how contentious people are about this subject matter. I even made it out to Montpelier for shopping and brewery purposes.

On my actual birthday, I was able to make it back to Burlington for a nice dinner, and barhopping – and finding the literal one nightclub - within the Church Street Marketplace. The next day, I was able to fulfill a childhood dream of mine: visiting the Ben & Jerry's factory. At $4 a tour, there was no way I could refuse this offer to see how all the ice cream was made, as well as visit the flavor graveyard. After this, I was able to visit another place on my travel bucket list: the Von Trapp Family Lodge. After leaving Salzburg, Austria (one of the most beautiful places I've been) due to the events of WWII, depicted in Sound Of Music, the family moved here and naturalized and opened up a family estate while continuing to perform.

While this trip was definitely not the cheapest one I've taken, but one of the most memorable. I was really happy by the amount I was able to experience and see in just under 72 hours.