Beyond the Bubble stephen douglas & waterfalls

Author: Claire & Lisie

Beyond the Bubbling is no walk in the park - it takes a lot of forethought and creativity, as evidenced by the four years worth of highly innovative outings on which we have reported. Highlights, of course, include our visits to several county and antique stores. But, Claire and Lisie are determined to go out with a bang, and therefore felt no shame in consulting a trusty (albeit stolen from the glorious, gothic-style Highland Park Public Library on Laurel Avenue - we have a penchant for stealing from libraries, as the Ilsley Library's season five, disc two of "Sex and the City" that we rented whilst Battell residents is still in our communal possession) "Exploring Vermont" guidebook.

Claire feels it is imperative that we let readers know that Lisie just happens to keep this guidebook in her car at all times. We are aware that we are verbose. Just go with it.

Our in-depth analysis of the guidebook led us to the small town of Brandon, Vt., which coincidentally happens to be the nearest quaint little town that we have yet to explore. Founded in 1761, Brandon has garnered international acclaim for its status as the hometown of Abe Lincoln rhetorical foe Stephen Douglas. Thus, we had to see it.

Lesson for the day: visiting the hometowns of C-list historical figures is overrated. Especially when there's a power outage. That's right, we drove thirteen miles to explore a dark, deserted hamlet devoid of our main interest on any outing: food.

Speaking of historical figures - we did venture to the not quite internationally acclaimed Kennedy Park that lies in the heart of Brandon.

A mini Niagara Falls twas not (Claire wants no credit for this line. Good work, Mehlman.). But there was a lot of mist. This proved prohibitive of our fully enjoying nature's wonder.

Eh, screw nature. All we really wanted to do was get back in bed and watch some more ABC.com. We fervently believe that launching its new flash player was the website's gift to humanity. Watching Rob Lowe in full-screen, without living in the constant fear that it might freeze at an inopportune time (read: when Rob Lowe is not semi-nude on camera), has rendered our lives infinitely more enjoyable.

The serendipitous power outage was by no means the fault of Exploring Vermont, and although we hadn't used it much over the past four years, it just might serve us well as our Beyond the Bubbling days wind down.