Pond Skating at Cornwall Orchards B&B near Middlebury, Vermont

They came with hockey sticks. Escaping from suburban Rhode Island to find rural winter fun—fun like we’d had as kids. After unloading their car in the twilight, my cousin, his sons, and their friends cleared the snow from the pond below the barn. (We didn’t think the pond was even big enough to skate on!) 

Learning to play hockey at the Cornwall Orchards’ pond.

The next morning, after a B&B breakfast of pancakes drizzled with coulis made from summer’s raspberries and local bacon, we went out and made two goals from old lumber and built a bonfire. Then, as the temperature plunged, the generations played hockey. It was two degrees F but that didn’t faze these hardcore hockey players who love pond skating in Vermont. Coming to Cornwall, Vermont near Middlebury? Bring your skates and call for conditions!