The alpine zones and cheddar-smothered french fries of the Stowe/Smuggs region were beckoning Thursday afternoon, so the Seven Days interns hit road in search of natural wonders and possible additions to "What's Good, our off-campus guide to Burlington and beyond. We're working on the second edition now; it comes out in August.

We discovered the Bee's Knees in Morrisville. We couldn't decide if this hipster cafe was a natural wonder or wonderfully natural, but it's surely a recommendation for the college guide. As is The Kaleidoscope on Rt. 15 outside Johnson. This bead shop is a ways out, but worth the stop if you're in that neck of the woods.

We admitted to ourselves that no trip to this region would be complete without a drive through the notch, especially since you need a snowmobile to get there during most of the school year. And since we were close, we drove up the toll road at Stowe for a look at the valley and to put ourselves in geographic context on the state's highest peak.

If you have any day trip suggestions for the What's Good college guide — preferably trips that aren't drug induced — feel free to let us know.