Vermont

We stayed in Burlington, Vermont for three nights partly because of the weather and partly because there is much to do in the area. The first day we drove north making a big loop up to Newport, down to Stowe and back to Burlington. While the skies were gray, we noticed that the amount of color had increased. The northern part of Vermont is very rural with farms nestled next to the hills. The grass they use in their pastures is very green, looks like our lawns in the spring. It makes a nice contrast with the fall foliage.
We spent some time in Stowe going in and out of shops and checking out some of the architecture. From there we stopped in Waterbury at the Ben and Jerry Factory. We skipped the tour and headed for the ice cream. Just down the road from there is the Old Cider Mill featuring fresh pressed cider and cider doughnuts and of course the Vermont syrup and maple products. Got our Vermont fix.
The 29th was heavy rain caused by the tropical storm coming up from the south. We drove a short loop out on to the islands in Lake Champlain. In the afternoon we went to the Shelburne Museum which as 37 buildings housing a variety of exhibits. Some of the houses are period homes and are restored to the era they represent. Others have different exhibits. You can admire the uniqueness of the building while viewing the display. Ansel Adams photography was on exhibit. In the round barn was a quilt display done by quilters who had a family member that had Alzheimer’s. The fracturedness of the designs sends a powerful message. The steamboat, Ticonderoga is there—what a fancy boat it was in its day. After the fact, we met a guy at breakfast that used to ride the Ti as it is called, when it was on Lake Champlain. One other exhibit that was so amazing was carvings of a circus parade. It is all done to scale even to the length. Most parades were two miles long and this display is 524 feet and so is the building. There was another circus scene that was all carved by one man over the course of 40 years. It is a three ring circus scene complete with a full audience—thousands of pieces.
Friday we started by finding a knit shop and a fabric shop then drove to Montpelier which is the capital of Vermont. We stopped at the capitol building and got in on the last tour. They were sending nonessential people home because of the threat of flooding. We had an excellent tour of this amazing building built in 1837. It had to be rebuilt because of fire, but much of the furnishings are from the original. It is a beautiful building, all marble and granite. It has many paintings including the only copy of the Standing George Washington. The original is in the White House. You may remember that Dolly Madison rescued that painting when Washington was burning. When the statehouse was burning, men went in and rescued the copy also.
In Bath, New Hampshire we stopped at the oldest general store in the country. They make some cheese and pepperoni, smoking some in their smoker outside. Right behind the store is a covered bridge. Because of the high water there was a news team there doing a live segment.
Tonight we are in the White Mountains and just got back from a two hour dinner at the 1785 Farmhouse. It was good, but they seem to think that dining should be an event—us not so much.