Vermont!

Views from the drive

We’d only given ourselves a day in Montreal because sometimes big cities are not worth a big time commitment. We could have spent more time there, but we were also glad to get back to Vermont. I love Vermont. The traffic on a Saturday morning was much more manageable and we made it back to the U.S. border with no issues. It was the easiest reentry into the country ever, too. We actually crossed over in New York then went over a bridge and were in Vermont. We covered a lot of ground on this trip!

We’d not been to this area of Vermont before and we were immediately smitten. We fell in love with a town called North Hero and for once I became convinced that I wanted a second home. I don’t have the funds for a second home in Vermont, but it was the first time I’d really wanted a lake place. It was just like God smiled on the area and made it everything wonderful.

We stopped for the morning in Burlington to hit their renowned farmers market. It was worth the hype. We loved it. We walked through it for about an hour, got amazing breakfasts and some fun gifts before heading down to the lake to rent bikes. My arm was feeling better so we decided that riding on the edge on Lake Champlain would be fun. It was! I love these little hourly rental bikes that are popping up in cities now. It makes spontaneous rides a possibility. It was a gorgeous day and the scenery was amazing. We loved it so much that we accidentally rode our bikes out of their zones and had to quickly turnaround before we got some wild charges. Whoops!

We’d intended to stay in the area but since we’d arrived early in the morning and knocked a bunch of stuff out, we decided to keep making progress towards our ultimate goal: Maine.

He always obliges me

We saw that the Ben & Jerry’s factory was right on our way to our new hotel so we decided to stop. Guys, it was so fun! I’d managed to never have Ben & Jerry’s ice cream so it was a special treat for me to get it so fresh. I see what the fuss is all about. We ate our free samples then went to their onsite ice cream stand to get cones, too!

Excited for the ice cream after the movie

AMAZING.

The flavor of the day on the tour was the Chocolate Shake It which is chocolate malt milkshake ice cream with chocolate cookie-covered fudge truffles and marshmallow swirls. Yes, I picked the right day for the tour. Delicious!! 

HAPPY CAMPER sampling "The Tonight Dough"

The ingredients of our body after the tour

We walked all around the vast ice cream campus and then headed into the town of Stowe to do some hiking. One cannot just eat ice cream and not get some activity!

Vermont showing off

Stowe is quintessential Vermont and I LOVED it. We found a fun hike to a waterfall and just enjoyed some additional time in nature. The leaves were just starting to change and the whole area was just gorgeous. Someone put me on the Vermont board of tourism already!

Never stays in a safe zone. Ever.

I love waterfalls.

Me: let's get a good photo
Jackson: *bites my hat*

Views.

We eventually decided we’d better hit the road as we’d decided to sleep in Manchester, New Hampshire for the evening and had a few hours of drive time ahead of us. Thank goodness for podcasts! We tried a local macaroni and cheese restaurant there (as Heavenly as it sounds) and just retired for the evening. There is not much going on in Manchester, but it was a good stopping point for the evening.

Notice we fit a salad in with the
mac and cheese!