Vermont Vacation

We were on vacation last week in Vermont.  Why Vermont you ask?  Well, it's a state we had never been to so now we can check Vermont off our list!  Ashley was in Chicago for work and met up with us for the week.  We rented an apartment (AirBnB) in Montpelier and made day trips each day to different parts of Vermont - Stowe, Burlington, etc.  If I was to do it again, I would not recommend doing it that way.  It was a lot of driving every day.  It would be better to stay in 2-3 areas of the state.  Vermont was much more rural than we anticipated but it was a very pretty state.  The leaves were just starting to change.  I think in another week or two they will be at their peak.  The weather caught us all by surprise - it was much warmer than we had thought it would be - in the 80s every day, even reaching 90 on the weekend!!  

We stayed busy the whole time visiting museums .... and breweries.  Who knew Vermont had so many micro breweries???!!  They have a program that you can get a brewery passport and visit the different breweries and get your passport stamped.  After six stamps, you can get a bottle opener; twenty stamps and you get a tee shirt; and up to forty breweries for other prizes.  Well, you know we weren't going with just six and we weren't there long enough to do forty, so we decided to do 20!  It was fun to try all the different beers - even for me and I'm not a big beer drinker.  I prefer cider and most places had that so we all found something we liked.

Thought I'd share a few pictures from the trip with you.  Unfortunately, something happened to a lot of my pictures.  When I downloaded them from my phone to my computer, I was missing 3-4 days of my pictures.  Haven't figured out what happened.  I'm hoping Ashley's pictures can fill in my gaps.

We took a tour of Ben and Jerry's.  Believe it or not, I don't think I have ever had their ice cream!  It was good and an interesting tour watching them make the ice cream.

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This mural of famous Vermont peopl was painted on the side of several buildings in Burlington just off Church Street and was fascinating.  Church St Marketplace was a fun and interesting experience.  Lots of restaurants, stores, galleries, bars, breweries and lots of fun people watching.  

Ashley and I walked down to Citizen Cider Brewery while Sonny was at another brewery in Burlington.  Another stamp on our passport and the cider was good.

This was the best tree I saw - in the parking lot of ..... another brewery!

Idletyme Brewing Company - we actually came here twice - once just for the beer and a few days later for dinner.  It is located in Stowe and was one of the larger breweries we visited.

This was also at Idyletyme.  They had a nice garden - growing vegetables, flowers like this large sunflower and hops!

Magic Hat was one of our first stops on our tour and was located in South Burlington.  We were able to take a tour here of their beer being made.

Ashley and Sonny at Magic Hat.

We took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and then went on a hike.  This is Ashley and I at the top (or as far to the top as I was going!)  Note Sonny is not with us!  He turned back about half way up.

This was when Sonny turned around and went back down.  It was much more difficult that we thought - just rocks all the way.

This was the look-out when we got out of the gondola.

Think I added a few pounds on the trip!  Although I did not order this Poutine (a Canadian dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with brown gravy), I had to sample it!   Sonny ordered this one the day we arrived and on the day we left!

This is the Von Trapp Lodge - a 2,400 acre 5 star resort which is managed by one of the Von Trapp descendants.  The original home of the Von Trapps burned down in 1980 and this lodge was built.  They also have a brewery that we visited and had lunch.