Vermont

I'm still trying to get caught up on my blogging, so I will cover all of Vermont in a single blog. We headed to Burlington, VT, across Lake Champlain, when we left Lake Placid.

Here I am leaving the ferry. It's a good thing not all of us tried to get across at the same time. It was all they could do to get 5 of us onboard the same ferry.

 

One of our first outings was to the Ben and Jerry plant. I mean, doesn't everyone love ice cream?

I didn't realize there were so many flavors.

I want that job.....

Some flavors just don't make it though.

After the ice cream, we headed to a cider mill.I did learn some interesting facts too. True cider must be refrigerated and only has a limited shelf life. Anything else is just juice. At least that is the view of the owner of Cold Hollow Cider Mill.

While at Burlington, we were treated to a traditional Italian pasta dinner, compliments of Nancy. Her sauce simmered all day, then spent the night blending the flavors before we had our meal the next day. Notice the fine china and wine glasses too.......

Burlington is the home of Ethan Allen,(yes the namesake of that wonderful furniture), but I found out he was also a revolutionary war hero. This tower was built in Ethan Allen park.

The Festival of Fools was going on over the weekend we were there. Main street was blocked off and the many stages had activities thoughout the day and evening hours.

There were jugglers, like this man....

We watched stories being told with acrobatic acts like this, as well as magicians and musicians too.

Many of the buildings downtown had a European Gothic look to them, like this building.

The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival was also going on while we were there. Many of the teams had a theme, like this Flintstone group.

The dragon was going nonstop throughout the festival grounds with people joining at the end. The entire festival was a fundraiser for DragonheartVT, a support group for breast cancer survivors.

There were over 100 teams entered for the dragon boat races. With 5 boats racing at a time, the races went on all day.

And of course we had to visit and tour the Magic Hat Brewery. I felt like I was in a Tim Burton movie set. Maybe he designed everything here.....

But I did like their name for the labeling machine. The filling machine was called the "fillermabog".

Even the names of their beer was weird. But it did taste good. You were allowed a small sample of all 8 of their craft beers.

Our final excursion was a trip south to Ticonderoga, back across the lake to NY on another ferry.

A trading post was first built on this spot by the French in 1667. The Governor of New France had the first fort built on this site in 1755. The British attacked the fort in 1758, but were defeated by French and Canadian troops. In 1759 the British again attacked, the French abandoned the fort and the British took possession. In 1775, Benedict Arnold seized the fort for the first victory of the American Revolution. In 1776 most of the cannons were taken to Boston for General Washington's army. In 1777 the British forced the American's to give up the fort. Following the Revolutionary War, the fort was never manned again and fell into ruin.

There was a Fife and Drum Muster going on the day we were there. Fife and Drum teams came from as far as Michigan. Some of the participants were as young as 10 years old.

This was the smallest group, playing in the garden in front of the The Pavillion, built in 1826 as the summer home of William Ferris Pell.

More Fife and Drum Corps.

An aerial picture of the restored fort.

Our guide. He is a professional historian and storyteller. You certainly did not get bored with him.

What the ruins looked like before restoration started. One of the original pieces still left in the fort are the large wooden doors and their hinges at the forts entry point.

The parade grounds today.

I only got to see some of the northern part of Vermont, so I guess I'll just have to come back another time to visit the southern part.