Vermont Weekend

Sunday, May 13, 2018

The day after J broke his arm + shoulder (before we knew what he actually did), we headed up to Burlington, Vermont with my parents. We stopped at Palmer's Sugar House for Maple Open House Weekend - a very New England thing to do. Right when it starts to warm up a bit, the trees release their sap, and that's prime season for making maple syrup. The sugar houses turn on the boilers and invite people in for some seasonally-heated pancakes with maple syrup tastings. Syrup-on-snow, maple hot dogs, maple lemonade, and so on.

Afterward, we made a brief trip to view the Americana at the Shelburne Museum. It being the off season (i.e., late March) only a small portion of the museum's buildings were open, but it looked like a great place to walk around when it gets warmer. Somewhere in there we stopped at the Magic Hat Brewery! Lots of things to do in southern Vermont!





After a night in Burlington, perusing its cute downtown and harbor (and eating way too many crepes), we headed to the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. The highlight of the visit (aside from the free experimental ice cream on the tour) is the "Flavor Graveyard" where you can see silly epitaphs for all the retired flavors.





This visit was followed by a trip to Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where you can watch (and taste!) freshly pressed apple cider, and then cozy over to the luncheonette for a flight of hard cider. And of course, there was a stop at the Cabot Farmers' store to pick up some everything bagel cheddar. All the cheese to taste you could ever want or need!


It's just so pretty here.