So since there was a 3 day weekend coming up, Ryan said we should go to Vermont & Maine since those were the last two states in the New England area that we have not visited yet. So we packed up Thursday and headed out later that night...we drove through Massachusetts and stopped at the border just inside Vermont. We got a room at the Econo Lodge, not bad considering we made no hotel reservations before our journey...we just wanted to go and stop where ever we decided to. At first I was not a big fan of this, even though I'm the more spontaneous one...but I decided instead of fighting with Ryan about it, I would do it his way.
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| EconoLodge for the Night in Vermont |
Next morning we packed up again (note: next time pack bags by the night not for the whole trip, will save us from getting everything out of the car each time...LOL) and headed towards Burlington, Vermont...the agenda today was going to the Oldest Cheese Factory and then off to Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory tour and then heading down to Waterbury for the Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour. We drove so far out of the way to do the Cheese Factory to only find out they were not making Cheese today but the lady did sort of explain the process...and we had a great time sampling the cheese and buying some. Yep we bought about 1lb of Cheese and got some crackers and we finished it off in no time. That was our lunch for the day....we did wish we bought more but being on the road all day we knew it would taste good later.
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| Crowley Cheese Factory... |
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| View leaving Cheese Factory |
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| Another view... |
At Lake Champlain Factory we got to see them making Chocolate's w/ Coconut Insides, Chocolate Santa's & Cherries dipped in Chocolate (which those seem to be the fav by me but at $45 per lb I decided I could resist the urge to buy some).
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| Fishes |
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| The factory hard at work... |
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| Coconut Filling...ready for the Chocolate |
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| Chocolate Santas & Santa Pops |
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| Chocolate Dipped Cherries |
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| Lake Champlain...YUM! |
We didn't fair so great at Ben & Jerry's tour, they were not making any ice cream that day (and no pictures of the factory) but we did get to see and go over the process of how it is made and then got a sample of the ice cream of the day!
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| Grave Yard of Flavors |
After the three tours and lots of scenic views we headed towards Maine, we drove through New Hampshire (we didn't stop here since we went there last year when The Johnson Crew were there visiting family).
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| White Mountain |
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| Views of Mountains driving from Vermont to Maine |
It was dark, late and we were about to just get a room at the border in Maine but I told Ryan I wasn't comfortable in the area and not to mention the cost was higher than I wanted to spend so we drove to Augusta, Maine and settled in at a Super Motel 8.
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| View from our Hotel Window |
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| This phone is super old...LOL |
I know our choices may not be up to par as some but we knew we were not spending much time in the hotel room so why spend a lot to just sleep there. One thing that I wasn't a big fan of in Maine was all the toll roads...LOL So we got settled in, in Maine and looked over the brochures to see where we were headed over the next few days. We picked the Children's Museum in Bangor which happened to be like 2 minutes from a restaurant called Sea Dogs that a friends suggested was good to get Lobstah.
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| Ryan caught playing with the Boats at the Children's Museum |
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| Lunch at Sea Dogs |
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| Ryan thought it was hilarious to take photos of me trying to get on this Giant Pig...so hope all get a good laugh... |
So we ate lunch (which happen to also be dinner) and we headed towards Bar Harbor since Ryan wanted to visit that area...it was beautiful we got to drive up (we would have loved to hike but the girls were not having it - long car rides = grumpy kiddos) to Cadillac Mountain...the views were awesome reminded me so much of Guam views.
The next day since the kiddos wanted to go to Fun Town USA which was headed towards home, we would just go there hang out and then head back home afterwards. It's funny how when you go to these Amusement Parks how all the parks have basically the same rides but called something else.
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| Go Cart Rides |
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| Last Stop in Maine - Fun Town USA |
We all had a great time but we are all glad to be back home in CT.
So an overview, we packed up and left CT and did not know what we were going to do or where we were going except we knew we were going to Vermont & Maine. I have to say by far this was one of the best trips, so looks like we will have more spontaneous trips in the future!
A special thanks to Martina (my neighbor) who watched Kaylie for me. I had Kaylie all set to go to the Kennel and she was like your what?? She said she didn't want Kaylie to go there and offered to watch her for us. Kaylie had a great time over there with her kids. Another thanks goes to Jessica (another neighbor) for watching our Guppies.
