Vermont

Yesterday morning we ate a continental breakfast at our hotel and then drove about twenty minutes to a farm which is a family business that produces primarily maple syrup and cheese. Paul and the kids tasted various free samples of cheese and syrup. We didn't buy any cheese due to the length of time it would be out of a refrigerator while we are traveling, but we bought some syrup for two of our neighbors who are caring for our pets in our absence. Our second stop was at the only National Park site in Vermont- the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. I had purchased tickets for a guided tour at 10:00 which lasted a little over an hour. We also walked a one-mile loop trail after our tour. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. 

Our third stop was supposed to be a tour of Ben and Jerry's factory at 1:30pm, but I screwed up. As I was driving north, I saw a sign for Waterbury and thought to myself that I thought that was the town where the factory was located. I really wish I had asked Paul to quickly look that up while I was driving, but I didn't. I had entered the wrong address into the GPS. We were headed to a little Ben and Jerry's ice cream store about 35 minutes farther north than the factory. They allow you to reschedule or cancel your tour up to 30 minutes before your tour time, but since we didn't figure out that we were in the wrong place until about 5 minutes before our tour, it meant I wasted the money we paid for our five tickets. The wrong address was located in Burlington, and I remembered that when we had planned to be in this area in 2020 (trip was cancelled due to you know what) I had planned for us to visit the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center located on the waterfront of Lake Champlain in Burlington and also Lake Champlain Chocolates. The chocolate factory had moved over the last 2 years, but we were able to visit the science museum. They would allow a maximum of four people in for free with our ASTC membership, so we only paid for one child. We spent about an hour there. The kids each fed a baby newt. Oliver, true to form, made a friend with whom he played for most of the time we were there. I was thankful that we didn't drive to Burlington in vain. 

Our fourth stop was a 3:30 tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear factory. We also purchased four stuffed animals there. I bought an owl for Karyss (a ten-year-old who is helping with Milo while we're away) and an elephant for Oliver (which will be put away until Christmas). Ian bought himself a penguin, and Nadia bought herself a sloth. We had planned to eat dinner at a Denny's near the teddy bear factory, but we changed our plans in light of my error. We were going to be driving by Waterbury on our way to Maine, so we stopped at Ben and Jerry's and the Cider Mill in Waterbury prior to getting dinner at McDonald's. We weren't able to join a tour at Ben and Jerry's as the tickets were all sold out for the day, but we walked through their Flavor Graveyard and also bought some ice cream. We arrived at the Cider Mill only ten minutes before it closed so we didn't have time for a tour, but we did get free cups of cider and also purchased six apple cider donuts for $4.00 that we plan to have for breakfast tomorrow morning as the hotel we are staying at tonight near Acadia doesn't provide a free breakfast.

When I book our hotels, I usually search on Priceline and Hotels.com when we're not using credit card points. I try to find the cheapest place that has free breakfast and two beds plus a sofa bed as long as it doesn't have completely abysmal ratings. In Philadelphia we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. They had a really nice breakfast. Nadia had to sleep on an air mattress that night as I couldn't find anything that included a sofa bed at a reasonable price. The same was true for the first night of this trip in Vermont when we stayed at a Super 8. It was definitely not the nicest motel. Last night we stayed at Ogunquit Tides in Maine. Nadia did have a sofa bed and the room was much nicer than the one at the Super 8. They had an indoor pool, but it closed at 9pm so we weren't able to swim as we arrived around 9:30pm. Some of the hotels I booked for this trip have outdoor pools, but that won't be helpful in September in New England. Hopefully the kids will be able to swim in the indoor pool at the hotel in Providence, Rhode Island next week. Today and tomorrow, we will be in Maine. Then we plan to spend three days in Massachusetts, one day in Rhode Island, and the day we drive home we plan to do two things in Connecticut. The weather looks good for Acadia National Park tomorrow, but I think we're going to have a lot of rain today.