Peace, Love and Ice Cream (and Bowling)

We arrived in Vermont Monday evening and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive through the White Mountains and into the Green Mountains. Vermont is incredibly verdant and lush and the mountains are much bigger than I imagined them to be. I have only been to southern Vermont and I don't remember being impressed by the mountains at all. Here the mountains are huge and with the dark and foreboding clouds it was really a formidable sight. I also love how in the valleys there are farms everywhere with red barns and cows and corn. It is very beautiful!

After we found our hotel we headed into downtown Burlington. Although it was raining, we walked around a bit and found a great pizza spot that had early Bob Dylan blaring, plus delicious pizza. Sabine and Che both actually ate it! As we headed out we saw that Midnite was playing in a bar close to where we were eating, but after checking it out when we got home we realized it was only one show. Pretty cool that they were here though! I really like the vibe of the whole place. Church Street Marketplace is very cool with tons of outdoor cafes, lots of places to eat, and nice shops. It is all pedestrian so it is a real treat to walk around. When (if) the weather gets better we'll go and spend some more time there. We drove by the waterfront parks that border Lake Champlain and the view of the Adirondacks on the other side of the lake is amazing! I cannot wait to go back with a picnic when the weather gets better.

This morning, as Cesar worked, we both realized how nice it was to have a whole house instead of a hotel room. It is tough to keep two kids distracted and entertained while Cesar is working in such a small space. I guess I am going to need to figure out how to get out of the hotel room without Cesar.

Once Cesar finished, we headed downtown and ate and looked around. Then we drove around a neighborhood that borders Lake Champlain with a bunch of waterfront summer cottages. Although the water with the mountains and various islands in the distance was beautiful, we were not a huge fan of the area and definitely would not want to spend the summer there. After that we headed to Waterbury, VT to do a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory. It was another beautiful drive with huge mountains and farms. When we got to the factory Cesar was totally shocked when he saw the crowds (I had read about them before and tried to warn him). It is definitely a tourist destination. We had to wait an hour or so to do our tour so we headed down the road to see a haunted cover bridge (see pic). Supposedly a girl hanged herself on it because she was upset that her parents would not let her be with the love of her life. It is the only haunted bridge in Vermont. After playing on the playground at B and J's Factory we went on the tour. It was ok and the ice cream sample at the end was great!

Tonight we went bowling. I accidentally forced Cesar to drive by this place near our hotel because I wanted to see what it was and it ended up being a bowling alley, restaurant, and arcade. After seeing it, Che kept begging us to go "bulldozing", so we relented. It was Che's first time doing it, and by my score it seemed like my first time too. It was fun though!