Being tourists in Vermont!

Mat and Marty are great tour guides!  One afternoon, we set out on an excursion.  When we got back, Mat chuckled because it turned into a 6 hour adventure!

We drove about 30 minutes to Barre, VT to the Hope Cemetery.    Cemeteries intrigue me and both Mat and Marty said this one should not be missed.  It was easy to see why...the tombstones are amazing.

This last one (above) was very interesting.  It was a married couple sitting up in their bed with their likeness carved in the headboard.  They are holding hands.  The wife died quite a few years before the husband and he remarried.  That little marker in the foreground of the picture is for his second wife.  :-)

From there, we went to Cabot Creamery.  Their tasting room has about 15 or so different types of their cheese that you can sample.  We "noshed" quite a bit and ended up buying enough cheese to last us the next year!  Who knew that cheese with horseradish infused in it could be so tasty?  ;-)

Then it was on to Morse Farms Maple Sugarworks.  They had a walking interpretive tour and a fantastic gift shop.  Our supply of maple syrup was getting low so we stocked up on that as well as some gifts for family. We then had to sample a maple creamee.  Oh my....vanilla soft serve infused with maple syrup.  This is a must try!  Morse Farms is said to have the best maple creamee and it sure was delicious!

We then drove through Montpelier...the smallest capital in the US.    

It was a wonderful outing and, needless to say, no one ate dinner that night!  We were stuffed to the gills!

Another day, we set out to Waterbury, VT.  We just HAD to check out Ben & Jerry's!

We knew not to go on a Saturday or Sunday...that would be self-inflicted torture!  However, we would strongly recommend NOT going on a Friday, either!  Mat and Marty said the crowds were the worse they had ever seen them.  We opted not to take the tour (it was an hour wait!) and just eat ice cream and visit the flavor graveyard.  Dan got a White Russian milkshake; Mat got Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz, Marty got Chocolate Therapy, and I got Coconut Seven Layer Bar.  All were fabulous!

Mat and Dan enjoying their cool treats

Entrance to the flavor graveyard

I loved the captions on the flavor tombstones

I think I would have liked this flavor!

Oh no - no blueberry ice cream?!

Dan and Marty enjoying a chuckle. 

We left Ben & Jerry's and headed to Cold Hollow Cider Mill.  As soon as you entered the building, the smell of apples and cinnamon was amazing.  The cider press was not operating :-( but we did end up buying a gallon of cider and 6 cider doughnuts. Two disappeared really really quickly.  ;-)

We then went to Lake Champlain Chocolates.  We just smelled our way through this place!  We saw "seconds" (chocolates with labels that were crooked) at $19-$22 a pound and knew we wouldn't be buying any!

It was another great day of being tourists in Vermont!