Northern Vermont
Day 1 – Scenic Highway 100 to Stowe
We left Brattleboro to drive further north in Vermont to Stowe. Not really a long drive but we took a few of the scenic designated drives – though at this time of the year I think any road would be scenic ! However the Vermont 100 is one of the main scenic drives if you were researching drives in Vermont. As Vermont is a fairly thin state, the majority of the drives are north / south.
If you are in to ice cream then I suspect that you have heard or like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I’m not big into ice cream but even I had heard of them ! And their factory is in Waterbury, Vermont which was on our way. We do “iconic” places on our tours so it was worth a visit.
Admittedly it was Saturday but the place was packed. The factory tours were booked out for the day but there was no deterring the ice cream faithful – the lines were long ! Not as long as Hill Billy Hot Dogs I must say ! 😂 I am not a big ice cream fan but I figured a “Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz” would just replicate a morning tea espresso shot. Adrienne had the “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough”. As usual they were huge and I must say that for the first time in my life I had ice cream for lunch ! 🙄😂
We then visited the “flavour graveyard” – flavours that have passed their use by date.
We then drove on to Stowe, our location for the 2 days in these parts, and after a coffee in a small rest area on the outskirts of town we checked into our hotel. We had received a notification the day before that the hotel we were staying at was “no longer part of our group” from the Choice Hotels chain which the hotel had been affiliated with. Adrienne rang and confirmed our booking was still active. It turned out that the place had been “let go” a little and I think they may have lost their accreditation with Choice. However it was comfortable enough, despite being a little “dated” and certainly expensive for what it was.
As we were a little out of the main town, nearby however was a nice walking path which we took into town to have a look around. It was very popular with walkers and cyclists. When we arrived in town and took the stairway up to the main street, we were a little surprised to see a marker indicating the “high water” mark for a flood in November 2019 halfway up the stairs. There had been a small creek running along the walkway but it must have been a huge amount of water to get to that level.
In town there is a church with a huge steeple that comes up on various Facebook and Instagram posts if you look up “Stowe, VT” – mainly for the background foliage. Our walk didn’t show us any great foliage backgrounds but there was a wedding in progress – which stopped the main street !
We walked back to the hotel and then found a nice restaurant just across from our hotel – The Bench – and although there was a bit of a wait we had a lovely dinner – a tasy meatloaf, and a nice couple of local beers.
Day 2 – Shelburne Museum
For our second day we did another big driving loop into the north west of the state. Our main aim was the Shelburne Museum near Burlington.
The museum is quite unique – the “museum” is 45 acres and includes 150,000 works exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It was created by a wealthy lady, Electra Havemeyer Webb, who was a pioneering collector of American folk art – in a big way.
There are huge buildings with large numbers of things like carriages or hunting trophies and in one building supposedly the largest collection of duck decoys in the United States.
I mean I am all for having a collection as you may know but this lady went to extremes ! The lighthouse on the site was located out in a lake in western Vermont. She heard that it was to be removed / demolished so decided to acquire it and relocate it – as you do.
Same with the paddle wheeler – it was to be decomissioned and dismantled so she bought it and relocated it – as you do.
There was so much to look at we spent quite a bit of time walking around and had a sandwich for lunch here at the cafe before we left.
We drove back over the mountains through a section called Smugglers Notch. It is a winter playground but also very popular with walkers. The road gets down to a very narrow section through the “notch” – barely a space for 2 cars to get through in the narrowest sections.
And we have really felt that the colours have been getting more vibrant over the few days we have been here.
We finished the day with dinner back at The Bench as it had been so good the night before. We had to wait a bit again but had a drink in the bar before we got out table. We had great Nachos and a pizza – pulled pork, ham, pickle and cheese – just delicious. We have gone “full American” even getting “a box” to take our leftovers in. It’s great for our lunch the next day ! 😂
New Hampshire coming up !