Day 69 - Vermont

Central Vermont is pretty cool. I hit up a number of great spots today. I started with a trip to Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. If you count Hammond's Candies, this is the 4th chocolate factory I've been to on this trip. Lake Champlain doesn't do the roasting of the cocoa like Theo does, but they do make some darn good chocolates. I may or may not have spent $40 at the factory store on chocolates after the tour.

From there, I picked up a bagel at a local store - hot from the oven and only $2.50 including the cream cheese. Super yummy. Then I drove east to hit 3 places all right next to each other.

First was Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where I saw apple pieces being pressed to extract the juice that would be made into cider. I picked up a couple pints of cider for the road. I also tried some wines at the winery next door - all fruit wines mostly, so not really my thing.

Then I hit the Cabot Creamery Annex Store, where they have lots of cheese to sample. I still have some Wisconsin cheese and have been craving fresh mozzarella for a while, but haven't been able to find any. Lots of cheddar at these cheese factories, but not much in terms of soft cheeses. I did pick up a pint of organic chocolate milk which was amazing.

Last up was the Ben & Jerry's Factory. I have a vague memory of visiting sometime as a kid, but I don't remember the details. They've obviously done a lot of work to the place over the years, and the tour is pretty interesting. And you get free ice cream sample at the end. Apparently I won the prize for the person on the tour who had come the farthest, and this was with me even explaining the circuitous route that I took to get here. I checked out the flavor graveyard and then bought a cup Peaches & Cream, which is apparently a small batch, so I don't know where & how long it's available, but it was yummy. Although I felt like I was melting along with my ice cream as I walked back to the car.

I made it to my home for the night right around 3:30. I'm staying with a childhood friend and her husband. Our parents were best friends while we were growing up, so we spent a lot of time together, especially on vacations. She is the farm manager at an alpaca farm, so I got to see her feeding and taking care of the alpacas, cows, and pigs. How cool is that? We all went out to dinner at a local burger place called Worthy Burger, which was amazing.

I wouldn't want to live up here in the winter - way too cold for me, but it's great to visit in the summer. I do wish this heat wave would break sometime soon. It's getting pretty annoying.