Bye bye Vermont- Last stop Burlington

As we say goodbye to Vermont, we visited Burlington. The largest town in Vermont. 

Walked Church Street and of course had to have some Ben and Jerry’s after a beer tasting and lunch at the Vermont Brewing Company. 

On the banks of Lake Champlain, Burlington was the home of the first international ice hockey match in 1886. Burlington played Montreal on the frozen lake. Montreal won and went on to win the first Stanley cup in 1893. 

Burlington has 100’s of murals. We found a few of them on our walk around town. 

Montpelier, Vermont

Montpelier, the capitol of Vermont, is recovering from historic flooding in July. Nearly every store and building in the downtown area is closed. Massive cleanup and construction is visible everywhere you look. 

I snagged this photo of flooding off the internet. 

The Capitol was spared the devastation because of location on high ground. 

We toured the beautiful capitol building. 

The senate furniture is original. There are 30 senators in Vermont. 

The House of Representatives has 150 members representing approximately 4,000 residents each. The chairs are original and permanently attached to the floor and said to be the reason for speedy general sessions. 

I became interested in learning about a house style that was prevalent in the downtown Montpelier area - according the historical society - they are French Second Empire homes built around 1860. That means they are approximately 160 years old!  

We visited the Bragg Farm Sugar house and learned about making pure maple syrup. They let us tour their sugar house. Some highlights- they hammer spigots and hang buckets in the trees to collect sap from sugar maples in early January and February. The trees produce for only about two months before spring temperatures hit. The sugar sap is clear and thin as water. It takes 40 to 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup by heating the sugar sap - which causes the water evaporate. 

We tried maple ice cream and of course Ruby got some too. 

We found more covered bridges. Many damaged by the flooding. 

Debris still hasn’t been cleared from flooding. 

Stowe, Vermont

It is a cute, quaint town until it is packed with all the leaf peepers (like us - smile) and then it is an overcrowded small town. Another place that you can’t get into parking lots or stop for a meal. We were going to stop at a hard cider place and cars 10 deep were waiting to park!  And whats sad is all the locals stay the color really didn’t happen or even peak this year due to the rain, wind and very early cold temperatures. 

Smugglers Notch got its name because smugglers used the rugged path through the mountains to move supplies from Canada during the war of 1812. 

We found the covered bridges. 

The first one is Emily’s Bridge. Emily, who was from a poor family,  had a boyfriend from a wealthy family was said to have jumped to her death when the boyfriend didn’t show for their elopement. Locals says say they still see her ghost on the bridge. 

Downtown Stowe is very cute.  

Bourbon? Why yes, please. We visited Smugglers Notch Distillery. 

Don’t get me wrong, Stowe is beautiful - I just have decided that I have little tolerance for congestion! This picture demonstrates a small sample of the traffic getting into town. 

You know when you are somewhere new and you just see something out of the ordinary?  We kept seeing houses with a window in an odd place and position. So curious Vicki gets obsessed with them. These are called  a “witch window”. The story is that a witch on a broomstick can’t fly through a crooked window. 

Even on new construction! 

Stowe is an massive ski area- but in the fall you take the gondola up to see the leaves. 

We decided to get off the beaten path and found two fun finds! 

Richmond, Vermont - Historic Round Church. Claims to be devil resistant and built in 1812. Not exactly round. It has 16 slim panels and took three years to complete. Lead carpenter was paid $3,000 for his efforts. 

Chrittenden Mill - circa 1855.