Vermont is very lovely

What better way to spend a fall weekend than to go to Vermont. Saturday morning brought some very chilly weather. The ground was covered in frost as we peeked out the door. The seasonally warm weather we had been having a few hundred miles south in NYC had led me to not pack my winter coat. I regretted this decision every time it was dark or I accidentally wondered into the shade. However overall Vermont was very lovely.

We stayed in Stowe, Vermont. Stowe was filled with cute houses, stores, and churches. This sidewalk covered bridge was another plus!

This river ran behind our motel. It looks a bit foggy from the cold air.

Nancy and Morgan crossing the bridge across the river behind our motel. The bridge was part of a longer path that seemed to run through town and beyond.

This is Emily's bridge. The covered bridge is supposedly haunted by Emily who died there of uncertain circumstances. Notice the white orb to the lower left side of the yellow sign on the bridge... must be Emily.
Sunday morning we visited the Cabot Cheese factory in Cabot, VT. Cabot cheese is owned by the dairy farms that supply the milk. Cabot has been farmer owned from almost the beginning. We didn't take the tour but we watched the informative video and were able to ask the guide a few questions...

• Cheddar is naturally white, in the Midwest and South you will often find orange cheddar because the early Americans wanted to distinguish their cheese from the cheese coming over from England. When they moved out of the northeast they took their dying habits with them. Cabot only dyes cheese going out of the Northeast using Lipstick tree.
• Different types of cheeses are made using different cultures and different aging periods.
• Cheddar and Monterrey Jack are made using the same cultures, but different aging periods. To make Monterrey Jack they spray the cheese with ice water to prevent aging.
• The longer the aging process the sharper the cheese.
• Cheddar cheese is lactose free. Lactose is found in whey and cheddar cheese has all the whey strained during the process.
  

Dog Mountain, Vermont.

Dog Mountain was created by Stephen Huneck
as a place to remember the dogs in your life. Stephen is an artist with a vast array of wood prints of dogs (and a few cats and fish) and life size wood carvings

The walls are covered with notes to loved dogs and pictures of owners and their dogs.

Morgan out front with the dog picket fence.

Ben and Jerry's factory is located in Waterbury, Vermont, which is just down the road from Stowe. We stopped by for the factory tour and ice cream.

The tour of the factory started with a movie explaining how Ben & Jerry's got started in gas station and how it grew to be so big.

The second part was a factory room where we watched a movie about how the ice cream is made and saw all the machines that did the work. We then got a sample of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and the tour was over.

Also on the premises is the "Flavor Graveyard" there were gravestones for all of the discontinued flavors. Here are a few...
In front of city hall in Stowe there was this huge pumpkin.

Although hard to tell the building below is the main building of the Trapp Family Lodge. After the Von Trapp family fled Austria they traveled around as the Trapp Family Singers until 1941 when then settled in Vermont. The Vermont hills reminded them of their home in Austria. They invited friends and family to visit and eventually the place turned into a 2,000 acre resort.

The resort spread over the entire mountain top. As we drove down the mountain we went down some dirt roads as we rounded a corner there was a huge owl sitting in front of us on the road. The owl was the biggest animal we saw on the trip even though there was sign after sign alerting us of Moose Crossings.