After a couple of days of driving through Massachusetts, we finally crossed state lines and arrived in Vermont! I was so excited to visit Vermont since I hadn't ever been there before. I was super excited to eat all the maple flavored everythings and add maple syrup to all my food, that's what you do when you're in Vermont, right?
One of our first stops in Vermont was at the famous Vermont Country Store. This quintessential American general store has been open since 1946 and sells everything from clothing, to candy, to vintage toys, to holiday decor and everything in between. The 21st century version of The Vermont Country Store certainly lives up to its tagline, The Purveyors of the Practical and Hard-to-Find. Today, The Vermont Country Store is owned by Lyman Orton and sons Cabot, Gardner, and Eliot, 7th & 8th generation Vermonters, and 4th & 5th generation storekeepers.
As you step over the threshold, you truly do take one of those metaphorical steps back in time.
The store is massive, and every inch is filled with fascinating merchandise. It would be easy to spend hours upon hours taking it all in.
I walked away with mostly fall time treats. Maple Leaf Cookies, Pumpkin Spice chocolate covered marshmallows, pumpkin spice cotton candy, and a can of sparkling apple cider. I literally was like a kid in a candy store.
These cookies are the most delicious things ever. This was my first time trying them and I thought they were only available in Vermont, but later I found some in Canada, another hot spot for maple flavored everything. But recently I discovered I can buy them locally in Utah! Not this particular brand, but maple cream filled cookies. They are some of my favorite treats ever.
I also bought a couple of mood rings, because, why not?! Look how gorgeous and fun they are! The 8 year old kid in me was having the time of her life today with all the treats and the fancy mood rings. #nevergrowup.
As a fun surprise, our tour guide had bought us all some maple sugar candies! This day just kept getting better and better! Note: These maple sugar candies are exceptionally sweet, like almost too sweet, but are a must when in Vermont or Canada.
After a few more hours on the road, we made a stop at Morse Farms Sugar Works to learn all about the process of making maple syrup!
"The Morse ancestors who helped settle Central Vermont were taught how to tap maple trees by Native Americans. Hot rocks were used to evaporate the sweet sap until only sugar or “sinzibukwud” remained. Pioneers could boil a year’s supply of sugar thus making Americans self-sufficient in sugar production. Ben Franklin promoted massive sugar production in the Northeast to make the country less dependent on “foreign” sugar.
It’s Sugarin’ Time – Once America won its independence, and improved transportation helped bring cheaper sugar from the south, sugarmakers started boiling their product less, allowing it to stay in the more popular syrup stage, but the name never changed from the original 'sugarin.'"
As part of our tour of the farm, we all got a free, maple flavored ice cream cone!
After a lovely, but short, visit at Morse Farms, it was back on the road. I have gotten the bus, road trip system down. I always bring a blanket, I always sit in the back of the bus, and I instantly fall asleep the minute the bus starts moving no matter how much I have already slept throughout the day or how hard I try to fight it, my body just finds it so relaxing.
This is a map of the course we will cover throughout our entire trip. We started in Boston, will go up through Vermont and New Hampshire, end in Maine, and then drive back to Boston to fly home. We cover so much ground on these tours and I love it so much, but it does require a lot of driving.
But we get gorgeous views of the Vermont country side as we drive as well as a lot of naps.
We made one last stop today before arriving at our hotel, it was at a state park, where we all went for a leisurely nature stroll and enjoyed the fall colors and the beautiful, peaceful sounds of nature. It always feels so good to get out of the bus after a couple of hours and stretch our legs.
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