Vermont / New Hampshire- August 7 - 19, 2011

A new first for the RV - a ride on a Ferry Boat!

It is only a 12 minute ride across beautiful Lake Champlain, popularly known as the 6th Great Lake.  The RV just rolls on and rolls off - we were worried but it was a smooth ride.

But, I held this photo back, we had already crossed with the car on my birthday in July - what a great way to celebrate 62!

Lake Champlain,  just amazingly beautiful.

We headed to Burlington, Vermont to view the city.  The highlight of the Burlington was the tour of the Magic Hat Brewery.  What fun with a beer tasting bar and a purchase of an assortment of beers.

While we're talking of tours and tastings, we were in Vermont, famous for Maple Syrup, so we toured Maple Grove Farms Maple Sugarhouse Museum. They had maple candy and maple syrup tastings.   It takes 43 gallons of sap which looks like water (bottom of photo) to make 1 gallon of syrup which weighs 11 pounds!!  This business was started in 1915 by two women and it is now the largest packer of pure maple syrup in the USA!

To round out our tastings, we visited the Cabot Creamery, and enjoyed a fabulous table of different flavors of Cabot Cheese and lots of tooth picks so you use a new one each time you taste. Cabot Creamery is a co-op of over 600 farms who use the excess milk from their dairy farms to make cheese.  They also sell milk to Friendly's for their famous ice cream.

But, not all of our tours went well.  We traveled to Montpelier, the Capital of Vermont (the smallest capitol city in the US), only to find out that it was Bennington Battle Day (a strategic battle won during Revolutionary War).  So, all the government offices and museums were closed.  But, we did get to visit "The Skinny Pancake" to enjoy this wonderful Vermont Apple Crisp Crepe with Vermont Ice Cream.  We also noticed the high water mark (photo bottom right -plaque) in front of the beautiful gold domed capital building.

We enjoyed some typical RV hospitality when we heard a knock on the door and we were invited, with the whole campground, for a surprise 50th Dinner/Birthday Party.  Lori was greeted with a wheel chair and a tequila IV.  We all enjoyed delicous pulled pork and a blazing campfire with a beautiful moon in the background.

The site behind us had a cute little visitor!  Just a little sample of  Vermont wildlife!

We went to hit some balls at a drivng range and I just had to capture a photo of some of the amazing clouds we have seen in Vermont.  This was not a hurricane, just some very unique clouds! 

We enjoyed some picturesque golf courses in Vermont and New Hampshire.  Maplewood, Jewel of the White Mountains, has the beautiful steepled building as well as a par 6 hole, and some narrow tree lined fairways.

We took a drive to New Hampshire through the beautiful White Mountain National Forest. We went from Loon Mountain, to Mount Washington visited Mount Washington Resort (set at the base of stunning 6.288 ft. Mt Washington) and, down to Conway. There are constant reminders on the roads warning of "Moose Crossings."  Yes, we saw a Moose!  Please forgive the horrible photo in the top row on the right.  Yes, he walked right across the road but I was so fascinated I couldn't get the camera out fast enough. So I inserted a Moose photo I took at the Kittery Mall for a sense of perspective.  The Moose was huge (they average 6-7 feet high and 850-1580 lbs).  

If we were traveling a bit faster we would not have stopped in time

That's it for the highlights from Vermont and New Hampshire - next stop Maine