Vermont Relocation Vacation {10/12: Corn Maze, Cider Donuts, Bike Ferry}

We had another apple crisp October day on Monday (October 12th) and we took advantage of the perfect weather to take another day off of work and school to play. First up on the docket: a corn maze! The kids have never done one of these and I hunted around for a good first-timer one. We had planned on a different one, but it became tricky trying to line up open days with good weather days, so our second (or was it third? fourth? I don't even know anymore) choice turned out to be the Percy Farms Maze in Stowe. It worked out great for us to drop off an old computer and pick up a new charger for Gregg at the Inntopia office (and get a little tour of where his coworkers (used to) work (pre-work-from-home-COVID-life). Then we continued on down the road to Thompson Park where we parked and walked down the rec path a short ways to where the corn maze was. We were the second ones there that morning (and the only ones in the maze at the time). It was cool and blue and golden and beautiful and we had a blast wandering through the paths and spying all the "candy corn for chickens" scattered on the ground. (Seriously, the dried corn kernels really looked exactly like candy corn!) We made it out of the made exactly 30 minutes after entering. Nice!

Popped inside the Inntopia gondola cabin
parked near the entrance to the office.

That colorful hillside plus blue sky plus tan corn was
just asking for a picture (or two or ten) to be taken!

See!!?!!?! We were all delighted by the candy-looking
corn.

Lookout tower!

Yep. Obsessed. (You should see Cal's pockets!)

And we're out!

Back down the rec path in the beautiful morning sun.

Another covered bridge off the list! (This one is called
Emily's Bridge and apparently has a spooky history.)

After the maze and the bridge, we were ready for a mid-morning snack. Enter: Cold Hollow Cider Mill and their "legendary" cider donuts. The place was packed (it was a holiday weekend, after all, and it's off a small country highway with no stop sign or light to be seen for miles, so there was actually a police officer stopping traffic to let people out of the lot!), but we squeezed in and Gregg dropped me off while he went to find a place to park. The lines were long, but moved quickly, and after loading up on postcards, I was next to purchase some donuts. (I would love to go back to look around a bit more on a less busy day - it's full of fun things to see and smell!)

They really were amazing. Best yet.

After lunch and donuts and some park time down the road from the mill, we again hit the road toward Jericho. I wanted to stop here to see the place where Snowflake Bentley lived and photographed snowflakes. There's an exhibit in an old mill in town run by the local historical society, but it wasn't open when we got there (I knew it was a long shot, since their website said Thursday-Saturday only, but I was still bummed). We did drive into the center of town where the historical marker is "on the town green".

Seems like every town green or common has the library
and/or a church.

Libary.

Church.

On the road again toward South Hero, on/in Lake Champlain. We were ready for another go at the Causeway bike path into the middle of the lake and this time we were going to ride the bike ferry! We parked at the trailhead in South Hero and rode the mile to the end of the road where we hopped on the boat, got tugged across the gap, and hopped back off to ride a bit further down the path. Really, the bike ride was secondary to the boat ride for this outing, but we got another 3-4 miles round trip of pedaling in. The bike rides have been such a highlight of our trip!

Airport park is where we went last week
when we rode the causeway trail - only
five and a half miles away today!

The first part of this trail was covered with
pot holes and I nearly went over my handle
bars because I was trying to take a picture
and didn't see them coming! Ack!

I spy the ferry!

Ready to ride! Cal and Sam realized that this was
the biggest boat they have ever been on, so that was
exciting!

The ride lasted only a few minutes, but it was fun
anyway.

We rode down the causeway (into a headwind)
for a ways until we came to a wide spot in the path
where we ditched our bikes and climbed down to the
water to skip rocks and climb on boulders for a while.

These trees that grow randomly out of the pile of rocks
are super amazing to me.

The end of the road!

Here comes the ferry back to our side.

Waiting for our ride back to the car.

Bike section.

People section.

And back we go to South Hero.

The colors were just stunning! It was such
a pretty day!

North to Apple Orchards . . . which is exactly
what we did!

We passed a few orchards as we drove into town (no wonder they call this place Apple Island!) and decided we had to stop at Hackett's on the way back through. We bought 6 more donuts (bringing our day's total to 10 and our trip total to 14 - we've still got a long ways to go to hit our goal of 100 for our time in VT! ;) and one of each apple that they sold while the kids played on the playground area near the trees. It was a beautiful late afternoon!

Gregg snapped a pic of the apples so we could match
up what we were eating later.

Spoiler alert: we didn't look at the pics when we cut
up a couple of the apples, so I don't really know what
was what anyway. But, good news! Everything we've
tasted so far has been delicious! ;)

3/3 means 3 dipped in sugar and 3 without.

The kids loved the wide variety of toys
to play and climb and bounce and drive.

I loved the picturesque street and signs and
trees and flags.

Only a block or two further, we came to the main intersection with Seb's Snack Bar, which was still open (most of these little food stands that we've seen have been closed) so we bought dinner and tried a maple creemee, another Vermont must (apparently)! (It was sweet and cold and yummy!)

Waiting for our food and snapping pics
of my girl.

I spy a new tooth coming in fast!

We continued north from South Hero through the middle of Lake Champlain until we crossed over to Swanton for one more stop at a park to play and run and toss discs. By then it was nearly dark and we continued on "home" while listening to our latest audiobook (The Penderwicks) and watching Mars bright on the eastern horizon.

The most perfect heart shaped leaves I've ever seen!