Vermont 2021 {10/23: Bennington Battle Monument, Churches and Covered Bridges, Causeway Park}

We woke up in Bennington on Saturday morning, watched some sports highlights on TV, grabbed Dunkin' donuts for breakfast, and fiddled around at a little park in town while we waited for the McClungs to be ready for the day. We met up with them at the Bennington Battle Monument where we learned about the monument and the battle it was commemorating. The elevator to the observation tower was out of order, so we had to be happy with just looking at the ground-level displays, and we were. Pretty impressive place!

Our next item for the morning was to visit Aldi. Gregg and others have told me about this little grocery chain that is only found in the east, and both Christine and I were excited to check it out in real life. It was what they said, a small, cheap, funny little grocery store. But we had a fun time exploring and buying a few snacks.

We noticed on the map that there were three covered bridges (new to us!) that were right near each other near town, so we made a little loop to see them. We started heading north to Rutland, where we found another park for a quick stop and stretch. Four more covered bridges that we had never seen before were just outside of Rutland, so we made another detour off the highway to visit them. We saw plenty of pretty churches along the way, too. We made one more quick tour through Middlebury to see Middlebury College, where lots of Gregg's friends and coworkers went to school. What a beautiful campus! (I didn't take pics, so you'll have to google it.) The whole drive was spectacular - blue sky, sunny, nearly peak leaves! Gorgeous!

The last stop of our day was Colchester to ride the Island Line Rail trail again, from the other side. It was cool and breezy, but we had a fun ride and even funner time skipping rocks in the lake at our pit stop in the middle. The kids played at Airport Park for a bit while I made sandwiches on the hood of the car for dinner. Then we all headed back to Jay to sleep in our "own beds" again. A fun little getaway within a getaway! And a great tour of the state that we keep saying can't really be real. It's like a postcard practically anywhere you look!

Bennington Battle Monument, which is 306 feet
tall, one foot taller than the Statue of Liberty!

Basically, the Battle of Bennington
was the turning point for the Americans
in the Revolutionary War.

The guide inside the monument told us
that these doors are original (built in 1891),
weigh 700 lbs each, and are hung so expertly
they still swing easily with just one finger
and have never been oiled or fixed or anything!

This giant kettle was confiscated from the British
after the battle. It's a beast!

Looking at a little model of the battle.

The staircase to the top. (Closed to the public,
but still sound and useable by the guide.)

The view from the hill where the monument stands.

Silk Road Bridge.

Paper Mill Bridge.

Cute church at a crazy corner.

Driving through Henry Bridge.

Henry Bridge - we got some good light and a good
angle from a good little pull-out for this shot!

Another beautiful church - all stone - in Rutland.

Same Rutland church, different angle.

Gorham Bridge.

Gorham Bridge again.

Cooley Covered Bridge.

Depot Covered Bridge.

Hammond Bridge.

Hammond Bridge again.

The was the view from the car near Middlebury.
(Again I was trying to snap photos from a moving car and
not getting nearly the magic of the view in real life.)

Seen in Shelburne on the way to Colchester.

Good ol' Lake Champlain!

The clouds were making things rather lovely and dramatic.

I just love the trees that grow out of rocks!

This may just look like a random picture of the bathroom
at Airport Park, but if you look closer, you may just see
a couple monkeys in the trees!

Ditto about the monkeys.

We got back to a freezer full of Ben and Jerry's
ice cream dropped off by the awesome Melissa
here at Jay Peak, just thanking us for coming
and bringing friends with us. She and Steve are
too cool for words!

Vermont 2021 {10/22: King Arthur Flour, American Precision Museum, Vermont Country Store, Vermont Country Deli, Brigham Young Birthplace}

We wanted to get down to Southern Vermont, and since it's the furthest drive and we had so much to see, we made it into an overnighter adventure so we could fit everything in. We left Jay Peak at 9:00 am on Friday, 22 October, heading South on I-91, which is probably the most beautiful freeway I've ever driven (even when it's cloudy and my photo doesn't capture the beauty!). We stopped at King Arthur Flour to pick up an order I had made online, plus do a little browsing in the shop that I didn't get to do last year. What a fun store! We ate our croissants outside on the table stuffed with some chicken salad brought from home and it was a delicious little picnic.

Next, we drove to Windsor, the Birthplace of Vermont, so we could snap a picture of the Constitution House (it was closed for the season, so this was the best we could do) as we drove by. We were on our way to the American Precision Museum, which was in an old mill/factory building and was full of cool old and new machinery things. Lots of lathes and presses and robots and 3-D printers. We learned a lot, including that Thomas Blanchard (I had never even heard of him!) invented the first matching lathe for interchangeable parts for a gun! Amazing!

Our next stop was a park across the border into New Hampshire (apparently New Hampshire is our go-to spot for parks when we're in east-central Vermont ;) to get some wiggles out before spending time in a giant gift shop, The Vermont Country Store. That place is overwhelming on its own, but get some kids in there with you touching all the things and squeaking all the pigs in the toy department and it's mayhem!

A bit further down the road was our dinner stop at Vermont Country Deli in Brattleboro. Yum! Mac 'n' cheese and pulled pork sandwich and pot stickers and cod - oh my! A yummy feast!

We continued on west from Brattleboro after our dinner, with a quick stop in Whitingham to look at a house that the McClungs were maybe interested in, and also to visit the monument in Brigham Young Memorial Park talking about his birth in that town in 1801. Who knew he was born in Vermont, too? (Not me.)

We continued on to Bennington, settled into our motel room, and called it a (fun and full) day.

I don't know why I even try with the photos-through-the-
windshield thing, but here's another paltry attempt to
capture the scene we enjoyed that morning.

KAF had some super cute shirts, which we didn't
buy, but liked looking at.

I loved their framed collections of random kitchen gear.
So cute!

Photo op!

A peek into the kitchen - making lots o' pizza!

Two things I loved here: that GIANT mixer and HUGE
stack of sheet pans!

Our haul: a Vermont Country Loaf (sourdough), 4
croissants (of the like 30,000 they make a year), a
chocolate croissant (the one with the powdered sugar),
and a Kouign-amann (which I really wanted to try after
learning about them on Great British Baking Show
a few years ago; spoiler alert: it was delicious!).

The Constitution House, aka Birthplace of Vermont!

Isn't the American Precision Museum just cute?

Watching the movie at the beginning of our museum time.

We first heard about Thomas Blanchard in the film at
the beginning of our tour, but then spotted his name on
this sign.

Lots of cool little miniature versions of
tons of machines that actually moved!

An early apple peeler-corer-slicer!

They called the area Precision Valley
a la Silicon Valley of today.

A few things were touchable, and we made
sure to touch them!

They had some nice art in the bathroom ;)

More bathroom art.

Another poster from the bathroom.
This is the mill building that the museum
is in now.

And the last one!

Here's Cal outside the museum.

And here's all of us.

Teeter totter time at the park in New Hampshire.

Pretty field nearby.

And disc golf!

Vermont Country Store is full of the funnest retro-themed
toys and games. I swear I played with this as a kid, but I don't
know where because I know I didn't have it myself!

Sam found this adorable covered bridge
piece for wooden train tracks (but we didn't
buy it because it's $25!).

Just snapping some idea pics for upcoming
gift-giving season. ;)

I saw this last year and snapped a pic
then too, I think. I wish my library had a copy!

Cal spotted this one - she really wants
a harmonica!

I seriously considered getting this one for
my sister Kylie :)

I had one of these as a kid!

This looked kind of cool.

I had one of these, too!

Cute shaped puzzles.

Talk about a blast from the past!

My mom and grandma have tablecloths just like this!
(I had no idea they would be almost $90 to buy new!)

Sneak a little homeschool into breakfast time? ;)

Here's the monument in the corner of the park
about Brigham Young being born in Whitingham.
We didn't see the actual site of the home where
he lived because it was nearly dark and we needed
to press onward to Bennington. Maybe next time. ;)

The next post will document our return trip back to the top of the state!