Vermont

Ben & Jerry, Bernie Sanders, King Arthur Flour, Cabot Cheese and all things MAPLE – welcome to Vermont.  So much to see, so little time.  We were told how lucky we were because this week is the peak week for fall color.  Vermont is really gorgeous this time of year.  We bought lots of Vermont maple products to share. We had a memorable dinner at the Ye Olde Tavern in Manchester Center, Vermont, built in 1790, making it the oldest inn in the state. It is on the Vermont Register of Historic Places.  The atmosphere and food were delightful.

We paid a visit to the Robert Frost Wayside Trail in the Middlebury Gap of Ripton, Vt.  This was the place that inspired much of Frost’s poetry. It winds through woods, across streams and around meadows.  In fact, the trail has his poems posted near the spots of inspiration. We loved this place so much that we decided to tour his stone house the next day in Shaftsbury, Vermont, where he put on page poems like “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken.”  Jill had fun later matching the photos to lines of his poetry.

We also visited Hildene, the estate of Robert Todd Lincoln. He was the son of Honest Abe. Abe’s house was a 14 X 14 cabin, but his son’s estate measures 8,000 square feet, a testament to the American dream.  His home was high tech for the time; it even had a telephone, electricity and an observatory with an impressive telescope. R.T. Lincoln was a Republican politician, Secretary of War and President of the Pullman Palace Car Company, the most successful business in the world back in the day.  We got to see inside one of the opulent Pullman Cars, too.  The estate also has a goat cheese-making business, including a field of goats, chevre on the hoof.