Vacation Road

After leaving the Ben & Jerry's Factory , we stopped at the Cabot Farmer's Store in Waterbury, Vermont . It's just a short drive down the road from Ben & Jerry's. The Cabot Farmer's Store was a great stop! They have a large selection of products including shirts, hats, miscellaneous kitchen items, a freezer section with all kinds of dairy products, jellies and other canned/jarred foods. The best part was a large table filled with all different kinds of Cabot cheeses. It was delicious! There were a whole bunch of kinds I had never heard of and that aren't available in New York. They also sell very nice reusable bags and insulated bags, which comes with a frozen ice pack. If you are traveling and don't have a cooler, buy one of the insulated bags, so you can buy cheese! The reusable bags are $1.00 and the insulated bags are $7.95. My son got a cute little Cabot logo mini cow used for stress relief. I also bought a shirt with the design in the shape ...

A must do on a trip to Burlington, VT is to head over to Waterbury and tour the Ben & Jerry's factory . It's only about 30 minutes east of Burlington. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and each tour leaves about every half hour. We had some time to kill before our tour left, so we visited the gift shop and bought some Ben & Jerry's t-shirts and a water bottle. Burlington didn't seem to have a good souvenir shop, other than the Vermont Gift Barn, so we made sure to get a few things here. The tour starts off with a little video about the history of Ben & Jerry's. After that the tour takes you to a room which overlooks the processing area. No pictures can be taken here. It was cool to see the large equipment and conveyor belts filled with pints of ice cream. The tour ended with a free sample. Everyone gets the same sample and is whatever they choose for that day. We had sweet cookies and cream, which I couldn't eat since I'm gluten free. They did o...

On a recent vacation to Burlington, Vermont, we stayed at the Best Western Windjammer hotel . This was the first time we stayed there, and it turned out to be a great choice! The room had two double beds, bathroom, closet, flat screen tv, coffee maker, small table with two chairs, dresser, refrigerator and microwave. The refrigerator and microwave were stored inside a large closet inside the dresser. There were usb and extra plugs for charging electronic devices. The room seemed pretty clean. The bathroom had a tub/shower combo. The soap, shampoo and body lotion samples were natural and chemical free, which was a nice change from the usual chemical filled toiletries at other hotels. The brand was Pharmacopia . A full, free breakfast was included. It consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage patties, mini cinnamon rolls, muffins, Chobani yogurt, toast and bagels, cold cereal, make your own waffles, apples/oranges/bananas, black tea (no green tea), coffee, juice, milk and water. It d...

Burlington, Vermont is a pretty popular place for outdoor activities like biking, sailing, hiking and skiing. A fun indoor activity is the Echo Aquarium and Science Center. It is located at the end of College St. down near the shore of Lake Champlain. There are quite a few exhibits with fish, frogs, snakes, an eel and turtles. There is a hands on earth science exhibit area that's good for younger kids. There's also a play area for kids 6 and younger. There is currently a special exhibit feature 50 States Trivia. Each state has an interactive exhibit with fun facts about the state. Be sure to grab a U.S. map at the start of the exhibit to color in the states you have traveled to. On the second floor of the museum is an outdoor area that overlooks the lake. It's a great spot for photos. There are a few short videos that talk about Lake Champlain. One of which talks about Champ, the prehistoric dinosaur that is said to still live in Lake Champlain. It's a pretty...

New York has wine and craft beer trails in order to promote local products and tourism. The July issue of the Mohawk Valley Living magazine has an article about the latest New York tourism trail, the Central New York Cheese Trail . It features 9 local farms who make and sell cheese products. The farms each have their own hours of operation where people can stop by and watch the cheese being made. They can also purchase the cheese products and other products sold by the farms, such as eggs and meat. Farms range from goat farms to cow farms to cheese factories. The farms who are participating include: Adirondack Cheese Co. 8190 State Rt 12 Ste 1, Barneveld 315-896-2170 Hours: M-F: 10am - 6pm, Sat: 10am - 5pm, Sun: 11am - 4pm Cooperstown Cheese Company 107 Oxbow Rd Route 28, Milford 978-257-4635 Hours: Memorial Day - Columbus Day, 11:30am - 5pm daily, closed Thursday Grassy Cow Dairy 9628 Prospect Rd, Remsen 315-831-3276 Hours: Daily dawn until dusk Jewett's Cheese ...

We recently took a day trip to the Museum of Science & Technology - MOST in Syracuse, New York. It's a really great museum! There is a lot to see. The museum hours are from 10 am to 5pm. We arrived around 11:30 am and left around 4:30 pm. The MOST is definitely on par with some of the museums in large cities. Parking is on the street or in a parking garage. We parked in a parking garage just up the street to the left when facing the museum. Once admitted, we explored the downstairs exhibits. We started off with matter and motion and science exhibits. There's a little indoor cave for kids to crawl through. A very nice gemstone exhibit. A bunch of interactive physics exhibits for kids. The apothecary is full of old home remedies. There's a chart on the wall which shows what herbs are remedies for which illnesses. A sign says the chart is available in the gift shop, but they didn't have it, so take a picture of it, just in case. The nano and space gallery was next ...