Hiking, Shelburne Farms, Bermont Teddy Bear and Ben & Jerrys

 Hiking - we headed over to Shelburne Park to hike the Clark Trail which was rated as easy - NOT. It started off gravel, then rose at a steep incline over roots and rocks, and mud, of course. I was not a happy hiker! At the end, the trail loops to the left where there is a bike path - hard packed mud.. Thank goodness!

As we were driving, we noticed a sign for Shelburne Farms in front of what looked like a very nice farm open to tourists. It was a picture-perfect 1400 acre farm. We loaded up onto the tractor with all of Shelburne’s preschool population and headed out into tje property. We passed through lush, green fields dotted with sheep and cows, wildflowers and wooden fences. We arrived at tje barn which was massive - 5 stories high, the biggest barn I’ve ever seen. It could easily be used as Santa’s workshop and even had that look. There were interactional areas for the guests - cow milking, chicken/goat viewing, bakery, cheese room, educational games. Darn preschoolers wouldn’t let me have a turn at milking the cow. Darn. We listened to a cheesemaker explain the process and ended up buying aged cheese.

After a rest in the trailer, we headed to the Vermont Teddy Bear factory. Fun seeing how they are made and also seeing the ‘hospital.’ I bought an imperfect ‘Honey’ bear. I couldn’t find any flaws and neither could the cashier. Honey seems to be at home in the trailer. 😊

After all of that fun, the real highlight of the day was visiting Ben & Jerry’s. We took a tour and learned SO much. *Employees take home 3 pints every day they work. *Full-time employees get a gym membership. *There is a job ‘flavorist’ that tries different flavors. *Their first site was a garage and they started with vanilla. *They took a correspondence course to learn business. *On the property is a flavor graveyard. *The company is involved with a lot of social causes. I got the impression that the employees liked working there - I think I would!

Cape Ann Whale Watch

 We packed up our stuff, where is the trailers and headed down to the boat house. We were surprised to see that Thacher I was already there. The fog was extremely thick and the height was very low so cactuses decided to come over early, but somehow we all missed that email. No problem they had just lowered so we started up the winch and pulled them up. The ramp we took some time as the new lighthouse keepers became acclimated to the island was also bitter, sweet as we had to say goodbye to several friends that had come over on the boat. But we never be back next year Seth, Christy, and Mike, where are boat crew. It was unbelievable how foggy it was and we could not see probably more than 20 to 30 feet in front of us at one point like joked that we were going to Nova Scotia, and it was almost believable, we did make it into the harbor and found granite pier, which was not as foggy. Lowell took Scotty back to his truck. Scotty came back for us and we loaded everything up. 

We headed to the trailer and unloaded our tubs and believe it or not headed over to Brothers coffee for one more taste of their delicious donuts we walked around Rockport before we headed over to Gloucester for lunch and an Italian deli, yes we got off the island and started eating immediately. The Cape and will watch was once again a fun adventure. It was foggy on the way out but once we got out to see it to clear some and we managed to see if you whales mostly we watched a mother named Bali and her baby. We then drove to the west side of Boston to a Holiday Inn and check into our suite and guess what we once again headed out to eat, this time at a restaurant called Not Your Average Joes. It was just the best thing ever having the boys with us for a few days on the island, and we truly enjoyed our last supper together.

Mt Washington Cog Railway

 After dropping off the boys at the airport, we headed up into New Hampshire. We went straight to Mount Washington, so that week ordered the car grill way. We realized it would be raining tomorrow so this afternoon was our best shot. It was an absolutely amazing ride gorgeous views at the top, the conductor of our train said it was one of the best days he has seen in a long time. At one point the incline of the railway was about 34% we were allowed to stand at the front of the train, looking out the door, and it was funny to see how people looked as though they were forward when in fact they were Street, and the train is slanted.  when we got to the top, the temperature was 49 degrees and the wind gust got up to 47 mph. The pictures show what a beautiful day we had. I would highly recommend this ride to anybody.