Vermont and New Hampshire

Welcome to the 3rd part of my East Coast excursion with my parents.  The day dawned overcast and gloomy.  First order of business was to find a post office.  My mom had already amassed enough items that a priority size box 7 (that is 12 x 12 x 8) was necessary to mail her acquisitions home.  The Miller Street Post Office in Plattsburgh, NY was easy to find and not very busy.  

That task accomplished it was time to head toward a cousin's house near Georgia, Vermont.  My mom wanted to drive up to Rouses Point and then take 2 south along a chain of islands and causeways across Lake Champlain.  I saw a car ferry on the map and checked prices.  It was very reasonable and would cut out hours of driving.  We decided to opt for the Cumberland-Grand Isle Ferry.  

Not as large as the ferries in Puget Sound but still quite a few cars can fit.  

Bobbin and Grandma enjoying the ride. 

Some people got out.  We were next to the rail so that wasn't happening.  Also it is only a 20 minute ride.  

Lake Champlain is one of the largest natural lakes in the contiguous United States ranking around 9th place?  

  We landed in Grand Isle, VT and wound our way toward the causeway to mainland Vermont.  On 2 East in the middle of the "sand bar" was a historical marker. There was a historical marker which we stopped to read.  I found more information here.  Lake Champlain Sandbar.

We wound through hills, woods, farms, on dirt and gravel road until we finally arrived at our cousin's home.  

It isn't a large home, but it is fabulous.   All the wood for the home came from trees which were cut on his property, milled, and kiln dried by a local Amish man.  The lower level is a 2 car garage/shop area with a laundry room, and storage, but up the stairs is a beautiful 1 bedroom home with a gourmet kitchen, granite counter tops, hardwood floors (wood from the property), custom cabinets (again built from wood logged, milled, and kiln dried from the property), and gorgeous mission style furniture (logged, milled, and kiln dried from the property).  

The mill that he mills the wood, up the hill is a sugar shack where he collects and boils the maple sap into maple syrup and boy is it wonderful.  This area of Vermont barely has any topsoil at most 4 inches and so there is a lot of what they call ledge rock.

Bobbin liked it because it was toasty warm, fairly flat, and easy to climb so she could lay on it and watch the chipmunks run.

This is a picture of a bridge he built over a small stream on the property to get to the sugar shack.  I was invited to stay with him during the sap run.  His syrup has won awards, man there is a whole science and art to making maple syrup. *Hint* I learned recently if you have syrup if you warm it in the microwave it actually gets thinner, but it goes further and sinks into the pancake, waffle, or french toast better.

We headed out to the only place we could find for the night which was the KOA at Lake Bomoseen near Castleton.  It was a long drive, but it was pretty country, we drove by The Shelburne Museum, I wish it had been earlier in the day I would have loved to stop.  Lots of cows, corn, through Middlebury, what a beautiful town, and finally arrived at our cabin. Oh and as to Lake Bomoseen, it was fairly unremarkable.  Lots of lily pads, and swampy looking areas in the area where we were.  

The next morning we were headed toward New Hampshire and maybe even Maine.  Our first stop because we could not locate a rest area was at Coolidge State Park.  What was so neat about the park is that many of the campsites had a gorgeous view, but also they all had leantos.

After leaving the park we stopped at Bridgewater Country Store and picked up some bread, meat, and cheese for lunch.  The on we went and stopped at Woodstock Farmer's Market for some tomatoes, and I had to get some of their freshly baked cookies.  Man the place was packed.  I kept looking for interesting places to stop and I thin Quechee Gorge fit the bill.  Quechee Gorge is known as Vermont's Little Grand Canyon.

 Way up near the top as far as your eye can see there were people up there hiking along the river.

We got back on the road and made it to New Hampshire.  We twisted and turned, I allowed my mom to navigate.  Somehow we went past Dartmouth where a cousin from California attends school, through Center Harbor and past Keepsake Quilting, no I did not stop, it was a wee bit busy in that tourist town.  Somehow we ended up going through a town called Rumsford Falls and I had to stop to take some pictures.

 Where the falls once were is a dam. 

 But still there is a pretty set of rock ledges that the water tumbles over.

 Imagine my excitement when I read the sign and there was a reference to the area being a campsite for the Abenaki Indian to fish. 

There was actually what they called a diorama erected to pay homage to their culture.  On we drove into Maine, and to our hotel in Augusta for the night.