July 26-28: Grand Isle, Lake Champlain, Vermont

Day 1:

This drive was our favorite of the trip so far. Rivers and lakes everywhere.  We had the White Mountains National park all around us for most of the drive through New Hampshire and the Green Mountains surrounding us in Vermont. We stopped close to Cabot, VT and grabbed some cheese.  They are famous for it.  The small towns are all along rivers. One of the nicer towns with an amazing view was Jefferson, VT.  Vermont is known for their covered bridges, but we did not see any. The towns seemed like fake postcard towns, they were so quaint and tucked into the hills. Some were not so nice.  Anybody ever heard of Mexico, Vermont? Just outside the capitol of Vermont (side fun fact:  Did you know Montepelier is the smallest stay capitol - only 8,000 people...that is like Seminole!... and the only capitol city to not have a McDonalds?) we stopped at Morse Farms.  They are a maple farm with a sugar shack.  We walked around a little and saw how they tapped the maple trees. Then, we sampled some of their syrup. Sooo good.  We bought some to take home with us.  Our favorite was Grade A Medium Amber. We drove through Montepelier, VT. The capitol. It was a really cool town.  We stopped off in Burlington, VT for dinner. Another great little town. This is where Vermont University and a few other schools are. Leon stayed in the car a napped a little.  We went to the Farmhouse for some burgers and local beer.  The burgers were exactly what we needed after all that lobster.  We let Leon run around in the park in the center of town before we  went to the campsite.  We made it around 10:45 or so.  This park closes at 8 pm. They would not make an exception. We had to park our car at the gate, carry all of our stuff to the site, and set up in the dark.  We brought only what we needed for the night and hit the hay. 

Day 2: 

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory is only about 45 mins away from our campsite, so we got up around 8:30 am.  We first had to take a walk down to the water and see Lake Champlain. It is big, full of islands, and so pretty.  

We hit the road for the factory excited to have ice cream for breakfast.  The factory was really neat, but the tour guide was a bust.  We got some free samples and bought some cones. Jess got late night snack and lane got banana flavored greek yogurt with peanut butter swirls.  We finished our cones and headed back to the island. We packed a bag and headed for the beach as soon as we got back.  The three of us sat in the shade and  cooled off in the lake.  For dinner Jess cooked burgers with local vermont cheese and potatoes with the same cheese and some local VT bacon. We also munched on some blueberry salsa that we had picked up in Maine.  Lane made us campfire banana splits.  Cut the banana lengthwise, stuff with chocolate and marshmallows, wrap in foil, set in fire so it all melts and enjoy!  We relaxed for the rest of the night, reading our books in the tent. 

Day 3: 

We had another pretty sizable ride ahead of us for the day so, again we started early.  We had not unpacked much at this site due to having unloaded from the parking lot.  Getting an early start was no problem. On the other side of the lake we hit New York state again.  Lake Champlain is covers 2 states and 2 countries.  New York, Vermont, and Canada.  We went through mostly run down towns as we made our way towards Canada.  We got some McDonald’s to hold us over until we got over the border.