Ice Cream, Cheese, Chocolate and a Mountain

After abseiling down out of our somewhat elevated bed we make it down to the dining room. We had to sign up for a particular breakfast time slot last night as they cook everything fresh, so I guess they don't want too many people at once.  Some fruit and pancakes plus other assorted goodies later we set out for a tour.

First comes the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory Tour.  

It's half an hour long, quite interesting, and contains a lot of cow based jokes, but more importantly you have a tasting session at the end. This was called the AmeriCone Dream (vanilla, fudge covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl- very healthy! We were assured it counted as part of our 5-a-day!) and was very enjoyable. 

Part of their Mission Statement - makes sense!

Next stop was the Cheese store

A good while was spent sampling the wares as there were well over 20 different cheeses to try. They provided individual cocktail sticks to try little chunks.  Eric agreed that the Smoky Bacon one was lush.  Some seriously delicious cheese.

We gave the Distillery and Cider Factory tours a miss, not quite our thing, although we understand that you could taste cider flavoured donoughts (ugh), so we went to the chocolate factory instead. Not too photogenic in there and no free tasting but we could have bought some reject produce cheaply. However we spend more time in the adjoining craft jewellery display. We couldn't follow the connection but also couldn't resist a pair of earrings (oh no! Not another pair!)

To walk off the cheese we stopped in the rather pretty town of Stowe. There is a recreation path from behind the church that we follow for a little while.  

As you can see Eric is enjoying the sunshine again.

Several sculptures are scattered along the route, including a group of green ears.

Eric tries whispering into one of the ears - surprisingly you can hear it by listening in one of the other ears - a bit like the whispering gallery in St Paul's Cathedral, or those cup walkie talkie things we used to make as a child.

Here we meet a young couple and have fun whispering into various ears whilst listening at others.

He notices Eric having his photo taken and asks us why we are doing that. We explain that we take photos of him everywhere we go. It turns out that this chap is an artist and paints small stones, see next pic

He places them at random places around the country (and other countries depending on where he is on tour), geotagging them plus photographing them in situations similar to Eric's photo montages. So he takes a photo of Eric with a stone. If you want to see some of Bryan's stone pictures in situ, check out Doodlestones on Google. 

Returning to the car we take the advice picked up on the Ben and Jerry's webpage, and find our way to Stowe Mountain Resort, where there is a gondola to take us up the mountain.  Not only that, but the lady in the Tourist Information place had given us a 20 dollars off voucher.

This is the gondola run.

Eric nearly falls off his seat as we go past the first pylon.

There's a waterfall to see on the way up...

As well as the view back to the bottom

See those two wires in the foreground -

They are a zip line! 

Can I have a go on that?

Well OK then

Eric on a high

Never been this high back in Wales, it's 65 feet higher than Snowdon and we aren't even at the top yet.

You can just about see that the trees are starting to turn to their Autumn colours. Not quite enough to make a glorious block of colour yet.

The bear was surprised to see Eric so he hid behind the moose.

It's getting quite close to Halloween perhaps?

We are told that there is cliff walk that will take us to the top of the mountain. This is the start of it. It warns that this is the only route (both up and back) and that the last gondola back leaves at 4:30.

They want me to go up there? What do they think I am, a mountain goat?

Back on the mountain road we travel on up through Smuggler's Notch, a pass between Spruce Mountain and Mount Mansfield.  It is a very scenic route, with woodland and cliffs, with the two intermingled in places where large chunks of rock the size of a house had fallen of the cliff face and come to rest against the trees.

An interesting mural on the road back out of the mountains. 

Back in Burlington and another 'stroll' to the waterfront.  

This rather good looking (but rather dim) dog doesn't exactly spot where his owner throws a log and swims about 50 metres out into the harbour to a piece of drifting debris. Obviously an excellent swimmer but he should have gone to specsavers. 

Sundown

Does this look like a baby's face to you?

Is that a bear?

just to keep you bored some more sunset pics.

Walking back up the steepish streets we need a break along the flat a again.

The church at the end if the shopping street, and some views of the pedestrian precinct.

It was very busy. Burlington is a University Town, so lots of students, plus very touristy (although we haven't seen a cruise ship yet).

Down a side street there is a long mural called 'Everyone Loves a Parade' with a historical timeline of Burlington interspersed with various local or famous characters, including an Elvis impersonator. I wonder if he's been to the Porthcawl Elvis Festival. The sun has gone down by this time so the photo doesn't do it justice.

It's getting dark as we head back to the B&B and we pass through the the university section of the town with a number of halls of residence that have students engaged in various activities, and not all of an intellectual bent.

This last one seemed to deserve a picture as we assume it houses the mature students. 

Double Choc chip cookies are available with a cuppa before turning in for the night. 

On to Lake Champlain.

A good view from the balcony of our North Hatley B&B precedes a breakfast that sets us up for the day. We have company at the breakfast table, two couples from British Columbia. Turns out one of them has even been to Wales.  

We set a course for the US border with a degree of panic that the border guard may have a gotten out of bed the wrong side today. We have divested ourselves of the remaining trail mix (given to the landlady) so that we can answer the 'do you have any food you've bought in Canada' question at the US border with a 'no'.

The route takes us west towards Montreal before leaving the expressway at a roundabout, and roundabouts are pretty rare around these parts, especially those with a horse sculpture in the middle. 

Our path now heads south and we stop for a comfort break at Venise-en-Quebec, which doesn't seem to have any canals, but is alongside the Mississquio Bay, part of Lake Champlain that is in Canada. 

It's a pretty looking town. 

These were rows of small boutique shops that thankfully were all shut as it is out of season - probably saved us a fortune. 

The lake promenade, and Eric enjoying the view in the sunshine.

We can't delay any longer, we have to make it to the border, about 6 miles down the road. It is very quiet and we are the only car at the border as we pull up, to be greeted by a smiling young guard who asks all all the regular questions including why we chose this crossing point. He is satisfied with our reasoning of a quiet road in terms of traffic and a possibly interesting route through the Lake Champlain islands. He smiles again, more in bemusement this time, but does request that the boot is opened for him to perform a rather perfunctory search and then wishes us a good a day and safe journey. Just goes to show that US border guards are human too. Although he didn't stamp our passport darn it!

We are back in the US and our first stop is at a sign for a wildlife area that seems to sum up some Americans view of nature

Eric is relieved he won't have to dodge any spears or buckshot. 

Our first view is of a banded kingfisher hastily leaving the scene.

But only to be spotted keeping an eye on us from a suitable distance 

Mud Creek looks a little scruffy but we liked it. 

We carry on through the islands hoping to make few stops to look at the wildlife of the lake. Whilst it was an interesting drive disappointingly there were few stopping places as most of the waterfront is in private ownership and lots of keep off signs discourage loitering. 

We did manage a few stops, getting a good view of a turkey vulture.

And an interesting scene worthy of the Turner Prize at a 'closed for the season' national wildlife area.

Or it might just be that they have put the picnic tables away for the winter. 

Travelling on, another scene symptomatic of the private land ownership and lack of access to the lakeside. This man, sitting on an upturned bucket, was sitting on the bridge to Grand Isle fishing.  The pavement was very narrow and he looks a tad uncomfortable.

Although they did seem to be big on solar power. Perhaps we could install one of these at the top of the garden.

When we reach the nights stop Eric is concerned as the height of the sleeping quarters as it needs a set of steps to get in.  No time to worry about that now, time for a walk before dinner.

The path to the waterfront was downhill - we might need a rest before we make our way back.

Quite a few boats in the marina. The water looks a little choppy, probably the wind picking up.

The mountains in the background are the Adirondacks.

Eric finds some fish to play with

An interesting piece of pavement art that encroaches on to the roadway. 

After dinner, at the Skinny Crepe, we intersperse the steeper bits with some shop window gazing along the flat before the rise and thus graduating the haul back up the hill. 

Decide to watch some of the Trump-Clinton debate but not sure how long we can bear it...and we still have to negotiate those steps to get into bed...