Vermont, here we are!!!

Hi  - this is McKenna and I will give you the "scoop" on our trip to Vermont.

~DAY 1 ~
1)  We went to a Cider Mill where we got to follow apples on the floor until we got to the place where we saw the cider mill, watched a video about how they make cider, and then got to taste apple cider and it was SO GOOD!  They had all kinds of apple products and we got to taste test a bunch of yummy things.

2)  We went to into Stowe, Vermont and walked around a little bit.  Stowe is known for skiing.  Quite a few people who were in the olympics train here or so my mom says.  We had lunch at a restaurant called "The Rusty Nail" and I ordered chicken fingers and we sat outside and it rained on us a little.  DELICIOUS!

3)  After lunch, we headed to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory which is where their ice cream making started.  We went on a very fun tour  - we saw a movie about Ben and Jerry - they were friends in college.  We went into the factory and saw where they make the ice cream, put the yummy chunks in it and give it flavors.  They wouldn't let us take any pictures because they said they were worried that we may be spies from Hagen Daas!  HAHAHAHA!  We also saw it put into containers with lids on top.  They were making "Americone Dream" that day and we got try it at the end of the tour.  It was good but it was your basic vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and chocolate covered waffle cone chunks...I don't like chocolate so it wasn't my favorite.  We went to actually get ice cream after that and I had the hardest time picking out of ice cream because most of them had chunks in them which I am not a big fan of and they had chocolate in them.  So I ordered rainbow sherbert..wah wah!  (Karie:  this tour was awesome and I would highly recommend it if you are ever in the area (thanks to K.Cherry for recommending it) and since I think Jimmy Fallon is the coolest, I ordered the ice cream made for him which has potato chips in it and Aaron ordered "Bonaroo Buzz" which also very yummy.)

4)  On our way back it started to rain pretty hard.  We kept noticing all of these police cars going by - at least 20 cars.  We never figured out where they were going.  We went back to the trailer and had dinner and played farkle...which is a really fun dice game.  I am really good at beating my dad!



~ DAY 2 ~

We discovered at our campground that there was a river right behind where our trailer was parked.  It was warm so we decided to go and explore it.  We decided to walk out to this rock and there was a little current so I grabbed onto a rock and my dad said it was ok to get wet and I was already a little wet so I got up on the rock and jumped in.  The water wasn't cold at all - it was actually warmer than the pool.  My mom was taking pictures because she was afraid of the water.  Just kidding Mom!    Then, dad went and got us blow up intertubes and we all floated down the river  - it was awesome...so fun! 

We then went up to Mt. Mansfield and went for a hike to the top.  It was stressful because I am a little scared of heights.  A lot of the hike was over rocks and the view was beautiful.  We met this man & woman from Brooklyn who were backpacking for a week and they told us about a couple things we should do in NYC.  They were really nice -- she was a teacher and told me about a really cool sounding playground that I will write about after I visit NYC.  We kept hiking and my mom and I decided to stop while my dad and sister kept going.  My mom and I heard an animal of some kind behind where we were sitting - I think it was a moose or something.  We also met a yellow lab named Piper and it made me miss Dawber.  When we got to the top, we could see a Lake, lots of trees & rocks, and a couple of little towns. 

~ DAY 3 ~

We were on a mission to find a swimming hole.  Not too far from our campground, we found one but to get there, we had to walk down this path that felt like you were walking thru the jungle.  We found a spot, had lunch on a rock, and found a little water slide where the water went in between two rocks that we named "Bad Man's Butt".  We jumped in our inner-tubes and floated down our new ride.  Again, my mom was very scared, crying, and she thought she would pop the inner-tube.  (Karie:  sad but true...I am humilated) While she as crossing the deep part, she was remembering what happened when she was 11 and she was white water rafting and the raft tipped over on top of her and she had to ride the rapids and almost died.  My aunt was also in the raft and she was screaming and my mom reached over to grab her and she grabbed my mom around the neck.  But she conquered her fear and rode the water with me.    We stayed there for a while and then went back to the campground and played in the pool.

~DAY 4~

We left on this day but on our way to Maine, we stopped at two places.  The first place was a sugarhouse where they make Maple Syrup.  We watched a video about how they make it and there are 4 kinds of syrup.  They can only get syrup out of trees in March and a little bit of April.  We got to taste test all of the kinds and it was so good.  TIP:  Always buy 100% Vermont Maple Syrup in the stores, it is the best.  They also had animals there and I went up to a really cute donkey and it decided to pee right in front of me.  They also had 3 little ponies that really like me.

We also went to a Cheese factory called Cabot and it smelled bad.  We saw how they made cheese and got to taste lots of different kinds and my favorite was horse radish.  We saw the curds and this guy was putting salt into the curds in this huge tray thing.  I learned that cheese is naturally white because milk is white.  Cheese that is orange is dyed orange.  TIP:  Buy white cheese becauce who wants to eat orange dye.  It still tastes good.

That is all from me!

Shout outs to Emmy & John, Jessi, Emma, Eden, Popo, Gummy, Anika, Mason & Kate, Katie A., Rachel, & Jess.

Love, McKenna

P.S.  From Vermont, we headed to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park.