Onward to Burlington, Vermont

After the excitement of the Snowflake Bentley Museum, we continued our journey to Burlington and the surrounding communities.  We checked into the Quality Inn on Shelburne Road in Shelburne (or South Burlington - I'm not sure how close we were to the town line).  The room was big and so was the indoor pool.  My son is always excited to swim in indoor pools even when the temperatures aren't as comfortable as my wife and I would like.  While we were in the pool about 4 or 5 kids stared playing "Marco Polo."  I'm not sure who invented this game, but I can tell you that is wasn't an adult.  One kid closes his eyes and yells "Marco" while all the rest yell "Polo" and try to elude the one with closed eyes.  This is one of the loudest and spalshiest games one could play in a pool.  And when you're in the pool trying to have some quiet family time it seems like it was easier for Marco Polo to find China then for the kid in the pool to find the others; and I'm sure traveling through Asia in the late twelve hundreds was much quieter than the echoy pool room.

The next morning we headed for The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory for the tour.  The factory wasn't running, but the tour was still interesting.  A stop in the gift show afterwards netted my son a black and white bear that looked like a cow.  As with all of their bears, he was packed in a box with air holes and given a piece of chocolate so he wouldn't go hungry.  They also told us to work the arms, legs and head to keep him loose and that we should do that everyday.

We left the factory and my son took their advice, spinning the arms, legs and head as suggested.  About a half hour after leaving the factory, we were eating lunch in our hotel room, making plans to head up to the Maple Festival  parade in St. Albans when the tragedy occurred...the bear's head popped off as we spun it.  As you might imagine, our plans to attend the Maple Festival parade suddenly became a low priority as my son insisted on going immediately back to the factory for a replacement bear.  At the factory they were pretty surprised that the head had popped off, as was I.  After all, I just laid out nearly 65 bucks for the bear and wasn't expecting a headless horseman themed bear at that price.  The customer service reps were very nice and replaced the bear at no charge.  My wife even convinced them to give us another piece of chocolate for the "pain and suffering" we'd experienced and they obliged.

That afternoon, we headed out to Shelburne Farms which is a beautiful estate on the shores of Lake Champlain.  Around the turn of the Century (1900), Shelburne Farms was a 3,500-acre agricultural estate owned by Dr. William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb.  The estate includes an huge barn which is bigger than many hotels I've stayed in and a beautiful mansion overlooking the lake.  Today it has about 1,400 acres and is run as a non-profit organization.  In the barn they house animals, make cheese and there's a bakery.  When paying admission to get in, be sure to try the free samples of the cheese.  If you like cheddar, you won't be disappointed.

And of course the friendly neighborhood farm animals are as curious about us as we are of them.

One final note, if you have the opportunity to visit Shelburne Farms when the Vermont Symphony is playing, I'd highly recommend it.  Be sure to bring your picnic basket, wine, maybe crackers and Shelburne Farms cheese and a blanket or chairs.  The setting is stunning.  The Vermont Symphony is wonderful and it could well be the highlight of your day.

Another stop that day was the Burton Factory Store on Industrial Parkway in Burlington.  Outdoor winter sports enthusiasts will enjoy the selection of snowboarding and skiing apparel, and might find the old snowboards hanging on the walls interesting.  

We also stopped by the Church Street Marketplace including the Frog Hollow store and Sweet Thing, a penny candy store (or perhaps more like a quarter candy store these days) where we filled up on the stuff that should keep our dentist in business for awhile.