Northeast Vacation - Day 3

And...day 3 of vacation!  This is actually a combination of day 3 and 4, because most of day 3 turned out to be driving. 

Anyway, we woke up on the third day to beautiful weather at Pemaquid Point.  We decided it would be a glorious day to go sea kayaking! 

We rented a double kayak for 2 hours.  The sun was beaming down on us the whole time, and it felt so great.  As time passed, we really did get the hang of it.  Our strokes became more fluid, and we began to understand just how much to compensate left/right to guide the kayak.  It was a lot of fun!

On the way to Vermont, we stopped at yet another diner...diners are a personal favorite for both of us.  This one is called Moody's Diner.  It is famous for its blueberry pancakes!  They were tasty.

After 4 hours of driving and settling in at our B&B in the small town of Fairlee, VT that night, we fast forward to day 4. (Fairlee is a very small town.  We crashed the town party at the local tavern that night, but that was about it). 

Day 4 was one of my favorite days.  We woke up early to drive out to the famous Sugarbush Farm in Vermont.

Sugarbush Farm is a maple syrup farm that gives free tours of their farm.  They allow you to walk around the property to learn and see how they tap the maple trees. You can also tour the sugarhouse where they make the syrup.  Last but not least, they do free cheese and jam tasting!  

I absolutely loved this tour.  It was so fun.  In the olden days, they used to tap the tree by cutting a hole, and hanging metal buckets to catch the sap.  These buckets had to be emptied every single day, from thousands and thousands of trees! 

Nowdays, they set up an entire pipe system so that the sap runs downhill through these tiny blue pipes to several huge, main buckets.  This saves a lot of time, energy, work, etc. for the farmers. 

Fun Facts:

     *It takes 50 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup. (No wonder its expensive...)

     *Sap looks exactly like water when it comes of a tree.  It is clear and runny.

     *1 tree will produce about 1 gallon of sap per day.

     *You can only tap the tree once per year, depending on the age of the tree.

     *If done correctly, tapping does not hurt the tree.  It is akin to donating blood.

At the farm.

This is a simulation of what it would be like, in the olden days, to carry back the gallons of collected sap through the snow in wintertime (sap harvesting season is during the months of February to March).  Those buckets are filled with rocks, approximately the weight of the sap that would have been collected. 

Cheese tasting!  I tasted extra, extra, extra sharp cheddar...aged 8 years!

After Sugarbush Farm, we drove just a ways north to Sharon, VT.  This is the birthplace of Joseph Smith!  It was awesome to take a tour of the the visitors center.  We learned so much about Joseph's parents and family.

Next, we headed even further north to the Ben & Jerry's factory!  This was also a favorite stop of mine, of course.  Anything that involves free ice cream tasters is worth the drive. 

As it turns out, Ben & Jerry's is awesome.  They only buy milk from local Vermont farmers who have pledged to raise their cows with no unnatural growth hormones.  Also, B&J's only buys their other ingredients from fair trade vendors.  Their factory is full of fun, energetic, wacky people.  It reminded me of a mix between a theme park and Willy Wonka.

Haha, my face is just beaming in this picture!

Free tasters!

After B&J's, we drove to our last stop:  The White Mountains of New Hampshire!  We stayed in the Lavender Room of the Red Sleigh Inn.  It was awesome.  The breakfast the next morning was absolutely fantastic as well.  I love bed and breakfasts, they are so fantastically cute and creative.

Unfortunately, our fourth day was the Saturday just before Hurricane Irene was supposed to hit.  Threats of bad weather loomed in the air.  We had planned on running through some cool trails in the mountains, but there were warning signs all of over the trails.  Everything was technically closed due to the hurricane, although nobody was there to stop us from hiking.  I was a bit nervous, so we only hiked for about 20 minutes before turning back.

Pretty trees.

The northeast has tons of amazing things to explore!  It was so fun!  I can't wait to see what our next vacation has in store.