Sticky Sweetness

Upstate New York is home to Adirondack State Park. It's the largest park preserve in the United States. 6 million acres. Larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and Great Smokey Mountains combined. With that being said, we only had time to explore a very small segment! We chose Lake George and spent our time relaxing on the shore. The town was quaint meets Gatlinburg. After a dinner out we walked around and looked at the quaint shops, not the 'beach souvenir' shops. You know the ones. Lake George is home to many mini golf joints. We just happened to park next to "Around the USA in 18 Holes". What a very fitting place for us to play!! We retraced our journey so far in a close game of putt putt! After Mindi pulling out the win, we had ice cream cones by the lake. Essentially, we spent a day at Myrtle Beach :)

The fastest way for us to get to where we wanted to go in Vermont was to take the ferry across Lake Champlain. So we put Pauley on her second car ferry of the trip and took off. Tom, our trusty guide, was very helpful in getting us there. "Turn right and then take the ferry." Thanks for the clarification, we wouldn't have been able to figure that one out! :)

Our plan for Vermont was to visit Ben & Jerry's and then move along. Vermont had other ideas. We got completely sucked into this lovely state! It was beautiful in the summer. I can imagine it looks just like the pictures we see of it in the fall. Trees ablaze with color. A visit in the fall is on the list. And spring? That's when they make the syrup. So that's another needed visit. We will return. 

The three busiest places in America are Yellowstone National Park, Niagara Falls, and Ben & Jerry's. The place was packed! After taking the tour, we are experts and will buy the product more often...because who doesn't need more Chunky Monkey in their life?! There are lots of activities to participate in as well. Make spin art? Sure!! Become Ben & Jerry? Of course!! Visit the flavor graveyard? So fun!! Eat ice cream? Obviously!! In the words of Jerry, "If it's not fun, why do it?" 

We ate a lot of cheese in Wisconsin. We were not going to eat anymore cheese for a long time. Then we came to Vermont. "Come to Vermont without trying our cheddar?!," they said. "It's the best," they said. So off to the cheese we went. This is what we found. Try a free sample? Don't mind if we do.

We are not ashamed to admit that we worked the whole table. A sample of each. I look over and Mindi has found another sample table. Some crackers and dips. We walked out of the place with cheese and dip mix. 

We hit up a cider mill next. Guess what? They had free samples. We worked our way through jams and jellies and washed it all down with cider. We walked out with some cider donuts. 

One can not visit Vermont without locating a sugar house. There is no maple syrup that comes close in comparison. We found one that still makes syrup the old fashioned way. Sadly it's not syrup making season so we couldn't see it happening. We got a tour, watched a video, and had free samples though. Fascinating!  I'm sure you've already assumed this but I'll tell you we have maple syrup in the backseat. 

They had hundreds of these sap buckets. A tree isn't tapped until it's around 40 years old. It takes about 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. 

We also came across several covered bridges as we made our way through the state. 

New Hampshire was a fly over state. We came in on the skinny end and were back out in a blink. We did see the White Mountains as we drove along. We also stopped for dinner and had a maple and bacon pizza. Pretty much a giant pancake with bacon on it. Pretty tasty! 

We are now on the east coast...where summer days leave you feeling sticky.