A day in Burlington

We spent two nights of our trip in Burlington, Vermont.  This was a welcome reprieve as the last four nights had been a new place each night.  We stayed in South Burlington as it had been hard to find a reasonably priced hotel closer to the downtown area.  And that’s not saying that the South Burlington area was much better price-wise, but we did get a room with a separate living room and kitchenette which worked out well for us as we had dinner in the room both nights we were there.

We also discovered that the leaves were just beginning to change while we were there.

So we had one full day to explore Burlington, and there were several things we wanted to do.  In a pre-trip blog entry, I wrote about having to rearrange our schedule because the trolley tour was sold out for the morning.

We started the day by going to the Ethan Allen Homestead and Museum just north of Burlington.  They have a film about the area and about Ethan Allen and his time in the Burlington area.  Then there is a guided tour of the property and inside the house.  The house was built in 1787, and there are parts of the house that are original in spite of having been owned and occupied by others for many years.

We had learned about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys contribution to battles at Fort Ticonderoga.   What we found out later was that Ethan Allen ended up a prisoner of war and was sent across the pond for over 900 days during the American Revolution.  What I also found out was that he had absolutely nothing to do with Ethan Allen furniture.  This was a great disappointment to me for the day because I really had no idea that he wasn’t a great furniture maker.  I didn’t know anything about him, really, until we made this trip.  (You can read about the furniture company here.)

There was a small statue of Ethan Allen at the museum, but they told us there aren’t any pictures or portraits of him, so it’s just a guess at what he would have looked like,  There is the same statue only not green at the Vermont State Capitol which we saw the next day.

Our second activity of the day was a tour on Lake Champlain on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III.  Before that, I had researched and found a recommended restaurant for lunch in the Church Street area of Burlington.  So we found parking in a garage, figured out how to pay in the app, and then went to the restaurant, only to find it was closed for the lunch period.  I had even double-checked hours online the night before and there was no indication that it would not be open.  So we sat on a bench to try to figure out where to eat lunch and watched a few other people also discover that they couldn’t have lunch at the restaurant.

This actually turned out to be a good thing because we ended up at Henry’s Diner which has been in business for over 101 years.  It was so cute in the traditional diner way, and the best part was that they could make me a gluten-free grilled cheese – and not just any grilled cheese, they used Vermont cheddar!  I mean, how much better could it get than to have a perfectly cooked grilled cheese in Vermont with Vermont cheddar?!  It may end up being my most favorite meal of the trip!  (They have a section of the grill that they use for gluten-free cooking and have a process for cleaning it before using it to handle cross-contamination issues.)  DH had a BLT – also a diner classic.

We were about 30 minutes early for the boat ride, so we enjoyed sitting at the waterfront.  The temperature was cool, but not cold.  We kept commenting on how great it felt!  Then before we boarded, I saw that the waterfront restaurant had creemees.  These are Vermont’s version of soft-serve, so I got us each a maple and vanilla swirl creemee.  Just in case we didn’t get a chance to get one before we left Vermont the next day.  It was really good – but we had a better one outside Montpelier the next day.

A friend had been to Burlington a few times for work-related conferences, and he had been out on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III for a dinner cruise.  He suggested we might enjoy taking the ride out onto the lake and learning about the area.  It was a good suggestion.  We spent about 90 minutes on the water while there was pre-recorded narration (think like the pre-recorded narration on the riverboat ride at Walt Disney World).  It was informative and entertaining.  We learned that the lake freezes over and you’re allowed to drive your car onto the lake.  We also learned that your auto insurance doesn’t cover you on the lake, and if your car falls through, you have 24 hours to get it removed or you can lose your license.  We also learned that there is a lake monster named Champ who lives in the lake, similar to his cousin Nessie.

The night before, I had gotten a call from the trolley operator to see if we would be able to come a little early for the tour because they were going to need to cut the tour short due to an overlaying booking.  We told them we could be 15 minutes early because we were getting off the boat tour at 3:30.  The trolley was supposed to be an hour-long tour of the city, but instead it ended up being 30 minutes and we missed about half of what we were supposed to see.  And it turned out the reason it had been cut short was that one couple on the tour had requested that they be back in time so they could get on the dinner cruise on the boat.  The tour operator offered for people to come back the next day but of course that didn’t work for us.  I wasn’t happy about it, but by that point in the day, I was pretty done with Burlington anyway.

We retrieved our car and headed to our next stop for the day – the Lake Champlain Chocolate’s flagship store.  This stop on our itinerary was not a bust!  It was everything we hoped for – lots of chocolates to select from!  DH got some salted caramel chocolate covered pretzel clusters that were BOGO, so he’s been alternating those with the Vermont blueberry pie.

From the chocolate store, I wanted to go see the World’s Tallest Filing Cabinet – something I had read about on Atlas Obscura.  DH wasn’t crazy about it, but I told him it was like the giant ball of twine and that we should go by and gawk like every good tourist should do.  Unfortunately, the traffic wasn’t cooperative as it was backed up a couple of blocks from the location, so we just stopped for gas ($4.46/gal) and went back to the hotel for the night.

So that was our day in Burlington.  When DH asked me what was my best for the day, my answer was Henry’s Diner.

Up next: Did we ever get to see the filing cabinet?

~ Cindy D.

50, baby!

The afternoon of the day we visited Fort Ticonderoga was a big day for us – because when we left from the Fort, we boarded the Fort Ti Ferry for an 8-minute crossing of Lake Champlain from New York to Vermont.  Vermont was DH’s 49th state, but for me, it was number 5-0!  That’s right, folks!  I achieved my goal of visiting all 50 states!   And entering Vermont by ferry just made it even more special.  We were the only ones on the ferry, and Captain Jack was so fun to celebrate with.  He pointed out where we would find the Vermont state line sign just after off-loading from the ferry.  It was a bit overgrown, but we stopped to get the picture of the sign anyway!

Captain Jack recommended that we stop at a nearby country grocery store and get a fresh homemade pie, so we did (blueberry).  DH has been eating on it for nearly a week now.  I can’t have any because of my celiac, but he’s been enjoying it.

We celebrated next by stopping in Vergennes, Vermont, for ice cream at lu∙lu ice cream shop.  This is a farm-to-scoop small batch ice cream store in Vermont’s oldest town.  They have a variety of flavors including Garden Basil which sounds weird as an ice cream flavor but was remarkably refreshing.  I also had another flavor called The Walking Dead; it had raspberries and chocolate and vanilla and marshmallows.  DH got the seriously chocolate, and it was seriously chocolate!  We had Vergennes on our itinerary because my hair stylist mentioned it to me several months ago.

From Vergennes, our next stop was the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory where we were in time for a tour.  It was really informative and so interesting to see the history and evolution of these well-loved bears and their friends as well as how they are carefully constructed and made by hand.  We got to watch several parts of the process as people were working.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing the Bear Hospital where Vermont Teddys that have had unfortunate mishaps are stitched up and repaired (or replaced, but usually with the original much-loved stuffing).  There is just one woman who does the Bear Hospital work and she’s been doing it for a long time – she took over after another lady retired.  The Vermont Teddy Bear company began in 1964.

Our last stop of the day before getting to the hotel was Shelburne Farms.  It had started raining before we got to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and had not let up when we were ready to go to the farm.  But really we were just interested in going to the Farm Store to buy some Vermont cheese and syrup.  So weather didn’t really matter!  We bought both cheese and syrup.  The cheese has been so good!  We had read before traveling that Shelburne Farms was a great place in the Burlington area to get both cheese and syrup.

It was still raining when we checked into our hotel in South Burlington, so we decided to just have cheese for dinner.  Okay, we had a few other things from the cooler with it, but the cheese was the highlight!  A nice 6-month aged Vermont cheddar.  We also bought a year-old one for later.  (And on another day in another place, we bought private-label 16 year aged cheese, but that’s for another blog post.)

Up next:  We spent two nights in Burlington, with a full day’s agenda for the next day.

~ Cindy D.

Another Fort, and the King's Garden

After spending a day at the Saratoga battlefield, our next history stop was at Fort Ticonderoga in New York.  While not part of the National Park Service, the friends of Fort Ticonderoga have done an excellent job in preserving and re-telling the history of life at the fort over time.  Because this is the nation’s 250th anniversary year, they have set and staffed the fort to be set in 1776.  The fort has many artifacts in its museum and they change them out based on what time period is being portrayed.  It reminded us of our visit to Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, Michigan, on our Middle States tour.

We arrived shortly after the site opened so we’d have time to get our bearings before the 10:15 orientation talk.  We find these talks are helpful in setting the stage for what we are about to observe, sometimes even helping us to immerse ourselves in the time period.  We learned about the events that took place at Fort Ticonderoga involving Ethan Allen (whose homestead we would see the following day in Burlington) and Benedict Arnold (before he became a traitor).  We learned why the Fort was coveted by the British and the Americans, and we learned how it changed hands a few times during its heyday.

The museum collection is in the upper floors of the barracks buildings, and the most interesting things to me were the powder horns on display.  They were etched with names, poetry, and figures, personalizing each man’s powder horn.

If you’ve been to a fort before, you know one of the best parts is getting to walk around the top and take in the views.  Fort Ticonderoga doesn’t disappoint as you can see the southern portion of Lake Champlain as well as the Adirondacks of New York and the lush green mountains of Vermont.

Another part of the Fort Ticonderoga experience was a visit to the King’s Garden.  If you read my post the other day about Winterthur Gardens and my comment about needing to get over the fact that gardens doesn’t always mean flowers, well, the King’s Garden restored my faith in gardens!  This was truly spectacular.  The vibrant colors, the arrangements of the plants together, and the fragrance of the blooms – well, it was magical!  I walked around telling each flower how beautiful she was before taking so many pictures!

But wait?  What’s behind that brick wall?

When I walked through and saw even more flowers, I got so teary-eyed at the beauty of the place.  I also thought of my sister-in-law who recently passed away and her love of flowers, too, and how I wished I could send her the pictures.  I did send them to my mom and my kids.  And shared a few on Instagram!  Here are a few of my favorites!

In addition to the flowers, the garden also has herbs and vegetables that are used in the Fort’s restaurant in the spirit of farm-to-table.

Up next:  My 50^th State!

~ Cindy D.

Saratoga Springs, DVC or Saratoga Springs, NY

About 20 years ago, we bought into the Disney Vacation Club and our membership began with the DVC Saratoga Springs Resort.  At Saratoga Springs Resort, they have five areas:  the Springs, the Paddock, the Grandstands, Congress Park, and the Carousel.  We knew that the resort was themed after Saratoga Springs, New York, so when we planned this trip, we thought it would be fun to spend a night in the actual Saratoga Springs!

We also decided we would splurge and stay at the Embassy Suites in Saratoga Springs.  When we checked in, it felt luxurious and the suite was spacious, much like the DVC rooms.  And while there wasn’t a washer/dryer in our room, our suite was right near the laundry room for the hotel which made it convenient to get some laundry done!

The hotel was two blocks from the actual Congress Park, so we walked down to the visitor center and through the park to see where the inspiration for the Disney property came from.  At the visitor center, they give you a paper cup so you can try the water coming from four springs within the park.  While I opted to not try any, DH did.  One was really terrible - it reminded us of how at the Coca-Cola center at EPCOT, there's the Beverly flavor that is awful.  So it seemed kinda fitting.  We also saw the actual Carousel.  It was closed (open on weekends) but it’s in a glass enclosure so we could see it and take some photos.  Here are a few.

After walking around Congress Park, we went to a restaurant nearby that came highly recommended from the Gluten-Free Travel group on Facebook.  It was called Cantina and they served Mexican food.  This was the first Mexican food we’d had on our trip so far.

The Embassy Suites was our favorite hotel so far.  They offered the ability to stream SiriusXM through the television, so it was nice to listen to some music while writing blog entries, working on my smash-book, and sorting through the day’s pictures.  They have an evening reception so we got a couple of Diet Cokes and some snacks.  And the breakfast is the absolute best!

Next up:  Getting to my 50^th state!

~ Cindy D.

The Battle at Saratoga

One of the American Revolution sites we wanted to see on this trip was the battlefield at Saratoga.  So we planned the day to be a short driving day from Albany to Saratoga Springs so we could spend as much time as we wanted at the Saratoga National Historical Park.

But before we could go, we wanted to gas up as there would be a driving tour through the site.  We stopped in the little town of Halfmoon, NY, where we got gas for $4.09/gallon at the Valero station.  Gas prices are only going up from there.  Thankfully the car is getting 34-35 mpg most days.

So once we got to the Saratoga NHP, we checked in at the Visitor Center for an orientation film and an illuminated display of the troop movements of significance during the battle in October 1777.   They also have a cannon that was actually there in 1777 along with two cannon barrels that were surrendered at the end of the battle.  Seeing the actual cannon from 1777 was pretty amazing!  You may be able to zoom in on the photo with the description to read more about the cannon.

I got my passport stamped, and off we went on the driving tour.  The narration is through the NPS app or you can use your cell phone to dial into each stop.  We had used the app at the Guilford Courthouse several days ago in Greensboro, NC, so we thought we’d do that again.

The driving tour takes about 2 hours if you stop and listen at each point and also get out of the car to walk to see the wayside displays set up at each stop.  One of the stops, the Neilson’s Farm house, is usually staffed with a ranger who will give you a quick tour and talk to you about what happened there.  The farmhouse is where Benedict Arnold stayed during the battle.  The Neilsons had left the area when they learned the fighting was coming to the area.  When they returned later, they saw how much of their home and farm had been wrecked by the troops and battle that occurred on the land.

We were there the day after Labor Day.  We only saw a few other cars doing the drive, but the rangers at the Visitor Center told us that the cars were bumper-to-bumper on Labor Day. I’m glad we were there afterwards because we were able to take our time, always had a place to park or pull-over, and were able to really engage with the tour.  We took the time to feel the presence of the men who fought for our country nearly 250 years ago.  You know, when we started planning this trip and adding in a lot of American Revolution related things to our itinerary, it had not occurred to me that 2026 was the 250th anniversary for our country.  It just happened to work out that way.  And that's why there are things like the cannon on display as part of the 250th anniversary.

When we were at the Visitor Center, someone came in and asked at which stop on the tour would they be able to see the statue of Benedict Arnold’s foot.  That intrigued me, and we found it at the 7th stop.  It doesn’t have his name on it, and it’s a boot.  You can read about it here.

Here are a few photos from around the battlefield.

 Next up:  Checking out Saratoga Springs, Disney vs. New York.

~ Cindy D.

An afternoon at FDR's home in Hyde Park

Our original plan for Labor Day was to drive from Ewing, NJ, to the north side of Albany, NY on our way to Saratoga Springs.  It was to just be a driving day because we were expecting heavier traffic due to the holiday.  It was going to be pushing our limits for a full day of driving, so when I saw there was a national historic site along the way, we thought that would be a great way to break up the trip.  It was also a cooler 66 degrees when we left.

Hyde Park, New York, was the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He was born there in the same home he lived in as a child and then used as his home even while serving as the President of the United States.  He and his family just referred to the home and property as “the place.”

When we made our Middle States trip, we made a late addition to a long driving day through Kansas when we learned about President Eisenhower’s boyhood home and Presidential library and museum in Abilene, Kansas.  We spent some time there, but not nearly as much as we would have liked to be able to see the home and give the museum the attention it deserved.  So when we scheduled a stop to see FDR’s place, we made sure to time it so we could get there and be able to not feel rushed through.

We left the hotel early and arrived at the FDR home site just after noon.  Because DH is a national parks passholder, there was no charge for us for the tour, but we did have to pay $10 each (senior rate) to be able to go into the museum.  The museum tickets are good for two days.

We had time to watch the film they show in the visitor center before walking over to the stables where we would meet our ranger / tour guide for the house.  The house is absolutely beautiful!  It’s not extravagant like the Biltmore, nor has it been turned into a museum.  It is frozen in time.  The Roosevelts had agreed that when he finished his last term as President, they were going to donate their home to the nation’s people and go live in eastern New York.  Even though FDR died while still in office (April 21, 1945), his wife Eleanor continued with their plan, and their home was opened to the public for viewing a year to the day later.  The tour guide told us that there were 5,000 people who came on the first day to see the President’s home.

Here are a few pictures from the house that caught my eye.

This is the library / living room area of the house.

This is a portrait of FDR.

This is the view from the "back porch" which was really on the side of the house.

This is the side of the house with a beautiful screened-in porch.

This is from the front.  The middle part was original house; the two wings were added on later during FDR's lifetime.

This is the staircase inside. FDR had an elevator installed that allowed him to go upstairs after having been struck with polio.

We learned that FDR established the first Presidential Library.  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it’s nice that he started a grand tradition.  As we toured the museum, we saw artifacts and documents with his own handwriting on them.

As for the museum, the one thing DH wanted to see was FDR’s car.  And of course, it was nearly the last thing you come across in the museum.  They make you look at everything else, and when a man has served in four terms of presidency, well, you can imagine how many sections there were in the museum ahead of the car.

After we finished up at the house and museum, we headed up to Albany, NY for the night.  I had programmed us to get to the hotel but then we decided we wanted to go eat dinner first at the Chili’s I had found that was just a half mile from the hotel – or so we thought!  I had looked on the maps at home and targeted Chili’s for dinner because of its proximity to our hotel, and we had liked it when we recently took a trip to Texas and ate at one on the way.

When I got the restaurant added as a new stop along the way, the GPS sort of lost her mind and had us go through downtown Albany and through their broken streets.  It was not even near the route through Albany that she was taking us originally to the hotel.  But we finally got clear of things, saw the hotel, and went to eat.  The server was so helpful with my celiac, and we enjoyed a lovely meal.  When we got back to the car, the GPS wanted to continue us another 15 minutes to the hotel (which we just saw on the way to eat).  So I turned her off.  But as we were pulling into the hotel parking lot, it dawned on me that the address wasn’t right.  So yeah, apparently when I was studying maps, I had pulled up the wrong Holiday Inn Express on the map.

So we drove the extra 15 minutes to the one where we had made our reservation.  And there was barely anything at the hotel area (are you starting to see a theme?  There wasn’t anything around where we stayed the night before, either.)  Thankfully the rest of the evening went well and we had a good rest for the following day.

Up next: Another day, another battlefield.

~ Cindy D.

Valley Forge

The next day on our trip to the northeast was a Sunday.  We had spent the night in West Chester, Pennsylvania, so we were teed up for getting to church services in Exton, Pennsylvania, about 25 minutes away.

After church, we headed over to King of Prussia, PA, to get a quick lunch from Shake Shack, our first time eating there.  They have gluten-free buns so I got a burger for lunch.  We both liked the burgers okay, but we didn’t try a shake, so I guess that means we’ll need to go back another time.  The restaurant was just a few minutes from our (nearly) daily dose of the American Revolution – the Valley Forge visitor center and grounds.

The Valley Forge site offers guided trolley tours that take you around the property.  You can’t pre-purchase tickets, but you can call ahead the morning of the tour for a reservation.  Thankfully I had remembered to add that note to my planning document, so on the way to church services, I had called to schedule us for the 3 PM tour.  That would give us time to get to have lunch, get to the Visitor Center, watch the movie, and look around the exhibits before taking the tour.

I didn’t know a lot about Valley Forge until we recently watched the PBS documentary about the American Revolution.  Between that, the film at the Visitor Center, and the tour around the property, I began to realize just how important and significant the time spent at Valley Forge was for the Continental forces.  Even though many people died that winter from disease and injuries suffered before they settled at Valley Forge, the time there was a time for reassessment and regrouping.  And training!  This is where more formalized and standardized training was implemented among the regiments fighting for the colonies.  In fact, some of the procedures and concepts are still in the Army’s Blue Book today.

While on the trolley tour, we had two stops where we got off to look around.  One stop was where an interpreter ranger gave a musket firing demonstration.  I was so happy when I looked back at my pictures and found I had captured the moment when the shot was fired and there was smoke in the air.  We also saw small huts where a dozen soldiers would sleep in each hut.  These were smaller than the tiny houses that are popular these days.

Later in the tour we stopped to see Washington’s Headquarters.  The building is undergoing restoration / maintenance so we couldn’t go see it close up, but it does give perspective to how the encampment at Valley Forge might have worked.  When you look at how far it is from one place to another, it boggles my mind about how they communicated back then.  Messengers on foot or horseback still took time to get from place to place.

From Valley Forge, we headed over to Ewing, New Jersey for the night.  The GPS took us through the Delaware Water Gap but I didn’t realize we were going to go that way – I know later on in our trip we will be going through there (the other direction) and had made plans to stop at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center there.  It had looked a bit confusing on the map, so now that I’ve had a preview, it’s not quite so.

Our hotel for the night was out in the middle of nowhere, but considered itself an airport hotel.  Ewing is just outside Trenton, the capital of New Jersey.  We’d been to the capital city of Delaware the day before, and the next day we were going to be in Albany, the capital city of New York!  And after having spent the afternoon at Valley Forge, we were thankful to have a nice, comfortable hotel room for the night!

~ Cindy D.