Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont

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Okay, so if you look at a map, it's going to look silly that we skipped Boston. But, we're heading there after we do the final New England states so that we can see Jayme again after she went to Serbia for about 9 days. We only got to see her for a day in Connecticut before she left, and wanted to see her again, so that's the explanation. so, bypassing Boston and off to Maine! Nothing was really mapped out for us to see in Maine, so we drove through for a little bit, saw a lot of fresh seafood restaurants with pictures of lobster on them, and headed to New Hampshire.

Our only stop here was just North of Woodstock at a little tourist trap called Clark's Trading Post. Clark's has been holding a live black bear show every day for 58 years...so we had to stop and check it out. Now, it's a couple of gift shops, an old time photo stand, a "museum" of old cars, a train ride, and a couple of silly "rides". While we waited for the bear show we took the train ride, which goes up into the White Mountains powered by a wood-fueled locomotive. On the ride you get "attacked" by Wolfman, a mountain man who's mad that we're trespassingnear his mine. He has a bunch of old fashioned bombs set to go off and a pop-gun he threatens you with...and then you head back to the trading post. The ebar show was pretty cool because it's still run by the Clark family...the original bear trainer, the current three bear trainers' dad, even sat and watched the show. The bears were adorable and definitely had their own personalities, and did all kinds of cute little tricks. It was a fun show, and even better because the original bears were once rescued from traps, and the current bears are their offspring. Neat!

Off to vermont, where we stopped first at the Ben and Jerry's factory for the tour. We got to see how the ice cream is made, find out the story of Ben and Jerry themselves, and taste a couple of samples. They even have a graveyard where all of their retired flavors, like peanut butter & jelly, are laid to rest. Cute! Then it was off to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, where we learned how all of the teddy bears are made, and even got to see the teddy bear hospital. The bears have a lifetime guarantee, so if anything ever happens to them, be it a dog or a fire, they will either be fixed or replaced. Awwww.... Paul bought a bear that, with its purchase, two more are donated to rescue workers like firefighters and disaster relief workers, so that they can be given to child victims of disasters or tragedies. Danielle chose to make her own bear, having it stuffed and sewn and given a birth certifiacte right before our very eyes. Double Cute!!

Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing and wandering around Church Street in Burlington. Church Street is a little shopping and restaurant street that doesn't allow cars, right smack downtown in the little city that is Burlington. It was really, really nice. 😊

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