Fall Foliage trip to Vermont & New Hampshire 2021
I’d been wanting to observe the fall foliage in New England for a couple of years. Last year with Covid 19 putting a stop to travel I had to postpone the trip but health restrictions eased up a bit this year. Melinda Avey, my house-mate’s sister, said she wanted to go too, so we planned this great adventure.
Our Delta flight to Burlington Vermont was on October 3rd at 10:45 am. Marlene drove us to the airport at 7:30, which was sweet of her because she usually gets up between 9:00 and 9:30. We had a 2 ½ hour lay over in Atlanta GA and we had a late lunch of really good BBQ there. We got to Burlington at 8:00 pm and picked up the rental car at Dollar Rental, what a misnomer; it used to be $10.00 a day and is now $100.00 a day! We drove from the airport to the Quality Inn in Colchester. The room was nice but not handicap-assessable. I could get around in it alright though.
On Monday, the 4th, we ate breakfast at the Inn then went out and got in the wrong car. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out why the car wouldn’t start before we realized we were in the wrong car! We had to laugh about it as we got out of it and into the right car. We then drove to Church Street Marketplace. It was a closed off few blocks with shops that didn’t allow cars. We couldn’t find a parking space close so Melinda dropped me off at the entrance and drove off to find a place to park. She ended up finding a spot a block away. The area ended up not being as neat as I expected. I thought there would be shops that were more early American type with things that were crafted there. We did a lot of walking so I got some exercise. We ate a good salmon lunch at the Burlington Bay Cafe while there. Got some good pictures of the area, with the Church at the end of the street.
Church at end of street
Melinda with statue on Church Street
We drove to Lake Champlain from the Church Street Marketplace for a lake cruise at 2:00. The lake and the area around it was beautiful with the fall foliage. The cruise had a good narrator that told us about the history of the lake including stories about the revolutionary war. The only problem was that there was a drunk woman sitting near us talking very loudly.
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After the cruise, this nice couple ran up the hill and got me a wheelchair which allowed us to walk (Melinda pushing me in the chair) over to the Echo Learning Center. It was a pretty big place with some interesting fish and some interesting geological information about the lake but I don’t think it was worth the $16 entrance fee. After leaving that place we decided to just grab a hamburger at Burger King on the way back to the Inn.
On Tuesday we did a lot of driving but it was nice to see the changing colors of the trees and we got some nice pictures. The first place we stopped was the Van Trapp Lodge, that was the family the movie ‘The Sound of Music’ was about, it was scenic but it was just a bunch of cabins to rent. We were expecting some pictures and memorabilia about their lives and their escape from Nazi Germany, so that was disappointing.
From there we had to stop at the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory, I mean how could we pass that up? We had to stand in line for 45 minutes but we got to try out some interesting flavors, like pumpkin pie ice cream. It was a fun place to stop.
We then headed out for the Smugglers Notch and Inn, but on the drive there we stopped at a place called ‘Remarkable Crafts’. I mean how could we ignore a place like that? They had some really interesting ceramics, baskets, leather works, paintings and jewelry. I bought a very unusual ring with a purple stone in it. We then headed out to the Smugglers Notch & Inn, it was a fascinating place built in 1790. Of course it’s been modernized but there is a lot of history there. The name stems from the fact that it was a place where slaves and alcohol were smuggled in.
The next day was a bit of a lazy day. We drove to the Shelburne Museum, not far from Burlington, at 10:00. It was a huge place on 45 acres with a lot of old buildings and machinery like it was in the early 1800’s but most of the place was not handicap-accessible. We took a shuttle around the place and it was interesting. I was only able to enter the Webb Gallery and the cafe. I bought a book about the place that has some good pictures. We left the museum area and drove into Shelburne, VT, a lot of the houses had cute scarecrows in their yards, I got some pictures of them. We stopped at a Teddy Bear place and Melinda bought some small ones for family members. While I was waiting on Melinda a guy told me about the ‘Shelburne Country Store’ just down the road, so we went there. It was a really neat old fashioned store where I bought some pumpkin fudge and some maple fudge.
These pictures are from the 45 acre Shelburne museum
On Thursday the 7th, we checked out of the Quality Inn in Burlington and headed to White River Junction VT, where we spent the night. On the way we stopped in Montpelier VT, the smallest state capital in the US. I got pictures of the state capital building. The streets in the city were so narrow it reminded me of London England. As we drove on we stopped at Morse Maple Sugar Works, the place smelled absolutely wonderful! I bought some maple fudge, maple syrup and some hard candy. Melinda bought a DVD showing how they make the syrup. In White River Junction we went to this restaurant called the Elixer for dinner. We didn’t have a reservation, which was needed, but we looked so pitiful they let us in. We split a really good salmon dish.
Friday was a very interesting day, we just hung out in the Comfort Inn until we checked out at 11:00 and ate lunch at an Asian buffet before we headed out to Manchester, New Hampshire. We got stuck in a traffic jam along the way for 20 minutes (thank God I had used the bathroom earlier) because of a wreck up ahead on I 89. It was really funny to see signs along the road warning about moose, deer and bear crossings. We wanted to visit this art gallery in Manchester, but it was closed. So we went to a mall we found with the most confusing parking lot I’ve ever seen! I mean it was actually dangerous to drive in it. We did find an entrance to a Macy’s and we went in and I bought a pair of jeans. After much confusion and laughter, we finally found our way out of that mall parking lot and made it to the Comfort Inn in Manchester. We ate dinner at Applebee’s and called it a day.
Our first full day in Manchester was a bit frustrating. It was October 9th and a little chilly but it felt great to us Texans. We decided to check out the Shaker Village; we called the place a couple of times to find out the details of the place but no one answered the phone. We figured we’d just go ahead and drive there…which turned out be a very harrowing experience with the narrow, winding road around hills. We got there only to find out it wasn’t handicap-accessible (it looks like I should have checked that out on the internet before the trip, instead of assuming everything would be accessible these days). I couldn’t even cross the street from the parking lot to the store. Melinda roamed around a little and got some pictures she shared with me. We headed back to Manchester and stopped for a late lunch at Mirski Steak & Lobster. We both ordered grilled sword fish & broccoli, it was delicious. We got back to the hotel at 3:30 and decided to just relax the rest of the day, Melinda was pretty sore from all of the driving.
Sunday was a really enjoyable day. We went to the Currier Museum of art, which had some great art work from many different eras. However they had a Van Gogh and a Monet that weren’t very good. The docent there gave us some good information on some of the art work; he was very interesting and answered all of our questions.
Melinda outside the Currier Museum Art I liked inside the museum
We had a nice lunch at the museum then drove to Portsmouth NH. Melinda had never been to the Atlantic Ocean. We saw some neat lighthouses along the way and then we got some good pictures of the ocean breaking on the shore line.
We flew home on Monday after an enjoyable vacation.