VERMONT FINALE

Our scheduled visit in Vermont sailed by much more quickly than we had expected, leaving a few "to do's" undone.  We quickly learned that the Vermont terrain and two lane, 55 mile per hour roads severely limited our far-flung travel plans.  If there is ever a next time, I'd rent in two or three areas of the state for a few days each and thus spend more time visiting and less time driving.  I know this same scenario will play out in Ireland, so we're planning for that and mapping our route accordingly.

I'm definitely glad we made the trip.  It was different than our normal attempt to cover and see all the territory possible in the shortest time. The opportunity to simply enjoy our location, the lake, the peace and quiet and Vermont Public Radio was most welcome.  We're hoping to find the happy medium in Ireland between the classic "If this is Dingle, it must be Tuesday", and regrets over missing some square inch of the island.

Our highlights were many--Tanglewood comes to mind immediately and its location in the Berkshires.  That deserved much more time than we could give it because of the distance.  Ditto Lake Placid and the Adirondacks in New York state.  Rain was a factor when we toured the Shelburne Museum and Farms, but it was well worth the visit.  The cruise of Lake Champlain out of Burlington was fascinating and a definite must do.  Ben & Jerry's is a textbook experience of being steamrollered by crass commercialism dished out (along with tiny samples of new flavors of ice cream) by young, high energy tour guides.  Maple syrup tastings were available along every highway in our area and most of the local breweries were happy to offer a bit of their beer.  Fudge was big; jellies, jams and marmalades huge and, if you planned carefully, it was possible to taste your way from one end of the state to another as long as you were comfortable with small bites and relatively itty-bitty sips.   

What wouldn't I do again?  Place my camera on the trunk of the car, shed my jacket, hop in and drive off!!!  That happened one drizzly evening in Burlington near their Church Street Marketplace where cars were backed up for a block urging us (somewhat rudely) to leave our parking space.  I didn't even think about it until we were 90 minutes down the road and by then it was obviously too late.  So...the few pictures you've seen in this series were taken with a $10 blue plastic 35mm camera designed for...who knows?  It broke within days, but in the meantime I had taken one roll of film, not realizing that the front of the camera was a sort of transparanty blue plastic lens cover.   It's not like I left a high dollar DSLR smushed on the damp street.  It was simply a small Canon point and shoot, but I was becoming very fond of it.  Like all things that happen for better or worse, its loss led me to the camera I'm now learning to use for this blog and the Sun City Grand Photo Club which has been a tremendous source of information and I have great appreciation for the talent and hard work of its members.

We're leaving tomorrow morning for our annual trek to the midwest--we call it our Midwest Marathon and we're sure to add at least 3,000 more miles to our faithful oldish Toyota.  I'm hoping to practice for our Ireland trip and work out the kinks of blogging from the road.  I guess we'll enjoy or regret together!