Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream

Our last stop in Vermont was the Ben and Jerry’s factory. 

In 1977 lifelong friends  Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Penn State 's school of Creamery.  On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 investment the pair opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont.  In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now an international annual celebration.

They helped form the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery in Vermont and they are the main supplier of their milk and cream.   None of the farmers treat their cows with growth hormones used to increase milk production. 90% of the eggs used are from ‘cage free’or free range chickens.

Their ice cream is known for its swirls of different flavors and chucks of different things.   There most famous flavor is Cherry Garcia but on the day of our tour we got samples of a new flavor that is taking over the number 1 spot.  It was called Americone Dream and it was a vanilla ice cream with Carmel swirls and chucks of chocolate covered waffle cone.  It was awesome!!!

     
That day we drove almost 250 miles!  It was a very long day but one filled with lots of memories for Savannah.  This was her summer of factory tours since before they arrived they stayed in Hershey and went to Chocolate World.

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

When we went to Vermont with Kim, Mark and Savannah, we made a stop at The Vermont Teddy Bear Company. 

The Vermont Teddy Bear company makes all there bears by hand.  They make approximately 175 teddy bear a day.  All of their bears are guaranteed against any kind of damage.  Their bears have moveable arms and legs, even their heads will turn all the way around.  The eyes of their bears have a patented device that tightens the eyes to the bear head the more they are pulled on making them very safe for small children. They also have the words “Born in Vermont” embedded in the eyes!!

          

You can have a bear custom made. You can have any color eyes and they have many different fur colors.  Each bear is shipped in a box, with some kind of candy so the bear won’t get hungry on his trip.  The bottom of the box warns the UPS man that the bear inside is upside down!

Back when Ed and I first met, he sent me a Vermont Teddy Bear for Valentine’s Day.  It is the same bear that now sits on our dash and leads us around the country. 

Riding the ferry to Vermont

Tuesday was our day off and we took Kim, Mark and Savannah over to Vermont.  We rode the ferry across from Crown Point, NY over to Chimney Rock, Vermont.  This is a free ferry ride because they had to tear down the bridge and are rebuilding it.  Several (lots) of years ago we had a family reunion at the state campground there.

          

Even on the short trip we were able to get out of the car to take these pictures.        

We went to Burlington, Vermont and I was able to find the house I lived in many years ago.   115 Home Ave.  

 
       
The streets sure seemed a lot smaller than I remembered.  We then turned and went down the hill to the elementary school. (It sure seemed a lot steeper when I was a kid) I was really surprised to see that the building was still there although it is now an apt building.
The building looked larger than I remembered.  There was only one classroom for each grade.  
I went to this school for the last part of 5th grade and all of 6th grade.  These classrooms were on the second floor.  I remember sitting in the hallway watching the television when astronaut Alan Sheppard took his flight into space!!  Oh boy what memories!!! 

Family comes to visit

We’ve been very busy this year working at Lake George Escape and for the last week Kim, Mark and Savannah came to visit and it made it even busier.  But we did enjoy the visit and even though we had to work for some of the time they still had fun. 
They did take one of our tubing trips.

              

And enjoyed some time in the pool.

Got to see other family.

We even found some time to enjoy a fire and roast some marshmallows!!

            

Grandma eats the outside and Savannah gets the middle!!

That’s all for now…