Maine, Day 2 (Sugarbush Farms)

Friday morning we woke up in Vermont!  The first thing we did was head over to Sugarbush farms.  

 And, remember, part the purpose of the trip was to see all the beautiful fall foliage that we don't get a lot of here in the south with all the pines.

 And pretty fall foliage there was!  I took almost 600 pictures during those 5.5 days.  I won't put all of them on the blog.  I made a photo book of most of the good ones, as well as some stories from the trip as well.

 Sugarbush Farms is a working farm.  They make cheese and maple syrup.  Besides a pretty scenic area, you can tour some of the areas that are explanatory and historical.  During our trip around the farm, we came upon this particular landmark.  We had literally just been talking about how pretty the area was, and how we didn't think it would be that bad to live there.  Then we saw this story pole.  It marks how high the snow level was for each year starting in 1997.  As you can see, it got over 10 feet tall...  Maybe we don't want to live here after all.

 While looking at the trees wasn't exactly hubby's idea of a good time, he was a good sport about it, and allowed me plenty of time to look around and take pictures.

 The colors!  Goodness the colors!

 Back closer to the farm, we went on the Maple Walk. You had to go through the covered bridge to get started.  

 There was this quaint chapel along the pathway.  It was really quite peaceful.

 Hubby and I don't usually take selfies, but...  when in Rome, without children, we tried to document the fun times we had.  So, I made him take a selfie while we sat near the chapel.

Further up along the walk, we got to see the maple pathways.  They used to have to go to each individual tree, tap it, and them come back up and collect it later.  Now, they have tapped the trees, but run them all together into a pipe that runs down the hill and collects at the bottom.

 These are the kinds of horses they would have used to go up and down the hill, collecting heavy tubs of sap.  I am not sure they are used that way anymore, or really at all, but, of course, hubby was enthralled with them. 

 After walking around, we went into the farm house.  It was the old house for the family a long time ago, but has since been transferred into the gift shop and working area.  Inside, we were able to do some cheese tasting (they make it on site) and shop a bit.  We brought home a few different kinds of cheese for the kids to try enveloped in wax (in wax, they don't have to be refrigerated) and a sample of different gradients of maple syrup.  This view is right outside the gift shop door.

 After that, it was time to move on.  That particular day we had planned to follow some well known scenic paths to look at all the trees on our way to a hot air balloon flight!  We were so excited!

Unfortunately, we got a call that morning that they had to cancel due to weather.  We were bummed!  It was going to be the exciting/adventurous thing we had planned for the trip.  He said we might be able to reschedule for later in the week, but the only opening he had we had planned to be in another state by then...