I really am being to love New England. I was having a great trip but I have really loved the past two days. Maine is so beautiful with the rocky coast and the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont are breathtaking. We just happen to go past the longest covered bridge this morning. I had to stop for a photo.
Our first stop was at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. I gave them some choices and Claire wanted to go learn about the sculptor. This national park is excellent and in a beautiful setting. We started with the movie and Claire was excited to see that Saint-Gaudens had done the Shaw Monument that we had seen in Boston. I love when they make the connections.
The volunteer was not very positive about us finishing the Junior Ranger and although it was a longer one it was not impossible. The program is very well put together. It trains them to pay attention to detail. There is also lot of sketching of things that they see. The kids would not 
have gotten near as much out of it without the program. If you are going, take the time and do the program so they can get something out of it and they get a cool patch at the end.
There is lots to see and do here. You can have a tour of his house and an art tour which we did not do. There are Horse Stables, Gardens, a studio, gallery, a working studio, and trails. I think we ended up spending three hours there without any tours. The kids sketched a lot and we did do a short trail which is beautiful!
After we finished there, we headed for Vermont. I could not believe how beautiful the drive was. I kept telling the kids to look out the window. Claire said she wanted to come in the fall and so do I. I can’t describe it but they are different than our mountains. Maybe I have been away from ours too long. I really loved the ride.
We stopped at Ben and Jerry’s Factory to take a tour. I could not believe how many people where there. It was like going to an amusement park. The tour is three parts- a movie, description of what is happening on the factory floor and a free sample. The kids enjoyed it but I was not that impressed. I really don’t even like the ice cream. (I hope the Ben and Jerry’s mafia does not come after me for that.) I got the kids more ice cream outside and myself a smoothie. The smoothie was pretty good. We walked up to the Ben & Jerry’s graveyard for retired flavors. The kids loved seeing that because they had seen it on the website. After that we took the long way to Burlington on purpose. I wanted to see more of the beautiful mountains.
