Tuesday dawned a bit hazy, and even hotter than Monday. Matt and I both woke up unusually early, so in an unusual fit of vigor we hit the gym before breakfast. I figured half an hour on the elliptical machine was a small price to pay for not allowing myself to feel guilty about the gorging I was planning for the rest of the day! After we’d worked out and showered, we headed to the tavern to trade in our breakfast vouchers for continental breakfast. I had a very tasty granola prepared by the chefs at the resort, plus toast, coffee and juice. The granola was so filling, full of toasted nuts, seeds and oats, that I was barely able to finish half of it! Matt had toast with a yogurt and granola parfait with his tea and juice.
Then it was back to the van, and off to our first stop of the day. For Tuesday, we rearranged the seating in the van a bit so that our hop aboard tour guide, Lillian, could join us for the day. We knit our way through the drive over to Shelburne Farms, while Lillian told us a bit about the history of Vermont and I wondered whether I’d survive tromping around the farm all morning in the heat that was growing steadily more oppressive. On our arrival at the farm, Lillian switched out with one of the farm guides and to my pleasant surprise we embarked on an air conditioned driving tour of the farm.
view of the farms from the family manor
Starting in the late 1880′s, Dr. William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb acquired the land and built the estate up to what we can see today, though its heyday was definitely around the turn of the century before agriculture began to die off. We passed a small flock of sheep, rolling meadows, and tiny woodsy areas all displaying the hand of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.
Our guide pointed out carriage houses that had become an event center, the original farm buildings that now house an education center, and eventually we pulled up the drive to the Webb family home. The home had gone through several additions while the family lived in it, including the addition of two wings. One of the wings, the servant’s quarters, is no longer there, but the rest of the house is still pretty grandiose. Because the house has never had heat or air conditioning added to the structure, it’s only open and operating as an Inn for about six months of the year.
just a small house
Because our group was small and fairly well behaved, our guide took us for a quick unplanned walk through the house itself, where we were able to see the family library (decorating with books was apparently quite fashionable at the time, so many of the books remain with their pages uncut!) and a few other rooms. I was most interested in this sunny little nook on the stairs where the light came streaming in through stained glass windows.
sunny stair nook
Next, we drifted out back to see the gardens that were the original reason for our stop at the house. Can you imagine having this view out your back door?
pathway around the side of the house to the gardens
I was reminded of visiting some of the mansions in Rhode Island, where some of the gardening used this same technique to section of part of the expansive view to draw your eye in. I like that it frames the view, giving you a place to rest your eye and enjoy rather than casting back and forth across a view too large to take in all at once.
Lake Champlain
English style gardens
Next, it was off to the education center to learn a bit about cheese making.
Cow Twister - need to learn your cow breeds somehow!
cheese making!
the cheddar is coated in a double layer of wax
friendly cheese engineer cutting cheddar into individual blocks
Finally, we wrapped up our time at Shelburne Farms with a cheese tasting ranging from the 6 month aged cheddar, to the 3 year cheddar, and even a taste of the “seconds.”
Shelburne Farms Cheddar - ready for purchase!
Seated on a picnic bench nibbling cheese while gazing out over the landscaped meadows seemed almost magical…until a deranged seagull decided to crash our picnic. He swooped in, looked at us as if to ask why we weren’t sharing, and then perched grumpily on top of our van until it was time for us to go.
view from our cheese tasting
Next on our itinerary was downtown Burlington for lunch and some light shopping. By this point in the day, the heat was oppressive, and all we could think about was getting into air conditioning…fast. We ducked into Leunig’s Bistro and were quickly seated at a table. Unfortunately, we chose poorly and selected a restaurant without air conditioning. Despite the smothering feeling of the building, we enjoyed our elegant cheese plate appetizer. I spotted the Thistle Hill Farm Tarentaise on their menu, and knew we had to order it – an online friend from Ravelry had been raving about this cheese a few months ago, and I was somewhat desperate to try it since it’s pricey and hard to track down here. Luckily, a relatively hard cheese that was not melting in the heat.
Thistle Hill Farm Tarentaise
Matt thoroughly enjoyed his falafel wrap, but my dish left me somewhat stumped. Advertised as a artichoke stuffed with barley, quinoa, black eyed peas, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, capers and lemon aioli, I was looking forward to enjoying one of my favorite vegetables. When my plate arrived, I was mostly left wondering whether the preparer had ever encountered an artichoke before. It seemed that most of the artichoke leaves on my plate were cut so that I was left with just the thorny end, and none of the meaty artichokey part of the leaf I’m used to. As I dug further into the dish, I discovered that the artichoke still contained the prickly “choke” at the bottom of my salad, so I had to eat around that, too. More befuddling than bad, I still enjoyed the bits of artichoke I could carve out to eat, and thoroughly enjoyed the stuffing so all was not a complete loss. Still, we ate quickly and moved on hoping to find somewhere cooler to spend the rest of our afternoon.
I regret to say that the above cheese is the only photo I have of downtown Burlington, because I spent the rest of our time there browsing shops and telling Matt over and over how much Burlington reminded me of the outdoor shopping area in downtown Boulder. If you’d told me I’d fallen asleep in the car and we’d suddenly taken off and flown out to Colorado, I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least. I’m pretty sure both towns even have some of the same shops!
Eventually, we dragged ourselves through the muggy heat back to the car and wilted thankfully into the air conditioning. Thoughts turned to the hotel, swimming, napping, and relaxing until Alanna, our tour organizer, said, “I thought we could swing by and drop people off at the hotel, but if people are interested they can stay in the car and we can visit some of the local yarn shops…” Yarn shopping? Well, that was something else entirely! Who needs a nap when there’s fiber to be acquired? We did drop the men in our group off at the hotel, helped ourselves to the iced lemonade and fresh cookies that were just being set out in the lobby as we arrived, parted ways with Lillian our guide for the day, and headed back out into the heat.
Our first stop was the Northeast Fiber Arts Center, “The candy store for knitters, spinners, felters and weavers.” We were greeted at the door by an immense, friendly black dog who alternately followed us around the shop or flopped down on the floor and snored. My biggest impression of the shop was how much I loved the knitted samples hanging all over. Usually in a store, I like one or two samples and think a lot of the others are sort of strange. I spent most of my time in this shop wandering around oohing and aahing over the various finished pieces, and snapping photos of the project cards with my phone so that I could remember the patterns for later. I eventually succumbed to the temptation of a small kit they had for sale, while “helping” another tour member justify a skein of buttery yellow laceweight.
Next we visited the equally charming Kaleidoscope Yarns. Between the location in a house, the wares being divided into rooms, and the delicious selection of luxurious yarns, this shop reminded me of one of my favorite Austin haunts, Hill Country Weavers. I picked up and put down a lot of yarns, checked out the line of Spud and Chloe yarns from Blue Sky Alpaca in person, and eventually several skeins of hat yarns and the requisite skein of sock yarn found their way into my basket.
Luckily for my wallet, this was the end of our miniature yarn crawl and we made our way back to the hotel. After another visit to the lemonade pitcher in the lobby, I went back to the room to find out what Matt had been up to all afternoon and to rest up for the evening. Shortly thereafter, we headed out to Burlington again to embark on our evening entertainment: a Lake Champlain Dinner Cruise.
Welcome Tactile Travel!
We boarded The Spirit of Ethan Allen III for Mangia Mia night. The dining room was practically deserted, so we had a long table to ourselves with a few other parties tucked into other corners of the room. We enjoyed (sort of loud) piano accompaniment to our meal. Our vegetarian dinners were solid but not overly exciting toasted ravioli with green beans and tiramisu for dessert, which was ok because the main attraction of the evening was the scenery slipping by our windows.
I love how the hills fade into the haze here
We chatted over dinner about various things, and the group decided as a whole that the best way to spend unexpected money (such as lottery winnings) would be to create a knitter’s retreat on one of the islands we were passing. Beautiful scenery, peaceful environment. A shuttle in case you needed to go to shore to visit a yarn shop, but have the yarn shop be far enough away that it wouldn’t be a constant temptation. And, of course, a notions hut on the island fully stocked for those knitting emergencies.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ripples in my coffee made by the boat's motor
At one point, we passed this rather eerie looking island, and wondered what exactly we were looking at. The best guess we could come up with was an island that had suffered an extremely isolated forest fire, and was left with just charred trunks reaching toward the sky.
Between dinner and dessert, we got up to wander around the decks and enjoy the sight of the sun sinking toward the mountains on the horizon.
Two of our group members enjoy the breeze
Eventually, we returned to dock and stepped back onto land. We walked along the small harbor a bit, watching the boats and the last remnants of the sunset before once again returning to our hotel for the evening.
Heh. I’ve shopped online at Kaleidoscope Yarns. I see the cheesemaker has a shorter version of the local favorite headwear.
Ahhh, my old stomping grounds. I’ve attended the Vermont Mozart Festival, held on that lawn at Shelburne Farms, eaten some of that cheese, and of course passed many times over Lake Champlain. I have to wonder how close you were to the NY side – that little island with the stumps of trees looks a bit like Gunboat Rock. (Although if it was a historical tour, I assume they would have pointed that out…)
Great sunset photo!
But seriously, Matt worked out at a gym? Seriously?
I think even he felt that the amount of food we’d eaten the day before was sort of excessive. ;)