Day Four - New Hampshire to Vermont

This morning after a great breakfast at the ski lodge, we drove to the covered bridge at Jackson, NH.  This is a busy bridge that is still being used, and this one has a covered walkway for foot traffic.  These covered bridges are quite quaint!


Then on to the railway where we were going to board the Conway Railroad one way for 2-1/2 hours to the Fabyan station where we were being picked up for the next stage of our trip. But before the ride we had about 1-1/2 hours to walk through North Conway where KT may or may not have acquired another book and a cute little sweatshirt with New Hampshire on it...I'm not sayin'.  They have an old fashioned 5 and dime there, which was so much fun to walk through.  
Then "all aboard" and we were off to the train where we swayed and jumped and bumped for the next few hours.  We were served a box lunch on the way and got to see several different weather patterns...sun at the railway, rain, sleet, and everything in between.

Back on the bus where we were able to take a side trip to see another covered bridge and take some time to walk around the small village at Bath.  The general store there, the Brick Store, is the oldest, continually operating general store in the United States.  

From there we made it into Vermont and took a visit to the Morse maple sugar farm.  This was the highlight of our day, to be sure.  The family that operates it are hilarious!  The two brothers greeted us, and the older brother, Burr, gave us a little slide show presentation about how maple is harvested and how it is turned into syrup.  This is a family business, but it's not just maple syrup.  The sugar harvest and cooking are a small bit of their business since the season is only about 5 weeks long in the spring, and is so very dependent on so many factors, it's a wonder to me that they stay in business!

After that we were off to our evening hotel, which turned out to be a really neat ski chalet called The Stowehhof Inn in Stowe, Vermont.  This is a cool place, old school European in many, many ways.  We love it, and they served us a beautiful turkey dinner, complete with all the trimmings!  Whew, a busy day!


Tomorrow we're off to ride the Vermonteer train and then into Mystic seaport in Conneticut (I think?) We spending the evening there, so there should be plenty of time for enjoying the village.  Can't wait for a little down time!