One thing that's cool about our route is that on the way to Burlington we get to pass through a lot of fun little towns.
First was Brandon, which is cute and has a great little town square.
We went to the Maple View Farm which had a ton of Alpacas. What's an Alpaca you ask? See photos below. They were great. Ed and his wife Deb raise them and they invite tourists to see their animals. They have a lot of land and a beautiful house and farm area. This was a lot of fun.
Next we went to Middlebury and to the Exchange Street Stores. We thought it was going to be a strip of stores kind of like an outside mall but what we realized is that it's just a long road with individual shops or factories. We stopped at the Otter Creek Brewery and tried some free samples and bought 2 growlers filled with yummy goodness. If you don't know what a growler is, it's a big glass jug and it holds about 4 pints of beer. They have daily specials at this brewery and the Copper Ale was on sale today. 1 growler for $6. Now that's my kind of deal. So into the cooler it went.
We ventured further down the road and found the Vermont Country Soap Store. They sell a ton of soap online but do have a store on site. We watched as they made soap and then cut it into big chunks. As we walked around their store we took pictures of all the soap history they had collected. They had some pretty interesting stuff. We purchased a few bars of soap for a great price and we were off.
Next stop.....Vergennes (not pronounced Virgins). This was a small small little town, but we had read some really great things about a chocolate shop there. I think we're all in agreement that there can be nothing bad about chocolate. It's a cute store, below street level. (We almost missed it) They have different barks and truffles. We opted for the Mocha Macadamia Nut Bark, a Peppermint Pattie, a Pecan Turtle, and a Marshmellow Carmel truffle. The bark was yummy, and we are saving the rest for later.
We ended our day in Burlington. The home of my favorite beer, Magic Hat. The Artifactory, as they call it, is very awesome. We did a self guided tour and then spent some time at the bar, where we sampled every beer they had on tap. Our favorite......a new seasonal brew HOWL. Not available in stores yet, but look out for it cause it's coming soon. We took lots of pictures, bought several items and again got 2 growlers filled with beer.
Cooler count.....4 growlers and a 6 pack with room to expand.
Downtown Burlington is a happening little place. We had dinner at a hotspot that was recommended to us by a nice girl at the Magic Hat brewery. It's called American Flatbread. They serve some of the best pizza i've ever had. Jules and I split a large pizza. We got a half and half so that we could try 2 different kinds. One side we had the New Vermont Sausage and on the other we had the Tomato Salsa. The flat bread was great, the outdoor patio was nice and cool, and the overall place was very hip.
On wednesday we're off to explore more of Burlington and go pick some apples at an orchard.
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