Stowe Vermont area

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014

Limehurst Lake Campground

Williamstown, VT

Von Trapp Family Lodge

This morning the Fantasy Tour group boarded a bus and left at 8:30.  Becky checked the white board for their agenda and found things for us to explore today so we set the GPS for the Von Trapp Family Lodge.

I'm sure most of you have seen The Sound of Music so you know that in the early 1940's the von Trapp family fled the Nazi regime in Europe and settled in Stowe, Vermont on an enchanted farm with sweeping mountain vistas reminiscent of their beloved Austria.

They began welcoming guest to a rustic 27-room family home/lodge in the summer of 1950.  After a devastating fire in 1980, the original structure was replaced by a striking new 96-room alpine lodge.  

The views from the lodge were spectacular.  If the sun had been shining this would have been a much better picture of the surrounding mountain ranges of Stowe.

The story of Georg and Maria von Trapp is posted in the lobby as well as a picture of the whole property.

The entire property is still owned and operated by the von Trapp family.  They have a restaurant that serves to the public and plenty to keep guests busy in all seasons.

The grounds and garden areas are beautiful.  This garden is set aside as the resting place of Maria von Trapp.

As you can see, she died at the age of 100, this year.

Behind the lodge is mountain biking in summer and cross country skiing in winter. 

Trails wander through the nearby forests.

Everything is landscaped for places to sit and enjoy the beauty.

These Fall blooms really caught your eye.

More great views from the lodge of the Stowe Valley.

The town of Stowe was a very busy place with lots of shops.

Church in Stowe

Courthouse in Stowe.

Great Victorian houses.

Our next stop was Cold Hollow Cider Mill.  They offered free self guided tours and samples.  The minute you walk into the place it made you hungry.  The smell of cider donuts from the bakery was everywhere.  Shelves of Vermont maple syrup, jams, jellies, apple butters, apple pies, candies, caramels and cider filled the store.  

This is the self guided tour...

explaining how the apple cider is made.

The apples are ground up and sprayed into trays with cheese cloth..

and put in a press to get out all the juice.  The pulp is then fed to local pigs.  Is that where apple smoked bacon comes from?

As you can see, it was a very busy place.

Guess where our next stop was?  Who can go through Vermont without stopping for a tour of the original Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory?  Ben & Jerry's started in a renovated gas station in Burlington, VT in the 1960's.  They then took a bus (like the one seen in this picture) and took their ice cream around the US giving out free samples.  The Bus caught fire and news stories of "Baked Alaska" hit the national news.  This started their ride to fame.

The tours went every 10 minutes and did not allow pictures.  Unfortunate for us, they were in the process of changing flavors so nothing was being packaged.  We just got to view a lot of workers cleaning equipment.  The top 10 selling flavors were on the wall as we left the gallery.  Half Baked is #1 beating out Cherry Garcia that had been the #1 for months and Stephen Colbert's American Dream is #10.

They only package their products in 1 pint containers because they would not be able to sell a gallon of ice cream for $40. This has got to be the most expensive ice cream you will ever have but boy is it good!  We left with 4 cartons and headed back to the RV.

Becky and Lonnie