Burlington, VT

I know it’s the next state over and we all know that we get the best maple syrup from Vermont. In all honesty, I thought our vacation to Vermont during the summer was going to be boring, even at age 10. I was definitely mistaken. While in Vermont we visited the Ben & Jerry’s factory, the Teddy Bear Factory, and an alpine bobsled ride. We were able to have dinner in downtown Burlington and stay at an amazing lodge.

We took a ferry over Lake Champlain to get to Burlington. Our lodge was called the Black Bear Inn, complete with an outdoor pool and hot tubs off of the rooms. We spent the first day at the lodge checking it out, but the next day we went to the Ben & Jerry’s factory and the Teddy Bear factory. At Ben & Jerry’s we were able to taste test any three flavors we wanted to at the end of the tour. I was amazed that there’re actual jobs as flavor tasters in the factory. That’s probably one of the best jobs around J Later that day we took some time to visit the Vermont Teddy Bear factory. Being 10 with a little sister of age 6, we were pretty excited for this place. At the end of the tour, you were able to make your very own teddy bear. My sister actually made a dog, but I made a blue bear with a soccer ball attachment. It was way, way better than Build a Bear in the mall, let me tell you. After visiting two very unique factories we headed back to our hotel, but the next day was horrible for me.

On the second to last day of our visit we went to a ski resort that had an alpine bobsled open during the summer. You would ride these little carts down a track built into the mountain that was made of concrete. The chairlift would carry you to the top and than you would ride done the track. Built into the carts were these small levers in between your legs that were used for controlling the speed of the cart. Pull towards you and it acted as a brake, push away form you and you would gain speed. My sister was only 6 at the time and she had gone down with my dad every time before. During our last run though, she had to go by herself. Since she had never controlled the cart on her own, I was booking it down the track behind her attempting to catch up. Not a good idea. Taking a turn with too much speed, I flipped over in the cart and slid on my stomach for a good 3 yards. This spill resulted in my arms and legs being shaved of skin. Yes, it was pretty disgusting. The worst part of it was, I was too scared to get back on the cart to ride the rest of the way down that I walked in the brush alongside the track to get to the bottom, scratching my already scraped legs even more. I will never, ever go on one of those things again. My second to last day in Burlington will be a memorable one for a long time.

Vermont had its up’s and down’s, but I would definitely go again (just not ride on that alpine bobsled thing). Family vacations are supposed to create great new memories, and our trip to Burlington certainly did just that.

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