Hiking, biking, card games...whew!

What a day we have had! This is Bailey’s mother’s birthday, and he has tried to call her off and on all day. She must be having as much fun as we are, because he had trouble reaching her. Jacob had a text message from his mother this morning. I guess she read yesterday’s blog because she sent him a message instructing him to eat more fruits and veggies. We all got a good laugh out of that one.

After another sufficient breakfast at the motel, we headed off for the day. Our first stop was at a maple syrup store where we learned about how maple syrup is made. From there we drove through Smuggler’s Notch and stopped for a hike to Bingham Falls. The hike was supposed to be a short hike, which it would have been if we had not spend over half an hour skipping rocks in the water beneath the falls.

We decided to ride the gondola to the top of Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in the state. We rode to the top where we talked a stranger into taking a photo of all four of us with the valley in the background. By the time we had done this it was time to eat lunch, so we decided to buy some Subway sandwiches and picnic for lunch. We drove to the famous Trapp Family Lodge and had a tailgate lunch. Jacob insisted that he “was good” in the fruit-and-veggie department since he had lettuce on his sandwich!

We drove north of Stowe and rented bicycles to ride on the Stowe Recreational Path. We rode all the way into the town of Stowe, and back to the bicycle rental site, which was a total of eleven miles. The path was paved, mostly flat, and went through woodlands, beside fields, and over streams of water. The bridges along the trail were especially pretty. We tried to convince the boys to pedal slowly and take time to “smell the roses”, but apparently when you give a fourteen-year-old boy a bicycle with seven gears, all seven of them have to be fully checked out before the ride is complete. We rode through a covered bridge, and after the main ride, the boys rode back to the covered bridge for one more ride-through, so they can claim they biked 12 miles, compared to our 11 miles!

We stopped in Stowe to take the typical photo of the white-steeple church building on the main street, and stopped at the visitor center where we learned about another covered bridge just out of town called, “Emily’s Bridge”. The boys immediately thought about “cousin Emily” and we had to try to visit that bridge. The girl at the visitor center told us it was “scary”. When we asked why, she told us that it is haunted. Undaunted, we drove to the bridge and took a photo of the boys beside “Emily’s Bridge”. As we were posing for the photo, locals drove by in a car and reminded us that the bridge is haunted. The boys were not too scared…but the sun was still shining brightly.

The next stop was to take the tour at the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury. At the end of the tour we were given a small serving of one of their ice creams. As it happened, they dipped out two extra servings for our tour group, and the guide said she needed two volunteers to eat the extra two. You can’t believe how fast our boys made their way to the serving plate to claim them!

It was getting late by this time, so we headed back to the motel for the traditional late afternoon swim. We made one stop on the way to see a National Historic Site in Richmond…the Round Church. The boys had to walk up and look in the windows so they could see how the pews were arranged. And, Bailey wanted me to take the “cheesy” photo that makes him appear to be holding the church building over his head.

Finally we made it back to the motel, and Olen went with the boys to the pool while I put in a load of clothes to wash. The boys should have clean clothes for the rest of the trip…except the red tee shirts, which I was afraid to wash in with the rest of the clothes. They should be good to go now that the dryer has finished.

We ate snacks in the room tonight for supper…peanut butter, apples, bananas, and the cookies and milk served in the lobby. After that I thought the boys would be really tired from everything we did today, so I asked them if they would like to just go to bed and skip the card game tonight. Jacob replied, “No. I think I would either like to ‘whoop’ or ‘be whooped’ before I go to bed.” So, we played cards and (not to brag, but…) Grandma “whooped” them all, with Bailey coming in a close second. I guess Jacob can sleep now that he has been “whooped”.

So, thus ends another perfect day. We have laughed and laughed with the boys, told several “cemetery” jokes today, and made fun of several of the people we saw while people-watching. A hike…an 11-mile bike ride…swimming…hopefully Olen and I can keep up the pace. Three days, and we are still managing to keep up. Hopefully we can make it (physically) for the rest of the trip. I know we can make it otherwise, because we are having a delightful time with these entertaining young men. (I am sure we were both fourteen at one time, but it has been a L-O-N-G time!)

Happy birthday, Bonny. And, thank you again for sharing your son with us.