Vermont ❤️ Dog Mountain - Stephen Huneck ♥️🐶♥️.

This stop on our tour was purely for Keetna.

The incredible Artist Stephen Huneck and his wife Gwen created this 150 acres Retreat on top of the mountain for dogs and the humans that love them. 

The only place where pups need to be on a leash is in the Art Gallery and on the road/parking area for their safety. The rest of the mountain, including the chapel, is off-leash for those who like it. Let's just say Keetna was in heaven and so were we. Pure joy seeing him run and play with other dogs. I learned to have yummy treats in my pocket means one likes lots of pups following me.

This place is magical for dogs and most of his artwork revolves around dogs. The greeting States: we welcome humans, but we cherish dogs. 

Sadly Stephen Huneck passed away at age 61 in 2010. His wife passed in 2013. However his vision and love for dogs stays a live up here in the NE Kingdom of Vermont.

Vernont ♥️ Harvest Host - Bragg Farm Sugar House

 Yesterday we drove an hour east towards East Montpelier, VT to spend a night (or two) at a Sugarhouse. A wonderful magical place that makes Maple Syrup. 

We were lucky to find a Sugarhouse that was part of Harvest Host and had an opening. 

Bragg Farm was the perfect fit and it’s been a sugar high since we arrived. They offer a small tour of the maple syrup making process, followed by a sampling of 4 different grades. And they make Maple Creemes, soft serve maple icecream. 

Last night we were the only other Harvest Host visitors, but this place had a lot of traffic from locals to tourists buying syrup and eating ice-cream. There is a petting zoo as well as a nice picnic area and playground. The setting in the green mountains is once again stunning and the area is dotted with small villages.

Another successful bucket list item is checked off. Vermont Maple Syrup is a slice of heaven. 

Vermont ♥️ Ben & Jerry 🍦

 Yes what would a trip for me be to Vermont without visiting Ben and Jerry! I booked us a factory tour and I admit I think we could have skipped that part. It started with a video of the beginning to now, which one can easily find online. Then there was a viewing deck to see some of the process of making the ice cream but not very in-depth. Of course the tours are also catered towards kids (some may say the young at heart 😉) as of course the presentation was spiked with jokes as in what Ice Cream our tour would get to sample. Broccoli and Cheddar in our case. 

Never less the drive there was stunning through the rolling hills (green mountains) of Vermont.

My absolute favorite part at Ben and Jerry was not just getting us ice cream but the Cemetery!!! I could have spend quite a bit of time there as the setting was precious. Can one imagine how sad my heart got when my husband showed me the grave stone of Marzipan? 💔 So very very sad….. Ironically we brought our rain coats with us but left them safely in the car. When we reached the graveyard which was about 300 meters from our car up on a hill it started to not just rain but pour. By the time we made it back we were soaked to the bones and our rain coats were smiling at us.

I then tried to get us to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill but as it has been standard since we arrived in Vermont there is NO, zip zero connections with our Verizon phones. So  our GPS took us home only to realize we had been just 6 min from that place while at B & J. Technology….. my downfall 😂