Vermont ♥️ Shelburne Area

We spend 4 nights in Shelburne, very close to the Shelburne Museum as well as the Shelburne Farm and the VT Teddy 🧸 Bear Company. 

The Museum was incredible and I admit my favorite section was the Carousel and Circus Building. This is when I became so homesick of my childhood. A history that is pretty much erased and will probable never return. So much was taken in the name of Progress, and humanity lost a lot of magic on the way. And yes we did ride on the carousel 🎠.

Next we toured the Railroad Station and Locomotive 220. We played on the train tracks and enjoyed the serene area.

Then off to explore the Ticonderoga 220 foot sidewheel steamboat. We did not stay on the ship to long however as by then it was getting warm outside and inside some areas.

We did try to find the Stephen Huneck exhibit but never did locate it. However we will be visiting Dog Mountain in a few days so we can see his home studio there.

We saw the Blacksmith, Schoolhouse, Covered Bridge and the Roundbarn. By then we were pretty beat and of course there was a lot more to see but we cut it short. What helped us getting this far to see some buildings was the golf cart shuttle that had several stopping points throughout the property.

Also if you are in the area, your admission is good to use for two consecutive days! This is what makes it possible to see everything.

Then comes the Shelburne Farm. I am not sure how to adequately describe this peaceful place but this is what I learned:

The 1400 acres nonprofit Shelburne Farms was formed in 1972 by fourth generation Webb siblings, and the property was bequeathed to it in 1986. It took the estate’s historic idea–as a place to showcase agriculture–in a direction adapted to the realities of the day: as a place to repair society’s frayed relationship to agriculture and nature. Even as it repurposed gardens and pastures into classrooms for learning, it fostered local agriculture: the nonprofit helped to establish the area’s first community gardens and the Burlington Farmers Market, hosted a cooperative spinnery and a community canning kitchen sponsored by Garden Way Associates, and housed a bakery and wood shop that continue to this day. It is now a thriving farm-dairy, cheese making, sugar making, and organic gardens.

And last but not least I toured visited the VT Teddy 🧸 Bear Company. Of course I could not resist seeing the many Teddy Bears which were all stinking cute. 

There is so much more to see and explore here but we had only four nights so I think we covered quite a bit as our stay also included two trips to Burlington to pick up mail and medicine. There we saw Lake Champlain and the very nice Pedestrian Zone. Originally I tried to get us into the City Park Campground Right on the Lake but they were booked.

Today we moved east, more into the gorgeous Green Mountains. But more on that later as that move involves some sugar highs……