What a big day it has been.
We pulled out of the hotel in Burlington at 9am, heading south. Through miles of beautiful fall colour - gold, yellow, orange, red and purple - just wonderful. The countryside was very friendly, mostly gently rolling hills and a bit of freeway/highway.
Our first stop was the New England Maple Museum.
http://www.maplemuseum.com/
40 litres of sap makes just 1 litre of maple syrup. They boil the living daylights out of it, stirring constantly and depending on the temperature makes lots of different types. My favourite was the dark amber. We heard how the American Indians have been making maple sap into syrup for centuries. Just fascinating. Sampling is a very important part of this whole process. Of course, the ubiquitous giftshop was at the end of the tour and we helped with their stock turns by buying biscuits, syrup, candy, mustard and other really lovely maple related things.
Just 1 mile down the road was an old covered bridge. Built in the early 1800's, twice in the 1920's it was washed down the river. In the recent Irene storm the water came up to the deck of the bridge. That was a significant height. No pictures as my battery was flat, but someone will help me out tomorrow with some, I'm sure.
Still driving south we were now in New York state. A long tail of traffic that was going nowhere indicated an accident ahead and we were warned that it could be some time before it was cleared, so Jasmin turned that great big bus around and found another route. A few extra twists and turns and we were in Queensbury for lunch. The place we were planning on going to was about to close, so we ate at Golden Corral. $12 included all you could eat from a buffet that a cruise ship would be proud of, plus as much soda or coffee as you wanted. The tip was tagged in there too, so very easy. Yummy pumpkin pie.
By now we were running very late, but after more twisting and turning along country highways we arrived at Log Cabin Quilts, near Albany NY.
http://www.logcabinfabrics.net/
Luckily the house is above the store and all thirty of us were inside that door in a flash. We were very lucky that the store was having a moving sale. Fab little store, very friendly folk - oh, and nice fabrics too.
From there we had an hours driver - in the dark to our luxury spa!
http://www.emersonresort.com/
The rooms really are that luxurious!
Til tomorrow, night!
What a trip. It sounds as though you are all having such a wonderful time. Looking foward to Luchells show n tell. Will have to allow a full day for that. The Amish community sound amazing. we could learn alot from them. The fabric prices are un believeable. You will need another bus to cart the shopping!.
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