Category: Roadtrips

One of our stops was at the Ben and Jerry's Factory near Burlington, VT. We took the tour and got ourselves a big bowl of ice cream afterwards. Carter was really impressed with the factory - she loved seeing the ice cream being made. We also saw the "Flavor Graveyard", where all the flavors that never caught on with the public end up.

Carter and I just returned from the road trip we've been planning for the last couple of months. We covered a little over a thousand miles and four states over the last four days. We're hoping to make this an annual thing, and to go somewhere new each time.

For this first trip we drove up to Burlington, VT and Lake Champlain, then along the St. Laurence River to Lake Ontario, through the Catskill Mountains (NY) and the Berkshires (MA) and back to New Hampshire. We got within a stone's throw of Canada, and passed through Mexico along the way - well Mexico, NY, at least. Heh.

Carter had a great time, and did amazing in the car - even on Day 3, when we had to drive for several hours without a stop. She looked out the windows and took pictures, colored her coloring book, listened and sang along to music with me, played road games - and when all else failed, she took naps. She loved staying in the hotels and swimming in the pools, too. And each morning she delighted in the various breakfast offerings at the hotels - I don't know where she was putting all that food.

We've got plenty of stop-specific details and photos to share, and will use them for a set of upcoming posts!

While in San Diego Lori and I checked out the museums and gardens of Balboa Park. The architecture down there was really amazing! Some of the buildings were so ornate.

This seagull hung out with Lori on the balcony for a while. I think he was hoping she'd give him something to eat. These same seagulls also hung out on the rooftop terrace where they serve breakfast. On several occasions I saw seagulls steal food right off of peoples' plates. They were pretty brave about it, too.

Here are some more photos from our walks around town while on vacation.

We checked out Sea World while in San Diego, as well. It was ok, but overly commercialized for my taste. It was more rides and games than animals, and even then every single animal exhibit forced you to walk through a gift shop on the way out. But the show we saw we saw with the seals was pretty entertaining.

While at the SD Wild Animal Park we came upon an exhibit of Bonsai trees. These were pretty amazing. Some of them looked incredibly old, and they were all less than a few feet high. I've always been fascinated by these trees and the skill and time that goes into training them to grow this way. I had a small one as a teenager and promptly killed it. Someday - maybe in retirement - I'd like to give it another go.

While out in San Diego Lori and I checked out the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park out near Escondido. It's not the zoo proper - it's where they do a lot of their breeding and that sort of stuff for both the zoo and for reintroducing endangered animals back into the wild. They said that decades ago when the facility wasn't open to the public people used to hop the fences and sneak in at night, so for safety's sake they decided to make a real park of it. It's pretty cool - big portions of the park are just giant fenced in areas where lots of animals commingle and roam free.