Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday, hopefully with good food and good company. We went up to Vermont yesterday, and it was my first time. It was a very impromptu trip, in fact we didn't even leave for the 4 hour drive up until 12:30 in the afternoon! Needless to say, one of our stops (The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory) was closed. We started out visiting the Ben & Jerry's Factory, which was unfortunately not producing ice cream that day, but we still got the tour and a sample of ice cream. I haven't eaten Ben & Jerry's in so long, it's been mostly low/non-fat frozen yogurt for me, so it was a great indulgence! We raced to Shelburne in hopes of seeing the Teddy Bear Factory, but alas, it was totally empty, apart from one lone woman inside who glared at me when I tried to open the door. So sad. However, we found the Shelburne Farm and Inn just down the road. It was beautiful up there. We got to look around the property a bit, see the barns and the school house and the Inn (pictured below). We walked through hoping we could eat there, but there was a function...the whole time I felt like I was trespassing or something, but it was really beautiful and I hope we get a chance to visit it again. The farm was right on Lake Champlain so we got a wonderful view there. My favorite part was the visiting the sheep...they were so cute! After what felt like a short time in Vermont, we headed back for the 4 hour drive home. I'm not stranger to long drives, being from Washington State, but I was surprised by how little there is up there....no offense to any Vermont-ers. It is absolutely beautiful, but it felt like we drove on the highway for hours and only saw a couple little towns. I must say, I prefer being close to the city and going on these day trips instead.

We had planned on going on another short trip today, maybe to Rhode Island to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, I felt kinda yucky today and it is SOOOOO hot outside, so we've decided to lay low and stay home this year. But that's alright...perhaps I'll do a little sewing later on.