Vermont: Ben and Jerry's, Burlington and Mount Mansfield

Capital: Montpelier

Largest City: Burlington

Population: 643,000

Admitted: 1791

Directly below my favorite Canadian province of Quebec in the northeastern United States is Vermont. Vermont is one of the smaller states. I visited for the first time briefly in March of 2015. Vermont is very snowy in March, as we learned! In July of 2022, we returned for a more thorough visit.

Vermont Visit

Our time in Vermont consisted of an array of things that sounded interesting to me. Our first stop was Ben and Jerry's Factory. Ben and Jerry's has delicious ice cream that I do not eat as much as I would like due to being out of my price range.

The factory we visited was located in Waterbury -- it is one of the two Ben and Jerry's factories in the whole country. While at the factory, we took a guided tour. Our favorite part of the tour was seeing a quirky cemetery outside of the factory that had graves of "dead" flavors. Once finished with our tour, we of course had to enjoy some of their ice cream.

Eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream at a Ben and Jerry's factory in Vermont

After enjoying ice cream, we also visited the Calvin Coolidge National Historic Site and visit the former president's grave. This is one of my favorite presidential sites. Much of what we saw at the site was original. The tour included seeing the house and church from the former president's childhood.

Other activities we did on our Vermont trip included:

• Visiting Lake Willoughby in East Burke. People say it is like the fjords in Norway. I have never been to Norway, so I cannot compare. We were tempted to kayak, but passed instead.

  
  

• Seeing a unique round-shaped church in Richmond.

  
  

• Walking the streets of the largest city, Burlington, briefly. We saw the historic Church Street, which literally has a church located at the end. It had many shops and restaurants. Nearby the street, a park had people using illegal substances.

  
  

• Attempting to climb to the highest point, Mount Mansfield, at 4,393 feet. I got uncomfortable about 60% of the way up, so we headed back down to enjoy lunch in nearby Stowe.

Final Thoughts

While I enjoyed the time I spent in Vermont, I am not looking to rush back anytime soon. Given the population and size, it is one of the smaller states and therefore, the stuff to do in the state is more limited.