Skinny Pancake vs. Chunky Monkey

Ok, so only in the Green Mountain State would one ever see anything like this.  But with gas prices being what they are today, perhaps these guys are really on to something!

The "skinny pancake" became our traveling companion (what's up with that name?!?), starting at the Shoreham Service Center, just a few miles outside of Middlebury, all the way through Vermont and on to I-87 South in NY State.  We lost the motley crew when we hit a wall of traffic -- roadside traffic monitors posted "extreme delay ahead" warnings -- somewhere north of Poughkeepsie, NY and had to bail in favor of some winding country roads.  Even though our new route of 9G (not to be confused with US 9 or 9W or 9S, but 9G...someone without an imagination was on duty the day those roads were named) only permitted speeds of about 35 MPH, at least we were moving and when you've got kids asleep in car seats, movement is critical!

Speaking of skinny...  On this trip to Vermont we decided to be tourists in Noah's home state.  Hey, lots of people pay good money to vacation in Vermont, so we figured that we would hit some of the hot spots.  Of course, the hottest/coolest/most calorie-rich spot would definitely be the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, VT.  All I can say is YUMM-O!!

We watched a funny film about the genesis of of Ben & Jerry's genius.  We got a tour of the super secret factory where they produce 250,000 pints per day (on the day of our tour they were making organic strawberry and organic vanilla).  We got to taste one of the brand new flavors -- One Cheesecake Brownie -- which was pretty darn delicious.

Our shy and retiring daughter ordered mint chocolate chip in the scoop shop after the tour concluded, immediately declared that her ice cream "beat" our ice creams, and then ran off with her new best friend of the moment, some random little girl.

Of course, as luck would have it, just as I opened up my camera bag so did the heavens, A.K.A. the daily deluge that we got used to on this vacation.  Hey, if it takes a 10 minute thunderstorm every day to keep temperatures at a glorious 73 degrees, I say bring on the rain!!