Manchester Hotels
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On our way to Lake Champlain
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We woke up ready to get on our way to North Hero Island, on the shores of Lake Champlain, but first ... breakfast. We worked out a route to hit some Vermont landmarks on our way, lunch and get to North Hero just in time for dinner, after all we're on vacation so we were in no hurry.
Big mistake as we'll find out later.
Once we checked out and got on our way it was later in the morning, and we felt like a cup of coffee, luckily Manchester had a Dunkin' Donuts so we stopped and we figured there is no reason to un-strap our daughter and inconvenience her just to get back in five minutes (she hated going in and out of the car, and rightly so).
FORTY FIVE MINTUES!!!
It took forty five minutes to get two cups of coffee.
Not special drinks.
No ice.
No doughnuts.
Just two stinking cups of coffee.
We still don't know what happened; granted there were about ten people or so in the small store, but there were three employees.
One was serving the customers.
One cleaning or doing something other then taking care of customers (when you're standing there you don't really care).
One was supervising (doing nothing).
We would have left, but we already paid and they kept telling us "a few more moments".
Waterbury, VT
We wanted to go see the Ben & Jerry's factory, not only was it suppose to be a thrill, there was also a lot of stuff for kids to do. The ride, which took about two and a half hours, was very scenic.
The Ben & Jerry's factory is not really their factory. It used to be, but not anymore, they are just keep it opened for the tours. The factory is painted in bright colors, and when we got there it was about an hour's wait for the next tour. But there is a lot to do there, especially for kids. From huts with arts & crafts activities, to playgrounds, a fake cemetery with deceased flavors and, of course, ice cream shops.
The tour lasted about 45 minutes, and we got free bite sized samples afterwards. We stuck around for a bit (no, we didn't get any ice cream), walked the grounds, took some pictures and off we went to our next stop.
We planned well in advance to stop at the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont home to the von Trapp family of 'Sound of Music' fame. We heard they have an Austrian restaurant in the Lodge and that the view is unbelievable. The ride is short, about 15-20 miles from the Ben & Jerry's factory, and is very scenic, but you have to pay attention to where you're going, since it's a bit off the ridden path, up a mountain on a twisted road. The restaurant / gift store (of course) is on the side of a mountain, away from the lodge (which we understood to be very expensive and way out of our family budget), with great views and a place on the terrace to eat. The food is so-so, mediocre at best, but the novelty of eating there makes up for it.
After lunch we continued on a long, arduous way to North Hero Island, another five hours.
Difficult five hours since our daughter decided (and thinking back, rightly so) that enough is enough and she's not sitting in the car, facing backwards anymore.
Finally we arrived to Grand Isle County - Burlington metro area -North Hero Island.
North Hero Island, VT
We got to North Hero Island at about 19:00, it was dark since there are no street lights, but we found our B&B without a problem, parked, checked in and went to put our stuff in our room. We went to eat in their restaurant, with our daughter simply not behaving, making a mass with her food and we are dead tired after a long day.
We got no service.
No water, no waiter, no food.
Not only that, we see the wait staff, about 50 feet away from us arguing about who will wait on us. All we wanted was a quick meal.
We simply got up and left, leaving a complaint at the front desk and asking where can we get some more food.
It's 20:00 - Vermont is closed.
No restaurants open, no supermarkets, no stands, no kiosks, not even a vending machine. There was a supermarket off the island which was open "late" so we hurried there and bought some ingredients to make sandwiches.
Finally, we got to our room, took a shower and off to bad.
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