We didn't stay at the Ho-Hum motel, which was probably for the best.

Other than Burlington, Vermont is very, very rural. But it is also a very left-leaning state. It is the home of Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders, and we saw a lot of pro-Obama messages and signs.

Shrine of St. Anne

While driving around in the area, we saw tourist-interest signs for the Shrine of St. Anne. On a whim, we went to check it out. Anne is the essentially made-up mother of the Virgin Mary. She's not even in the Bible. But she's nonetheless part of Catholic cannon. The shrine itself wasn't worth commentary, interesting because it was the first white settlement in Vermont and originally a fort built for the French Jesuits to "defend" against the Mohicans, but on a nearby piece of private property we saw this:

It's more terrifying in person, but we were only able to get off a cell phone picture before Rod got scared of religious, potentially shotgun-toting locals and rushed us back into the car. It's a woman's head stuck inside a tree hole. Even weirder, there's a microphone pointing at the head. Does it speak? We didn't want to find out.

Vermont Teddy Bear Factory

Having free time due to our abandoned property quest, we decided to give in and be full-fledged tourists. First we went to the Vermont Chocolate Factory, which promised a tour. In fact it was only the ability to peer through a window and watch the factory workers - who were decidedly not Umpa-Loompas. We did get some nice dark (and therefore vegan) chocolates, though.

Then we went to the Vermont Teddy Bear factory, hoping to create a Bug-bear (which would be a bear in a bee suit) for Priscilla. No luck on that front, but we did take the tour, which turned out to be a horrifying experience for Priscilla as she had to look at all the "dead" teddy bear skins.

They also have an alien bear, whose face peels off. Priscilla didn't like that either.

She did like the bushes.

And the minobear (AKA bearataur, pictured on the right, below) was pretty cool.

Completing our touristy mini-day, we hit the aquarium on Lake Champlain as well. It had all of the aquatic life that lives in the lake, and we got to see a lot of really cool fish and other creatures. Most of the pictures didn't come out. This picture of a giant turtle came out the best. It's hard to tell from the picture, but this turtle is as big as a car. Lake Champlain was briefly designated a Great Lake by Bill Clinton, but he had to take it back after a controversy ensued from residents of the "real" Great Lakes (which are admittedly much bigger).

Foliage Tour

Of course we had to do the classic Vermont foliage tour as well. We were theoretically early by a few weeks, but due to weird weather it turned out in practice we were right on time.

We've learned from our Indian Lake trips that no one likes to see tons of pictures of trees, but here's three shots from an area called "Dean's View" because Howard Dean designated it the place that would best represent Vermont in pictures.

Marble Madness

One of the major industries in Vermont is marble mining. The pictures below show the oldest and largest marble mine, which you may note is filled with water. Apparently one day the miners went to lunch and came back to find that they had hit an underground spring, which subsequently filled up the entire mine. Way down at the bottom is a crane and all of the other mining equipment. The marble from this mine was used in the lions of the New York Public Library and in Washington DC.

Someone carved a face into the marble.

Pictured below is a typical Vermont mountain man. As you can plainly see, they are quite handsome.

Alpaca Pyramid Schemes

Ah, the Alpacas. Apparently it's become a big trend in Vermont to breed Alpacas, which are originally from Peru. They are supposedly very easy to take care of, and they produce fur that can be used to make sweaters, blankets, and such. But the economics of Alpacas make very little sense, and are probably a good metaphor for the economy of the US as a whole. First, it is too expensive to convert the fur into goods here in the US, so once a year people come up from Peru to collect the fur. Yes, the animals have been exported but then the fur is brought back to Peru so something can be done with it. Second, little or no money is actually made on selling the fur. The money to be made in the Alpaca industry is in the breeding and selling of Alpacas. Why would you want to buy an Alpaca? So you can breed and sell more Alpacas. No one seems to think this is insane and unsustainable. Still, the Alpacas are pretty cool looking. Check out the pompadour.

This Alpaca owner had a pair of cats named Ben and Jerry. They were apparently very lazy and not good at catching vermin and the owner was offering to pay to give them away.

And that's our trip!

It was a very nice area and if the beaches were nicer it would have been a great place to live, even if on the way home Priscilla was pulled over and given a written warning for driving a shocking 65mph in a 55mph zone.





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