A Weekend in Vermont with the Jonas Brothers!

We had a wonderful weekend in Vermont - the weather was beautiful and we had great excursions each day! We left Friday morning and made two stops on our way to Burlington...the first for lunch, and the second for dessert at the Ben and Jerry's factory tour. We watched them make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and we were able to sample ONE Cheesecake Brownie in the tasting room. Afterward, we visited the scoop shop for more yumminess. Sophie thought the Chocolate was good, and EJ had Chocolate Fudge Brownie.

After settling into our hotel, we grabbed some dinner at Nothing But Noodles, a great little chain that does all sorts of noodles - Asian, Italian, American, etc. We've never been to one before, but it was a quick and easy dinner.

The next morning, we enjoyed the Vermont Teddy Bear factory tour. Sophie selected this cute buttercream bear to take home.

EJ already has two Vermont Teddy Bears that were gifts when she was born, so she selected a VTB Friend For Life Bear (kinda like a Build-a-Bear). She named it Dark Chocolate, since that's what color it is.

Sophie and EJ both enjoyed climbing around in the stuffed bear pillows in the gift shop:

Next, we stopped at the South Burlington farmer's market for a snack (cookies and apples and peaches), and then we went to downtown Burlington for some pizza for lunch. We hit up that farmer's market too...they're both wonderful. If I lived near such wonderful farmer's markets, my grocery budget would be through the roof!

After lunch, we went to the ECHO Aquarium on the waterfront in Burlington. It was a great science-type museum that both girls really enjoyed:

Then we went for a little stroll on Lake Champlain:

We changed hotels on Saturday (more in a minute), so we checked in and then went for some Chinese food for dinner.

On Sunday morning, we went out to an awesome brunch where we had strawberry whipped cream belgian waffles and cinnamon raisin French toast. It was at a place called the Pour House, basically a biker bar that figured out how to draw in a crowd on Sunday mornings. I highly recommend it!

Then we were off to Shelburne Farms, by far our favorite tour of the weekend. If you have kids, DON'T MISS THIS! We had planned on doing the Shelburne Museum but thought it was a bit mature to keep the girls' interests for long. We're so glad we did, as this is an awesome 1500 acre farm with great educational programs, and reasonably priced...$16 for the four of us. Here are the girls on the tractor ride that gets you out to the barn:

EJ got to milk a cow. Sophie wanted nothing to do with it!

But Sophie did enjoy looking at the goats with EJ:

EJ even played that ever-popular game...Name That Poop! You had to guess which animal made the "patty".

Our little farmers:

We had to peel Sophie off the tractor crying so another little boy could have his turn! Then, she found some equipment that was more her size:

Here's Sophie with the three little pigs. There were seven piglets there that were born in July.

She also liked this little tractor. We had lunch at the snack shack there and spread out a picnic blanket while Sophie ran laps around us:

Then, EJ hopped on an Sophie was able to push her. We were surprised that she was strong enough to do this!

At brunch on Sunday morning, we told EJ about a big surprise we had for her. I had found tickets at the last minute (and finally, at a price I was willing to pay) to take her to the Jonas Brothers concert Sunday night. They were playing at the Champlain Valley Expo, a huge fair just east of Burlington.

When I called the fairgrounds for information, they told me they had sold all 10,000 seats to the concert and they were expecting another 10,000 people to be standing around the fence of this outdoor venue to listen to the concert. The venue was only about 15 minutes from the hotel, but since we were worried about traffic and parking, we went about 2.5 hours early. We got there in time for dinner (corn dogs and baked potatoes and fried dough!) and to walk around for a while before going into the show. She had to have a pony ride too:

We had really good seats, about 25 rows back from the stage to the right side. We were in the front row of the second section of seats, which was good because when everyone stood up it would have been tough to see without the aisleway right in front of us. We also had one of the huge video screens in front of us, so that helped too. This was our view of the stage:


The zoom on my camera did okay. Most of the shots were blurry because they moved around so much, but occasionally they would stand still enough to get a decent shot. That's Nick on the drums, Kevin on guitar, and Joe singing.




They did a nice video about when Joe was diagnosed with diabetes. Here he is singing a song he wrote about it:

Kevin:

Here, they brought out their younger brother Frankie (almost 8) and their dad (top left) who plays in their band:

We had a great time. Demi Lavato (also from Camp Rock) was the opening act, but all my pics of her came out blurry. She did a meet-and-greet after the show, but we figured the line would be too long, and we were tired and cold. And my head was ringing, not so much from the loud music, but from the screaming girls!

So, about the hotels. K and I haven't been to Burlington in about 12 years. We had been talking for months about maybe going up over Columbus weekend, but then decided to take Friday off of Labor Day and do four days. We were inspired to go sooner by an episode of Chronicle, a local interest show here in Boston. They featured a hotel called the GGT Tibet Inn and we wanted to stay there, but they didn't have an opening for Friday night.

The man who owns GGT Tibet Inn was one of 1000 Tibetans offered a special visa to come to the US in 1993. He started working in the Vermont Teddy Bear factory as his sponsored job and then worked several jobs to become the first of the 1000 immigrants to buy a house just a few years later. Four years ago, he bought a Rodeway Inn and decided he didn't want to continue with the franchise and wanted to go on his own. He is still a Tibetan activist and he has earned tremendous respect in the community. AND, the best part for a bargain shopper like me? The rates at the hotel were very reasonable - only $59 for one of the nights. When you just need a quiet and clean place to crash at night, this is a GREAT deal!