Vermont - the Green Mountain State
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2012
1
15
80
Trip End
Jun 26, 2012
Where I stayed
Albany, New York
Saturday, March 31, 2012
There is a big day ahead on the way to our day's destination - Albany in New York State.
Hoping for some milder weather as we head slowly south along the Molly Stark Trail, we pass a boat yard next to a lake. No sign of spring here - all the boats are still well wrapped up. The Molly Stark Byway winds its way through lowland valleys, historic villages, busy downtowns, and the beautiful Green Mountains. Anchored at either end by the bustling historic and cultural centres of Brattleboro and Bennington, the Route 9 corridor crosses the heart of southern Vermont for 48 miles. We arrive in Bennington and take a 30 minute detour to drive across three picture-perfect covered bridges spanning the Wallomac River at the rural north side of town.
From there we continue on to the Bennington Battle Monument before diverting 20 miles to the north for Hildene - the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln (son of President Abraham Lincoln), which is situated in the premier Vermont vacation destination village of Manchester. The home is situated on 411 acres of prime real estate and has a fully restored example of a Pullman Railway Car. R T Lincoln was president of the Pullman Company around 1910.
It so happened that to get to Hildene, we just had to explore the village of Manchester which also just happened to have some premium outlet shops that needed investigating.
We crossed the border of Vermont into New York State in the late afternoon and made a beeline to our hotel in Albany. Thank goodness this was another Marriott group establishment and one that was in the keeping of the Marriott reliability of standard.
After locating a local Thai restaurant recommended on Urbanspoon, we re-energised ourselves and headed off to downtown Albany for a quick look around before returning back to the hotel for the night.
Comments
Hi Gail and Phil. Really enjoying reading your blogs. Very interesting. So much history to see. Keep having fun.