It's quite unusual for Stef (and Cairo) to be home on weekends, but they were today so we decided to do our first 251 jaunt with the new guy. First we had to stop at the office in Colchester so I could drop off some stuff, then hit Noah's Ark (apt, given the flood watch in effect today) across the street to buy dog kibble and other sundry animal supplies, then we could mosey on down Route 7...
We figured that if the dogs behaved okay together on the trip to Colchester, which they did, we'd head south to Shelburne (history, demographics): In the 19th Century, a gristmill, a sawmill, a carding and fulling mill and a blacksmith shop sprang up along the rushing LaPlatte River at Shelburne Falls. Sheep raising and fruit orchards became popular methods of farming, with some 17,740 fruit-bearing trees by 1880. After the War of 1812, lake commerce surged. The Champlain Transportation Company established a shipyard at Shelburne Harbor and launched the "General Green," the first of ten proud steamships to call Lake Champlain home between 1825 and 1905, the last two of which can still be found in New England. The "Mount Washington" (still in service on New Hampshire's Lake Winnepesaukee) and the "Ticonderoga", the landlocked centerpiece of the Shelburne Museum, having been brought up from the lake on a specially constructed rail bed.
Shelburne today supports a wide variety of businesses, from manufacturers and retailers to Vermont's largest retirement community, including some of the more popular Vermont attractions: the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Shelburne Farms and the best historical museum in New England, the Shelburne Museum.
Mexico's first 251 Club trip with us! Shelburne has a leash law, so we had to put one on Cairo as well--she didn't seem to mind.
Notice how there's no snow on the ground? The last few days' thaw wiped it out most places, but it's returning tonight with a vengeance. It was 50 degrees and foggy when we left Colchester, and by the time we got home 4.5 hours later it was 32 and snowing! We expect up to 10 inches by the end of the storm tomorrow night.
Oddly, the dogs seem to have little interest in the big fire hydrant sculpture in the center of town.
Since things were going rather well, we decided to drop a little further down Route 7 and visit Middlebury (history, demographics): Middlebury College was founded in 1800 by Timothy Dwight, then President of Yale and son of the first white child known to have been born on Vermont soil. Its original purpose was to train young men from Vermont and neighboring states for the ministry and other learned professions of the early 19th century. In 1883, it became one of the first formerly all-male schools in New England to admit women.
Middlebury enjoyed boom times when local marble quarries were active, activity which eventually fell victim to more modern quarrying techniques.The historic "Marble Works" is now a thriving restored shopping and business district.
You'll just kinda have to trust us that this is Middlebury. Check out the Congregational Church if you want proof...
Why a shot without an easily readable sign saying 'Middlebury'? Because just as we got to there it started to rain heavily, the temps had dropped down to the low 40s, and we were already soaked from walking around the village looking for a good shot. I remembered the street signs pointing to the College (just behind the optic yellow ped xing sign), so we quickly went back to the intersection and snapped this. There's rain splatter on the lens and Cairo's not even wholly in the frame, but it was good enough for government work so we didn't bother to reshoot. Heck, my fingers were so cold I had trouble taking my camera off the tripod.
The conditions weren't anywhere like the trip we took last January (that's the one we were written up for in the LATimes), thankfully, and it was quite the adventure. Now we're warm and safe at home, which is a great place to enjoy a snow storm.
ntodd
PS--We'll be taking a new family portrait including Mexico sometime later...
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