Vermont ~ Unframed Photography
Vermont, Vermont - what a green and pleasant place it is! I fondly remember traveling there when I was a young lad with my family for one particular summer vacation. We had a 30-foot-long Holiday Rambler travel trailer back then and made a yearly sojourn somewhere in the Northeast (even though most frequently we ended up going to either Cape Cod or to the Rhode Island shore). This one particular trip included a stop at Lake Dunmore (near Middlebury, Vermont) where we spent a week camping at Branbury State Park amongst the tall pines. Then, for our next stop, we headed east to New Hampshire, where we spent a 2nd week encamped on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. And last but not least, we proceeded on to Maine, where we spent a third week encamped on the shores of Lake Sebago.
While our week in New Hampshire afforded us the opportunity to explore the White Mountains, see the rock ediface of the Old Man on the Mountain (which has since fallen!) and to accent the east coast's highest peak of Mount Washington (and yes, we affixed the infamous bumper sticker to our car's bumper afterwards claiming that momentous accomplishment!) and the trip to Maine offered us a grandiose visit to the once wondrous and lively, Old Orchard Beach, it was our time in Vermont that I cherished the most!
What is it about Vermont? With its Green Mountains, covered bridges, old farms, history and quaint villages, that so captures our attention? Or maybe it was that initial Vermont experience which helped to lay the foundations of what today, I hold so near and dear! On that trip thirty-seven years ago, we visited places like the Shelburne Museum, Fort Ticonderoga and Ausable Chasm (yes, I know these last two locations are actually in New York State, but we explored these sites while staying in Vermont, so I attribute them to our Vermont visit that year!) It was a marvelous journey through history where I learned all about the American Revolutionary War and how our people lived in this region in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. The Shelburne Museum itself has: "a unique collection of over 150,000 works including Impressionist paintings, folk art, quilts and textiles, decorative arts, furniture, American paintings, and a dazzling array of 17th-to 20th-century artifacts. The collections are housed in 39 buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds." (www.shelburnemuseum.org)
Fort Ticonderoga played a pivotal role in our nation's history several times, though not a single significant battle was actually ever engaged upon this site! Ausable Chasm is just sheer amazement from one end to the other, in a geological sense, for the wondrous eyes and mind of a young boy to encounter! I would advise any parents to explore these same locations to allow their children to experince the same outstanding learning opportunities and potential for a lifetime of good memories, like I have! You can learn more about Fort Ticonderoga at: www.fortticonderoga.org; and more about Ausable Chasm at: www.ausablechasm.com.
Then there are the more current memories of this fabled land! Traveling to the Rutland area in the mid-1990's with the then, love-of-my-life, we went Christmas tree shopping a couple of times. At this one place, we rode on a horse-drawn slay out into the evergreen tree grove to choose the perfect Christmas tree, had it cut down for us and brought back to our car, while we waited in a small pine-scented cabin, huddled by a well-stoked wood stove, sipping on hot-mulled wine and cider! And, more recently I made trips there when two of my neice's were attending college in Burlington and Johnson, Vermont. Trips to visit both of them yielded opportunities to see parts of the State as an adult with a camera in my hand, that I did not benefit from in times past!
On one very memorable trip, not only did I have a grand time with my one niece Grace, but because I traveled there to visit her by myself and had considerable time to go and come back without restrictions, I took my sweet time driving up and back on State Route 100, (which basically cuts Vermont in half, from North to South). This rural route took me on the least efficient route through the State, but provided me with the most beautiful, unfettered scenery Vermont has to offer - it's well worth the time and miles, if you feel so inclined!
Because of all of these memories, Vermont will always hold a very special place in my heart. I hope you, the viewer, either already share my enthusiasm for this special place, or will one day have the opportunity to experience it as I have. In the meantime, maybe the images I've captured and have displayed below, will serve to wet your appetite!
