Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 12 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We made it to Boston yesterday, but we’re just using it as our base of operations today. We had breakfast at the hotel and then got back in the car for the drive up to Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont. After making through the rush hour traffic jamming the I-95/I-93 interchange, we were on our way. Right across the border in New Hampshire, we goggled at the state liquor store at the very first rest stop.

Around 10:30am we stopped at another rest area in Vermont for a quick break and to take in the beautiful sight of the green mountains. This particular rest stop was also home to the Vermont Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Back on the road we pulled into the Ben & Jerry’s factory shortly after 11:30am.

It was a little crowded, but not overly packed so we were able to get on the 11:50 factory tour. Unfortunately, by the time our tour made it to the viewing room above the factory floor, it was lunch time so there were no workers present and no machinery running. Oh well. After the tour we got a free sample of Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream ice cream, which we’d had before and is pretty good (not that there are any bad Ben & Jerry’s flavors … except in the Flavor Graveyard, like Sugar Plum – the shortest-lived flavor). It was now lunch time, but rather than eat our packed picnic lunch like we had planned, we had “lunch” at the scoop shop instead. 😀 On the way back to the parking lot we stopped in the Flavor Graveyard to check out the “deceased” flavors. We still hope our favorite flavor, American Apple Pie, will make a comeback someday.

The drive back to Boston was uneventful and we were back at our hotel by 4:30pm. This gave us a few hours to relax before dinner. While our clothes were being washed in the hotel guest laundry, I went out to gas up the Highlander and also happened to find a large technology park in the area behind our hotel: SAP, Nuance, IBM, even a big Oracle campus. Refreshed, we headed over to Joe’s American Bar & Grill for dinner with some local family we hadn’t seen in a while.

Tomorrow, we actually go to see Boston.