Best Ice Cream...In New England

Ah yes. For those who have read my Blue Bell Ice Cream post were probably wondering by that title whether I had lost my mind or not. Not to fear my readers...I have not...but I did recently travel up north to visit the undeniable quintessential ice cream of the north: BEN & JERRY'S.

First of all, let me preface that this trip wasn't just for ice cream. No. It was to see my roommate at her summer gig in New Hampshire. But since a tour at the ice cream factory of her choice is only about an hour and a half away from her, we make the decision to have a day together!

Our journey begins on an early Saturday morning in August. The weather is great and the driving is even better. The first stop is the Vermont Welcome Center. I grab all of the pamphlets I can (why? why not?!) and then its back on the road after stretching my legs (and answering some work questions from the road).

We found the roomie on the side of the road. Just kidding. We met at a gas station so we could leave one car...but she was getting in ours. Why?

It was a convertible!!!

We arrive at Ben & Jerry's and take in the tragic Flavor Graveyard. Well...not tragic for me (as I rarely ate the ice cream) but it was interesting to see the flavors that bit the dust.

Beautiful site isn't it?!

This was our tour guide, Owen, the third best tour guide they had. (This was said by the ice cream dipper behind him). Lol.

Time for some pictures....

And why not some tie dye! Here Robyn is helping me with my quick change!

So after the tie dye adventure, we headed to nearby Montpelier to walk around and eat some tasty dinner, before heading back to New Hampshire to catch roomie's show!


The show was 'interesting' but overall pretty good for having been put together in 10 days. The best part was just getting to see and hang out with my Robyn! :-)


I did feel bad on our drive home...kind of fell asleep...leaving Andy to drive with no one to talk to...sorry!! But it was a great trip that I'd be happy to repeat!!

7 Times in One Night...

Oh get your mind out of the gutter!

I'm talking Haunted Houses! Yes, it's that time again... Time to for the leaves to change color, the weather to get cool/cold and time to frightened to death! YAY!

Ok, I'm a HUGE fan of Halloween. It is my favorite holiday (yes, I'm crazy) in my favorite season of Fall. I don't know what it is exactly: the weather, the colors, the candy or the ability to become someone or something else for a night. It's just amazing to me.

So my best friend and I drove up to New Hampshire to go to Nightmare New England, said to be the #1 Haunt in the North East. I wanted to test that theory. It boasts a Monster Midway along with 7 haunted houses/attractions.

The attractions were as follows:

THE CATACOMBS

RAVEN'S CLAW CEMETERY

THE COLONY

FREAK SHOW in 3D

ETERNAL DARKNESS

TORMENT

SLEEP STALKERS

I lost it in the Freak Show when a clown came up to me (which I'm terrified of) and wouldn't leave me alone. I did leave the house in tears and poor Andy had to hold me until I calmed down. I was just glad I didn't save that one for last...

The two best were I think the last two we did: Eternal Darkness and Torment.

Eternal Darkness you walked through with just a glow stick to light you way and everything was pitch black. Freaky! It was so cool because you had no idea what the hell was going to come out at you next. We had monsters come up to us individually saying "good luck" and "did you miss me" in whispers. Creepy!!

Torment was for your fears. It was all based on phobias. This included snakes, spiders, bugs, enclosed spaces and (yes, again) clowns. This was freaky because they employed things to make everything freakier. Strobe lights to make the snakes move, gobos to have moving roaches, an inflated hallway that you had to literally squeeze through. Luckily for me, the clowns were at the end and I could hustle through them.

Ok...I'm sure someone is wondering, if you are so scared of clowns, why go into haunted houses with them. Damn Tim Curry...I blame him and Pennywise the Clown. Because of the movie IT, I'm terrified of clowns and my way of facing that fear is to go to haunted houses. Why not a circus? Because I really don't like circuses.... I'll go to a haunted house with killer clowns from outer space before I'll go to a circus with happy-go-lucky clowns. I'm just weird like that.

Anyway, we finished the park about 5 hours after beginning and we were frozen from head to toe (or at least I was) but it really was a blast. So all in all, the 11 hour adventure was well worth the time and $35!!! I'll be looking into it next year too!!!

Get your spook on!!