Day 8 - Makeup for Monday

It must be Tuesday, because I can see the sun through the curtains.

Well, that's the first time I've seen sun in quite a while. Of course we're planning to be outside today, at a museum complex.

Well, let's see if today is better...

Firstly, checking out. I readied the car and hubs went in, and I had a moment to check my Vocal page. Awwww, fuzzies!! What an awesome compliment I got!

A nice omen to start the day. Off to Ben and Jerry's, soon after opening. Hurrah, plenty of parking in the lower lots! Not a lot of people!! And most are taking a tour, which we don't need. I snagged the squishies (not sure if they're the same or different from last time, but I'm here, why take chances?), and off to snag some Cherries Garcia. Not much, still diabetic, just a small cup.

Then, off to Shelburne, up the road.

When I was here last, I was trying to get all the Vermont squishies. We did visit the Shelburne Museum, but it was winter, and they were mostly shut down. A few of the buildings were open, but not many. And the squishie machine was locked in the round barn, and the fiber exhibit was on the far side, down an icy slope, and also shut.

Not today, though! They were quite open, and though we overshot the place and I had to turn around, it was worth it to get pics of some of the cool architectural features in town.

Oh, it's close to 12:30? Heh. So, let's go to lunch first...

I've been salivating over this place for years.

Union Jack's is one of my favorite places in America. You want fresh fish and chips this side of the pond? Homemade sauces? Delectable nommability? THIS is the place.

We shared a large fish and chips, because I didn't want to be a pig and throw off my salt intake. It was a good call. They did go light on the salt, but I'm so used to keeping it low, that a large would have made me swell up like a weather balloon.

NOM. And my husband tried the homemade tartar sauce, the guy who can't stand anything pickles, anything cucumbers, anything curcurbits! Took the cup out of my hands and proceeded to cram the rest of the fries into it!

Heh. I was right. I knew he would love this place.

So, back to Shelburne.

Have you been to Sturbridge Village? Massachusetts decided to grab a bunch of old buildings and move them to the same location, and make them into a living history museum. Well, this is similar to Shelburne, only... Vermont style.

A lighthouse. A steam boat. (We're two miles from Lake Champlain, folx. They took video of the moving feat.) An apothecary shop, which we spent a lot of time in, and I took lots of pics. Two conspicuously absent bottles, though. An almost absurdly large straight razor collection, with the biggest one I've ever seen. A sawmill, a covered bridge of course, a town hall, an old meeting house.

A puritan jail. A carousel. I finally got into the round barn, the first I've been in.

I started losing steam (or gaining it?) when we got to the fabric museum, but I enjoyed the quilts, which are very different than the Amish quilts, which are again different than the ones that my own sept of Penna Dutch makes. All part of the wonderful tapestry of humanity, no?

But I did get to stay for a bit and chat with the curator about the two rooms of sculptural paintings, done by needle felting. It turns out, we knew more about the process than she did, so we described what goes into creating pieces this large from scratch. The artist raises her own sheep, dyes the locks herself, it's really a fun and interesting process. But the docent was startled when I answered her question, “What do you think it's more like, oils or watercolor?” Neither, in my opinion – more clay sculptural, and an awesome way to get rid of frustration, because you get to go all stabbity on something. It startled her, but it's the truth, going all stabbity on something is quite soothing on a bad day. Or a good one. Or in between, I'm not picky.

Where we crammed our heads full of lovely information, but I was exhausted. They have a tram system, because the place is quite large. We walked down, but we trammed back. I got my squishies, and we headed out.

And I had an epiphany, so back we go to Union Jack's for dinner! We picked up sandwiches, and got a hotel room on the way, and settled in for the night with noms and relaxins. (Some of the the relaxins may have me threatening to rain death and ruination to anyone who prevented me from sleeping that night by fiddling with things!)

It was an early night. Yes, it involved baseball, but I was already zonked out by the end of the game. And another moth was evicted.

Mmm, soft pillows.... zzzzzzzz.....