One place that we knew that we wanted to visit while traveling in the area was the King Arthur Headquarters in Norwich, VT, so it was our destination as we drove to Lake Placid today, arriving at 9:15am after leaving Lincoln, NH at 8am.
Inside was basically a store (all the same stuff can be purchased on their website)........
..and some classrooms for their cooking school......
....freshly made bread.....
...and a small restaurant,,,,,
We had breakfast there ~ Brad had the "best cup of coffee on this trip so far" and an awesome cinnamon roll. We did buy a few things in their store, most importantly an awesome Big Book of Bread Cookbook that Suzanne is super excited about! 😀 (All that being said, we were a bit disappointed in the entire experience - mostly because the staff were just not very friendly.)
We the continued onto the Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT for some Vermont maple syrup - yum! 😋
It was a bit of a "take this tiny road, now turn onto this tiny road," drive to get there, which often had us questioning if we were on the right road, but clearly we were not the only ones with that thought......😂
It was a very unassuming and low-key farm, not commercial at all.
What we did not realize when we (actually Brad) found this place, was that it is not only maple syrup that they produce, but cheese as well. Well, double yum! 😋😋
We first took the self-guided tour through the sugar house......
Sap holding tanks.....
The sugar evaporator ~ where the sap is boiled down into syrup......
Fuel for the sugar evaporator......
This shows the snowfall each year - as before, use Brad as a 6ft measuring stick......😂
We then went into the tasting room, and were surprised to see three women cutting and sealing cheese. One woman stopped working and explained to us that they do everything by hand - from cutting the cheese ....
...to dipping the cheese in wax to seal it.
We sampled five cheeses and some different maple syrups, learning that the color and grade of maple syrup is dependent on the weather (temperature) over the winter season. The darker (Grade B) syrup runs during warmer temperatures, so due to global warming, they are getting more of the darker Grade B syrup than the lighter Grade A syrup.
We then went into the shop, where we sampled more foods and met the owner (second generation) and were surprised to find out that they get 200-300 visitors a day. We bought some cheese and a sampler of the different maple syrups, then took another self-guided tour of a small part of their maple trees.....
The sap flows down the tubes into the holding tank.......
It was (somewhat surprisingly) a lovely visit!
We were back on the road about 12pm, but did not get very far as just a few minutes later we stopped in Woodstock to meander the charming town.
We finally made it to Lake Placid and our hotel ~ The lake Placid Inn, which used to be a private preparatory school for elite winter athletes and housed the Italian athletes during the 1980 Olympics.
We originally wanted to come to the Adirondacks to hike, but after chatting with guy over dinner at a nearby bar, we decided to enjoy the Olympic-aspects of the area and forgo a hike.
We took a walk after dinner and stopped by the Olympic Center.....
First taking a look at the 1932 Jack Shea Arena....
Then of course the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena where The Miracle on Ice occurred.....
(More on The Olympic Center in a future post.)
