Button Bay is a very interesting park - it covers a lot of ground and, and the 2 camping loops feel quite isolated and private. The setting from the road is also cool, the orignal stone gates create a striking image, as well as a challenge for well meaning RVers such as ourselves.
This trip has offered nothing if not variety, and today would be no different. We decided to check out the nearby Shelburne Museum. It is a very odd and interesting collection of structures, art, historical references, etc all locating on a pretty sprawling campus right off the lake. It's a beautiful setting, and it is striking right off the bat with this classic round barn.
The engineering nerd in me was fascinated by the structural details, especially since this thing had an enormous span and was wide open save for the central column. Here's how they did it.
I found it to be very impressive, especially give the choice of materials and tools available when these things were built. The others in my party were more interested in getting to the carousel and circus figurine exhibit.
I won't go into detail on every single exhibit we saw, but suffice it to say that we burned through 4 hours very easily, and still missed many things. Here are a few quick highlights:
In the 50's the museum purchased this huge steamship and relocated it from Lake Champlain to the museum grounds. I can't imagine that was an easy task.
There were ample opportunities for the whole family to get involved, and nobody likes dressup (well, other than maybe J. Edgar Hoover) more than a 4 year old - more specifically, our 4 year old.
A couple more nerderies - there was an exhibit on robots, toys, and steampunk artifacts. Yup, as always, huge nerd. But, I'm writing this, so these are here to stay.
Yes folks, that's pure Mimetic polyalloy staring at you. Come with me if you want to live.
...aaaand of course who wouldn't want to see a steampunk rendition of Vader and Boba Fett. Why? Why not.
And finally, after a visit to the authentic jailhouse, a sight I hope (If we do our jobs correctly) I never see again in my lifetime...
As we worked our way back to the campsite, we stopped at a couple of the roadside tourist traps to snag some Vermont-y stuff for back home. While Kimberly took 25 minutes to check out at the Vermont Flannel Co (dude was chatty, but super nice), I snagged a couple of shots of his '49 International, which he had just driven to the DMV to renew the tags a few days before. Pretty impressive.
Just before we got back to the campground, I convinced the family to stop at the public boat launch for a shameless sunset pic, and also because I had vowed to drive the Jeep on a beach somewhere during this trip. Well, I got my wish for about 30 seconds, but long enough to capture this.
We were pretty wiped out, but still managed a good campfire and cookout of some good old fashioned Maple-cured chicken sausages from right up the road. Awesome.
Tomorrow - I'm pretty excited, we visit and tour my favorite brewery in the US, Brewery Ommegang. Should be pretty cool. More to follow.
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