Hildene & The Green Mountains

On day two of our New England adventure (Tuesday) our first stop was at Hildene, the summer of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son.

The caretakers and of Hildene run a class act organization. Staff and volunteers have completely restored the home and grounds and offer guided tours to visitors. Many famous people stayed at Hildene over the years, including a very large President William Howard Taft, who asked Todd to make up mattresses on the floor as his bed because he was afraid he would break the other bed if he used it. Many of the furnishings and decorations at Hildene are original, or painstakingly re-created (flower garden for example) to be as close to the original as possible. Also on display, on loan from the Smithsonian, was one of Abraham Lincoln's felt hats (there were a total of 7).

After we were done at Hildene we went north through the Green Mountains. Throughout the drive we kept making jokes about how these were not mountains, rather they were "hills," but the were breathtakingly beautiful. We must have passed half a dozen ski resorts, but, trust me, aside from the trees, flowers and grass, they are NOTHING compared to ski resorts in Utah. We also ate at the Bryant House Restaurant in the town of Weston, and spent way too much time at the adjacent Vermont Country Store. James loved all the unique and sort-of retry toys at the store. Heather and I must have sampled every bit of local cheese, dips, crackers, jerky, etc. they had on hand. After more than an hour, we settled on a couple of souvenirs, including some old-fashioned marbles James hand-picked out of a barrel, and made our way to New Hampshire.