Sunday, June 30

We woke up this morning and headed to the AuSable Chasm in western NY. We paid about $70 to go on the hiking trails on the rim and down the side of the chasm. We got there shortly after it opened but there were a couple of buses that had just pulled in full of Japanese tourists. We quickly tried to get ahead of them and enjoy our time without the crowds. The chasm claims to be “The Grand Canyon of the East.” While it wasn't the Grand Canyon it was beautiful nonetheless. It was a river that has carved a chasm in the rock. You can see the many layers of rock that have been carved out of years of erosion. After an hour or so we took the shuttle back to the entrance and then drove a few miles to get in line for the ferry across Lake Champlain. The ferry cost us about $75 and was a peaceful hour trip across the lake to Burlington, VT. After arriving in Vermont we made our way to Waterbury, VT and the Ben and Jerry's Factory Tour. During the tour we learned about the process of making ice cream as well as how Ben and Jerry's became to be what it is today. At the end of the tour we got a taste of a new ice cream that doesn't have a name yet. It was a blueberry ice cream with chocolate shavings. They are having a naming contest for the ice cream flavor offering up a prize of free ice cream for a year. After our tasting we each got a single scoop of ice cream. Brooke and Rachel chose “Candy Bar Pie,” while Jake and I got the “Late Night Edition with Jimmy Fallon.” It has chocolate covered potato chips in it. We all liked our choice! From there we then traveled along Route 2. It is the same road that travels through the Upper Peninsula. This turned out to be a pleasant road that rolled through the hills of Vermont and New Hampshire. We traveled through numerous small towns that were in the valleys of the “mountains” before arriving at our campground in Canaan, Maine. We retired for the evening at the KOA. Here Brooke got to swim for the first time and we all were able to take showers, though the water was not quite warm.