Last week was hot, wasn’t it? Hot hot hot. And look, this California girl just isn’t used to heat without central air conditioning. HOT.
After spending a few days hovered around our tiny little window AC unit and sweating profusely when we had to leave the living room, my husband and I decided to pack the kids up and do something fun. And cool.
With a little kid, “fun” is synonymous with “sugar.” And, for many in the country, “Vermont” is synonymous with “Ben and Jerry’s.”
(Peace, Love, and Ice cream. Sounds good to me!)
I am embarrassed that it took me two years, almost to the day, of living in Vermont to finally go to the Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury. What was I waiting for? It’s not further from our house in Essex than a trip to the waterfront!
The Ben and Jerry’s Factory is on this beautiful hillside that is just as picturesque as one might imagine a Vermont hillside to be. Rolling and green with a tractor off in the distance. While they do offer factory tours, with our very little ones we opted out of that. On the way to the ice cream window, we passed a free outdoor craft for kids, and Xander loved making a spin art.
(There were such beautiful views overlooking the factory!)
As for the actual ice cream: Xander got his usual scoop of chocolate, John got salted caramel, and I opted to test out two flavors, for science, and got some sort of triple chocolate scoop and Stephen Colbert’s flavor in a waffle cone (official taste test results: test sample too small, further research needed).
(Xander’s mind was blown with the extra sprinkles he earned by saying “please” unprompted (thank you, Ben and Jerry’s, for reinforcing our lessons on manners!).)
After we ate our treats, we walked over to the playground for a bit, and then to the Flavor Graveyard, where old flavors of ice cream are laid to rest. I found this very amusing. It was also shaded, which is nice. At this point Luna decided that she wanted a snack, too, so I nursed her under a tree while John and Xander watched the tractor mow one of the hills.
On our way back to the car (after a stop in the gift shop, of course), we passed a booth where you can tie die your own T-shirt. This would be a fun activity had the kids been a little older.
All in all we were probably only at the factory for about an hour, but it was a very fun outing and the drive was easy. The ice cream was delicious (of course) and the facility is on such a beautiful property. It would be fun to bring a picnic and make more of a day of it, but maybe in October, when it’s not fifty gazillion degrees out.
We love Ben and Jerry’s! The playground is great too!