Colors!

As usual, I was up early and out to the common room of the Inn by 5:00 AM.  It was so peaceful and  beautiful, watching the sun come up.  About 6:30 I began smelling wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen…the anticipation was building!  Finally, at 8 A.M. we got to have that wonderful second “B” of “B&B”.Yes, I’m talking about breakfast.  This morning was homemade granola, cream, link sausage, and blueberry pancakes with pure Vermont maple syrup from the Maple House just down the road.  Mmmmmm!!!!

A little information on the Cornwall Orchard B&B.  The innkeepers are Ann and Robert, she’s from Turbridge, Kent, England.  He’s a recovering attorney.  The inn is about 1 mile from the nearest town, Cornwall, population 1136.  The inn has five guest rooms, and no TVs (nor did the Harpswell Inn.)  Last night the other four rooms were occupied by members of the same family, here to meet for a reunion.  Tonight, we’re the only guests.

After breakfast, we took a ferry across Lake Champlain to visit Fort Ticonderoga in New York.  This fort is called “America’s Fort” because of its role in the Revolutionary War.  Back in 1875, in the early days of the Revolution, the Americans had no cannons as the British did not allow colonials to have them.Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had served in the general area of Fort Ticonderoga and knew that it was defended only by a small detachment of garrison troops.  They came up with the idea of taking the fort to capture its cannons.

Allen marched from Vermont with about 250 of his Green Mountain Boys while Benedict Arnold came from Massachusetts with his butler. Allen and the Green Mountain Boys easily took the fort and later Henry Knox (think of Ft. Knox) moved those guns to Boston to drive the British away and free Boston in 1776.  I could tell you more, but you’ll have to ask for it!

Today, we accomplished one of the goals we set for 2012.  Today we found a cache in New York State making the last find in our quest to find geocaches in the 48 contiguous states this year.  Woo hoo!  We will be writing up more about this cache and many others in our geocaching blog when we get home.

It had rained pretty steadily throughout the morning and theforecast for the afternoon looked the same. We didn’t want to be outdoors much so we decided to drive where the fall colors were supposed to be the brightest….the Adirondacks in upstate New York.  Off we went!

The drive through the forest was amazing!  At one point, Mona said, “My eyes are overwhelmed….I feel like I’m seeing a symphony for sight!”  The mountains were definitely in their glory, full of oranges, reds, yellow and every variation thereof.  We were constantly stopping the car to get out to view colors, mountain streams or unexpected crashing waterfalls.  I wish I had better words to share the beauty….hopefully a picture or two will help tell the story.

All too soon the daylight faded and our day of color ended.  We had a wonderful dinner at a pub in Shoreham and drove back through the rain to our warm B&B.  Time for sleep!