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Montshire
Museum of Science
Norwich, Vt.
The Montshire is a hands-on science museum with dozens of
interactive exhibits on the natural and physical sciences. Located
on a 110-acre site near the Connecticut River (about 10 minutes
south of Thetford, just off I-91), the Montshire has a network of
easy-to-navigate walking trails. Open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. Admission: $9.00 for adults, $7.00 for children 3-17, free
for children under 3.
Ledyard
Canoe Club
Hanover, N.H.
If it's a nice day, you might consider renting a
canoe or kayak from this Dartmouth-owned operation. The canoes fit
three adults, or two adults and two children, and you can paddle as
vigorously or lazily as you like. Life jackets are included with all
rentals, and the rates are extremely reasonable ($10 an hour or $30
for an entire weekend day). It’s just 10 minutes south of Thetford
and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends and 12:00 noon
to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays.
Dartmouth
College
Hanover, N.H.
Dartmouth College is located just 15 minutes south of Thetford.
"This is what a college should look like" is the famous comment made
about Dartmouth's beautiful campus in 1953 by President Dwight
Eisenhower; and it's still just as pretty. In addition to just
driving or walking around the campus, you might consider visiting
Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art or
taking an
official tour of the campus—the
tours are pitched primarily to potential applicants, but they're
open to anyone. And
Hanover itself (also
known as "Hangover" by those crazy college kids) is a cute little
college town with some interesting shops and restaurants.
Poverty Lane Orchards
Lebanon, N.H.
Picking apples may seem kind of tame, but it's actually lots of fun.
There are a number of pick-your-own orchards in our area, but this
is the best one. They are known for growing heirloom varieties that
actually taste like apples (though each somewhat distinctively so),
as contrasted to the bland mealiness of most supermarket apples.
Joanna's parents buy nothing but Poverty Lane heirlooms as long as
they're in season. Poverty Lane also makes their own line of hard
(bottled) cider—lauded by critics from the New York Times,
Saveur Magazine, and Food & Wine Magazine—and regular cider is also
available at their farm stand. They're located about 25 minutes
south of Thetford. Open 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday-Friday and
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Simon Pearce
Quechee, Vt.
You may have seen the Simon Pearce stores on Park Avenue in New York
or Fillmore Street in San Francisco — or noticed their gorgeous
hand-blown glassware in the movies Sweet Home Alabama and
Something's Gotta Give. But did you know that it all started in
Quechee, Vt., when Irish glassblower Simon Pearce emigrated to
Vermont? He started out in a historic woolen mill, still the
enterprise's flagship location, which is about 25 minutes west of
Thetford. You can see the artisan glassblowers at work from 9:00
a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on
weekends. There is also a store where you can peruse stylish
glassware and pottery, a fabulous seconds area, and beautiful
imported linens; the store is open 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. And
there’s also a gourmet restaurant overlookin the mill's waterway
that serves lunch and dinner.
Billings
Farm and Museum
Woodstock, Vt.
Billings is both a state-of-the-art working dairy farm and a trip
into the past, with a museum that celebrates the spirit and values
of Vermont's agrarian past. It features interactive farm programs
and activities and award-winning historical exhibits. Open daily,
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., it's about 45 minutes west of Thetford.
Admission: $11.00 for adults, $10.00 for those over 62, $8.00 for
13- to 17-year-olds, $6.00 for 5- to 12-year-olds, and $3.00 for 3-
and 4-year-olds. (Combination tickets to the
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Park, below, are also available.)
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Woodstock, Vt.
Vermont's only National Park, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller is located
just across the road from the Billings Farm Museum, above. It
features a fully restored 19th-century manse that was the boyhood
home of George Perkins Marsh, one of America's first
conservationists, as well as period gardens and 20 miles of trails
and carriage roads through stands of beautifully tended sugar maples
and 400-year-old hemlocks. Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission: $8.00 for those aged 16 to 61, $4.00 for those 62 and
older, free for those 15 and under. (Combination tickets to the
Billings Farm Museum, above, are also available.)
American Precision Museum
Windsor, Vt.
This museum preserves the heritage of the mechanical arts of the
19th century, celebrating the ingenuity of early machine-age
pioneers. It contains the largest collection of historically
significant machine tools in the nation. Windsor is about 40 minutes
south of Thetford. Open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admisison:
$6.00 for adults, $4.00 for students, free for children under 6.
Saint-Gaudens
National Historic Site
Cornish, N.H.
Located about 45 minutes south of Thetford, this is the former home,
studio, and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America's
greatest sculptors. More than 100 of his works—ranging from heroic
bas relief monuments and sculptures to gold coins that he designed
for the U.S. Mint—can be seen in the galleries at the site. There
are also guided tours of his home and studio, and beautiful gardens
and nature trails in which you can walk or picnic. Open daily from
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission: $5.00 for those 16 and over.
Enfield
Shaker Museum
This site, home to a large community of Shakers for over 200 years,
offers a look at their elegrantly simple architecture and way of
life as well as some of the principles by which they lived—including
equality of the sexes and races and communal ownership of property,
as well as the more offbeat precept (the reason there are no Shakers
left today) of celibacy. It's located about 45 minutes south of
Thetford. Open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 12:00
noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission: $7.00 for adults, $6.50 for
those 62 and over, $5.00 for college students, $3.00 for children
10-17, and free for children under 10.
Porter Music Box Museum
Randolph, Vt.
This is a funky little museum that will be of interest to anyone who
enjoys music and/or mechanical arcana. Its collection includes music
boxes large and small. It's about 45 minutes west of Thetford and in
September is open Monday-Saturday from 9:30 to 5:30 (the last tour
starts at 3:30), and on Sunday from 12:00 to 4:00 (the last tour
starts at 2:30). There is a small admission fee.
Fairbanks Museum
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
The Fairbanks Museum is a classic 19th-century natural history
museum — it features the funky, quirky collections of its founder,
industrialist and amateur naturalist Franklin Fairbanks. You'll see
everything from stuffed birds and reptiles to William Bentley's
famous snowflake photographs, from fossils and shells to antique
dolls and toys, from political memorabilia to ethnological
curiosities. There is also an intimate planetarium, and even the
building the museum is housed in — in the elegant Romanesque style —
is worth a visit. It's an hour north of Thetford and is open from
9:00 to 5:00 Monday-Saturday and 1:00 to 5:00 on Sunday; the
planetarium show is at 1:30. Admission is $5.00.
President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site
Plymouth, Vt.
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the nation's 30th president on
August 30, 1923, at his boyhood home in Plymouth, Vt., following the
untimely death of President Warren Harding. His father, a local
notary public, gave him the oath of office by the light of a
kerosene larntern. You can visit the authentically restored Coolidge
homestead and learn more about “Silent Cal”—including the fact that
that famous moniker is a misnomer. It’s located about an hour from
Thetford and is open daily from 9:30 to 5:00. Admission is $7.50 for
adults and $2.00 for children aged 6 to 14; children under 6 are
free, and a family pass is available for $20.00.
Cabot Creamery
Cabot, Vt.
If cheese is more your cup of tea, then a tour of Cabot Creamery is
for you. You get to see how cheese is made the real, old-fashioned
way and even taste-test some of Cabot's award-winning cheddar. You
can buy Cabot products at almost any grocery store in the area (and
they're also now available nationwide), but the visitor's center in
Cabot is the place to get the whole story. It's a little over an
hour north of Thetford and is open 9:00 to 5:00 daily.
Maple
Grove Farms Museum & Factory
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
"Vermont" and "maple syrup" go hand-in-hand in many people's minds.
Tiny little Vermont produces more maple syrup than any other state.
This attraction is run by one of the state's biggest producers and
includes a video, a small museum, a factory tour, and a gift shop.
St. Johnsbury is about an hour north of Thetford. Open
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admisison: $1.00 per person.
Ben & Jerry's Factory
Waterbury, Vt.
If you're into ice cream rather than apples or maple syrup, when you
hear "Vermont" you may immediately think of Ben & Jerry's. Yes, the
famous ice cream factory is in Vermont, though it's a good hour and
a half from Thetford. The factory tour itself is, in our slightly
jaded opinion (having been there numerous times with visitors to the
state), not worth that long a drive—but it's a very pretty drive. So
if pretty drives and ice cream are your thing, don't let us
discourage you from going. Open for tours 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (on
busy days, the tours fill up quickly, so sign up for the next tour
as soon as you arrive). Admission: $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for
seniors, free for children 12 and younger.
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