Today we paid a visit to Shelburne Farms, one of the premier country estates in the nation. Established in 1886 by William Seward Webb and his wife Lila Vanderbilt Webb, Shelburne Farms is well-known for agricultural, technologial and architectural achievements. The Webb's hired architect Robert H. Robertson and landscape architect Frederick Olmsted to help design the buildings and the grounds of their 3800 acre farm. Olmsted, famous for his design of Central Park in New York City, designed sweeping vistas using Lake Champlain, the mountains of Vermont and the Adirondacks of New York, the rolling meadows and the forested areas. The farm is basically divided into three areas: farm, forest and parkland. With land for a canvas and plants for paints he aimed to create art from nature.
Cutting-edge agricultural practices led to 15,000 tons of hay and 12,000 bushels of grain being harvested yearly to support sheep, dairy cattle, horses, pigs, poultry and gaming pheasants. As many as 100,000 trees a year were planted to the sculpted landscape, and formal perennial flowers and rose gardens adorned areas around the family home - Shelburne House.
Robertson, a famed New York architect, designed the Farm Barn, Breeding Barn, Coach Barn and Shelburne House among many others. Each building is massive in scale and employ varied styles of architecture. Shelburne House is currently used as an Inn and receives hundreds of visitors each year between April and October. We were able to tour a few of the rooms which were furnished with family pieces that were original to the house and gave an accurate depiction of life in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
All three of these pictures are of the Farm Barn.
It is 5 stories tall and surrounds a 4 acre courtyard.
Today, Shelburne Farms is an independent nonprofit organization with the dream of using the farm's resources to inspire stewardship. School field trips, summer camps, workshops and many other programs allows children, educators and families to learn in the place of natural and architetural beauty. Shelburne Farms also maintains a Brown Swiss dairy herd, cheesmaking facility, and seasonal inn to help support its education work.
Tonight we drove to downtown Burlington and boarded the Spirit of Ethan Allen, a 140' long boat for a sunset cruise on Lake Champlain. 
The only problem with this picture is that it was cloudy and there was no sunset to be seen. The Spirit of Ethan Allen III holds 363 passengers for dinner on three separate decks. On this Sunday night, there were only our group of 28 and 8-10 other diners. 
A pianist played away as we sailed and as dinner was served. We enjoyed a green salad and had our choice of pork medalions, turkey, or salmon, vegetable and apple crunch for dessert. The food was passable but not great.
Our Caravan Companions !
The lake on the other hand was magnificent. Lake Champlain is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. after the five Great Lakes. It is one of only a few lakes that flows in a northerly direction. It is 12.2 miles wide, 120 miles long and 427 feet deep at its deepest point. Lake Champlain is boardered by Vermont, New York and the Province of Quebec, Canada. The crystal clear waters of the lake are framed by New York's Adirondack Mountains on the west and Vermont's Green Mountains on the east. Legend has it that Champ, the lakes friendly monster, resides in the waters of Lake Champlain south of Burlington. No sightings of the moster were made tonight, but perhaps we didn't sail far enough south. After a 3 hour cruise we returned to port in Burlington and journeyed back to the campground to prepare for our travel day to Montreal, Quebec, Canada tormorrow. Until then, Happy Trails.
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