To Bennington, Vermont

The Man took a day off work, so he was able to join my parents and me on a trip to Bennington, Vermont.

It took about an hour to get there.   We came across our first destination, the Bennington Museum, as we drove into the old town.  It's home to a large collection of engaging "American primitive" Grandma Moses paintings, various historical artifacts and a changing quilt exhibit (my mum was disappointed to find she had just missed the Jane Stickle quilt, which is rather famous in quilting circles).  There was an interesting temporary exhibition of bold paintings and etchings by Rockwell Kent, who had at one time lived in the area.

By then we were pretty hungry, so we took ourselves off to the South Street Cafe in town - a fun, funky sort of place, with its own exhibition of chickens painted on recycled window shutters.

We had a wander up and down the two intersecting streets of downtown.  It looks like the town is trying hard.  There are intriguing arty-crafty stores and eateries...but a few too many empty storefronts reveal that the community is struggling a bit.  However, the chocolate store seemed to be able to support a huge range of sweeties.  It also stocked genuine chocolate moose...

Next we headed up to see the 300 foot tall Bennington Battle Monument, and by good luck the sun decided to come out so we saw the best of the views all around (though the narrow windows at the top of the monument chopped those views - of three US states - into frustratingly small chunks).

We took a quick look in the Old First Church, and found Robert Frost's grave. 

Then we finally set off home, knowing that we'll have to come back - we've still to explore the promising-looking Bennington Arts Center, not to mention taste-test the Lil' Britain fish 'n' chip shop.