A blessed and beautiful Sunday!

The Best Western in Albany, New York had a great breakfast to get us going on a sunny, crisp, cool Sunday morning. We were on the road by 8:30 am headed north on I-87, then east on highway 149 to US 4 into Vermont. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside. We saw fields of corn on many farms along the road as well as pumpkins, orchards and vineyards. They even grow huge marshmallows here! (they are large bales of hay but I think they look like marshmallows!)

      

Since it was Sunday, we thought we might find a church along the way but we were too early for a couple of churches we went by in New York and arrived too late for the churches in Vermont.

We stopped at the visitor's center as we arrived in Vermont.

    

The drive along the tree lined hilly road was beautiful with just a few trees beginning to turn colors. Many locals we spoke with said they had their first frost last night. We drove to Rutland, stopped at a store for awhile, then made our way north on US 7. We stopped at the New England Maple Museum in Pittsford. It was very interesting and we even got to taste some of the delicious syrup and sample other goodies they sell. 

   

 They had cute little "people" dressed up and you pressed buttons to hear their stories or songs.

We arrived at the Gazebo Inn (our home for the next two nights) early in the afternoon and were greeted by owner, Donna. She made us feel right at home, fed us some snacks & we had a nice visit.

Later in the afternoon we strolled through the town. They had "people" all over town; waving, welcoming fully clothed manikins. We decided to pose by a couple of them.

    

After getting back to the Inn we met with Seth, the organizer of our ride. He explained our bike routes for the coming week. Tomorrow we bike south of here and back to the same Inn. We are excited about the adventure!

We walked downtown after our meeting with Seth and ate dinner at Cafe' Provence. Russ had a salmon dish and I had chicken pot pie. It was VERY delicious!  

I think it's time to hit the feather bed and get some rest before our biking adventures tomorrow.

We look forward to what we might see and discover.

Every day we see the beauty of the earth God created and we are in awe.

"For God is the King of all the earth;
    sing to him a psalm of praise."

Psalm 47:7 (NIV)