John and Linda's Travel Journal: Grand Isle, Vermont

We spent a relaxing month on Grand Isle. The cool temperatures made outdoor activities enjoyable. Our RV campground has a 9-hole par 3 golf course on site so we played golf 2-3 times a week. The course has many large trees along with 2' high thick roughs to which my ball was drawn. When searching for a lost ball we often found other people's lost balls so we wound up with more balls than we started with.

Fake coyote to scare varmints

The golf course and rv campground were nicely landscaped

The greens were very fast, sloped, and challenging but by the end of our stay we were getting pretty good at reading them. We sometimes came so close to sinking a putt. I am convinced the greens sloped away from the cups! We'd like to go back again and maybe spend the whole season there playing golf!

We also took time to explore the area. We rode bikes across the lake from the island to Colchester on a bike path that used to be a marble block causeway that was built by the Island Line Railroad. The bike path goes to the south of downtown Burlington. We did not bike the full length because it would have been 22 miles round trip. We rode for 12.5 miles and that was long enough!

At one point on the causeway we had to ride a bike ferry across a gap that used to be a train trestle. The gap was only about 75' wide so it was a short ferry ride.

Blocks of marble along the causeway

The gap in the causeway

Waiting for the ferry

On the bike path

The view from the causeway

On Labor Day we decided to visit the Mazza Farm Corn Maze. It's actually 2 side by side mazes, one 1.2 miles long and the other is 2.1 miles long. The maze was designed by Shawn Stolworthy of MazePlay, a design and GPS consultant firm from Idaho. Once the design is approved he goes to the field, unloads his tractor and cuts the field in about 3 hours sometimes even after dark totally directed by GPS. The maze is cut when the corn is young, usually in July. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to complete the maze. For most of our time there we were the only ones in the maze. It had rained the day before and people probably thought the maze would be muddy but the soil was sandy and not muddy.

Throughout the maze there are 12 numbered stations, each with an individually shaped paper punch so maze runners can track there progress through the maze. On the back side of the maze picture is a map to help you along the way.

Fork in the road!

The farm also has a store with a bakery and fresh farm produce, a petting zoo, and a cut-your-own flower garden. It was a nice place to spend a few hours.

Beautiful flowers!

The Alchemist is a brewery in Stowe, VT that brews Heady Topper. Heady Topper is ranked "world class" by Beer Advocate and can be hard to find. We had read that that on days when stores get their beer deliveries people would line up hours before opening hoping to buy this beer. There's a limit of 4 4-packs per person at the beginning of the day and as the day goes on and supplies run short, you are limited to even fewer. We decided to buy the beer at the brewery. We arrived about 15 minutes before opening and were surprised to see only about 20 people in line. No problem buying beer!