Interestingly enough, our stop at the Hildene Estate was almost thwarted. After a long day in the sun at Bromley and the the knowledge that Stowe had so much to do, Shane and I discussed skipping the estate and heading straight to Stowe in the morning. We thought the estate might not hold the kids’ interest and it might be best to get to our destination and let them run around. We raised the issue at dinner and were met with a resounding “NO” from all three. They wanted to see the Hildene Estate – the home of Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “History is not history unless it is the truth.” A poignant statement from one of our country’s most relevant leaders. The kids are at the age now where history intrigues them if told in the right forum and with the right energy. For all three of them to be so excited about this visit, we knew we couldn’t pass it up.

The quote gave me pause as we wandered around the grounds and I thought about the history we were making every day with our family.

The Hildene was the summer home to Robert and Mary Lincoln. A sprawling estate set on a hill in the valley of two mountain ranges. The large home had state of the art technology for its time period in the very early 1900s to include a telephone, electricity and central heating (a must, I’m sure, for those Vermont mountain winters). Ninety percent of the furniture in the home is original. You definitely feel like you’ve stepped back in time as you wander the house.

Did you know only three of Abraham Lincoln’s top hats still exist? Yes, and one of them can be found on display at the Hildene. It’s quite incredible to see and the kids were enchanted by this.

Mary Lincoln had a beautiful garden at the back of the house famous for its peonies and view of the mountains. The flowers were in bloom, cascading a rainbow of color across the back lawn.

We hiked a few miles through the trails on the property. We traipsed from the house to the goat farm, where we got to see the cheese making process and meet some of its inhabitants.

We walked through the wooden trail down to the meadow. Cows chewed on tall grass in the pasture. Alpacas wandered about, cocking their heads when they noticed you staring.

Pigs snorted and dug in the mud with their snouts. And the kids had the opportunity to feed and play with Angora bunnies. It was quite the adventure.

On our way to the Von Trapp Lodge we stopped at the original Ben & Jerry’s. Well, the original factory. It was really cool. They had a lot of Ben & Jerry’s merchandise. We took the thirty minute tour through the factory. Wow! That was that amazing.The factory had 8 parts that they explained very thoroughly on how they make the world famous Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. In the end, we sampled one of the flavors – Salted Caramel Blondie Ice Cream. Yum!

Tired of the typical road trip car games, we made up a game on the way to the lodge called “Flea Market”. If you saw a red barn you had to say “flea market” and then everyone else had to name something “for sale” at the flea market. Let’s just say there are a lot red barns in Vermont. We had plenty of laughs.

We checked into the lodge and settled in our room before going to dinner at the Von Trapp Bierhall.

The Von Trapp Bierhall had great food. I got mac n cheese with fries. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Then Mommy got a nice long sleeve shirt from there. That was the last of that long but enjoyable day!

-Gina & Julia

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The Hildene House, built in 1903, was a beautiful property preserved to its near original state including the furniture inside the home.

Robert Lincoln amassed his wealth by leading the Pullman train car company to what would be a multi-billion dollar company today. He built the Hildene in retirement as a place that he could enjoy with his family.

One of the more interesting findings inside the home was a census map from 1840 showing the percentage of slave population’s per county throughout the 15 southern states. This really brought this time of American history into perspective for me.

We toured a real Executive Pullman Car, the highest luxury line of their fleet and learned some history about how the Pullman car system worked.

An interesting note was that the black porters that worked on Pullman cars were considered the upper eschillon of black society for their work stature, worldliness and pay. The reality, of course, was they made very little and worked long hours in very tough conditions. The black porters even had to pay for the food they ate on the train while serving the wealthy parties traveling in the cars.

Our tour of the property led us on a hike down to the dairy farm where we got to pet the goats that all seemed about ready to burst with milk. We even got to pet one of the baby goats that had been born only a few days ago.

Here’s the best part: you can watch the cheesemaker turning that fresh goat milk into chèvre in the small facility and purchase the cheese to take with you.

Daddy-o