The beginning of this year’s family vacation was all about factory tours in Vermont.

Stop 1: The Granite Factory

Rock of Ages

Spy and Q sandblasted their very own granite samples (a puppy and a wolf respectively). Then, we toured the enormous granite factory. You’re seeing about half the place here. It was very loud. What were they working on? Mostly gravestones.

Stop 2: Ben and Jerry’s

That’s right, we waited for 1.5 hours to take a 10 minute tour. Sigh.  Spymom and Spydad knew there was no getting out of this one. Pictures? Sorry. We weren’t allowed.

BUT Spy did run up to this booth and ask a question.

Spymom envisioned the encounter going something like this:

Spy: “Can I ask a question?”

B&J Guy: “Sure, kid. That’ll be $2.75.”

Stop 3: The Chocolate Factory

Lake Champlain Chocolates

Spy and Q paid rapt attention. Particularly when they were handing out free samples.

This is the ‘Enrober’.

Which begs the question, can you disrobe chocolate? If so, there was a lot of disrobing going on in the factory store and outside in the parking lot…

Stop 4: The Teddy Bear Factory

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

By the time we reached this building, I was in complete sympathy with this bear:

But this place cracked me up. The tour was amazing, even if we could barely bear the bear puns.

We met Franken Bear who kindly demonstrated the inner workings of a Teddy Bear.

Unfortunately, they did not sell this bear in the gift shop.

Sigh.

How perfect he would have been for a certain Halloween party…

Spy asked the tour lady a question, “Did the stuffing machine ever go crazy and shoot stuffing all over the place and…”

“Why, yes!” she replied, and lifted a giant, over-sized stuffed bear arm from a pile of fluff. “This is an example of what can go wrong. We place them in this bin (of stuffing) to give them time to shrink back down to size.”

Spy grew quiet, considering whether to believe her or not.

*Snort* Spy obviously hadn’t been the first to ask.

And then there was the bear in the hospital. Aside from his ankle, he was suffering from low blood sugar. Hence the honey drip.

Stop 5: The Beer Factory

Magic Hat Brewing Company

The coolest of them all in terms of machinery. The Licker Sticker malfunctioned while we were there, and Spy and Q were thrilled to watch them get everything running again.

And even better? The free samples at the end. By this time, we’d had it. Even Spy was ready for a refreshing drink. He kept the bartender hopping. ***

*** A lady witnessed this moment and I heard her gasp, “That kid, is he really…”

“Water,” Spymom replied. “It’s just water.”

Recently, we were in NYC and stumbled upon a street fair, Spy and Q’s first. It was early – not crowed and comfortably shaded – and so we began to wander down the street. Much attracted the boys’ interest, mostly as curiosities, not as anything they hoped to own.

Then Spy’s attention focused with laser-like intensity on one particular stand. They were selling real, formerly live, still glowing-in-the-dark, moon sea jellyfish embedded in glass. Month five of Spy’s deep sea creature obsession.

They were cool, no mistaking that, and Spymom and Spydad made a half-hearted promise to stop on the way back, perhaps to purchase.

Oops.

Time passed, streets were crossed and stands were examined. Then Spy stopped mid-street staring toward Central Park (still several blocks away). “It’s going to take forever!” he declared.

“Oh, Spy, we’re not going to walk all the way to the end,” I reassured him, thinking his feet might be tiring or that he grew bored as the stands began to repeat their displays.

He looked up at me with sad, distressed eyes. “But we’re already FOUR blocks away! It’s going to take forever to get back.”

Spy had been counting the number of streets we’d crossed since the jellyfish stand.

Yes, we now own our very own glow-in-the-dark ***, real, formerly-live, moon sea jellyfish. Spy carefully selected one, then ascertained that a parent was indeed carrying his precious find after every sit-down stop in NYC that day. It now rests in a place of honor for all to admire.

*** Technically it fluoresces under UV light – it’s a GFP-expressing jellyfish. Those scientists who first developed the use of Green Fluorescent Protein in biological research won a Nobel prize. And Spymom spent several years making use of GFP herself and so was easily swayed to argue on Spy’s behalf.

About a month ago, we sat down with Spy and Q and developed a work chart for allowance. One ‘task’ for Spy was: stay in your bed and go to sleep. Spymom forks over $0.25 per night. Completing homework & piano practice without whining is worth $0.10 each. But the biggest money maker? Wash the dog = $0.50.

One day not too long after the chart was taped to the fridge (It’s stainless and non-magnetic. Poor Spy at age 4 upon move-in sadly stood in front of it trying to get his magnetic letters to stick only to watch them slide to the ground. But I digress…) Spy heard spymom comment to spydad, “The dog really stinks. What has she been rolling in?” It was a busy morning, 15 minutes until bus time. Spy, who was ready to go, coaxed the dog up the stairs and into his bathroom. Spy and Nira play often in the morning, so I thought nothing of it.

10 minutes later, the dog returns with white stuff on her back. Spy proudly proclaims, “I washed the dog!”

Well, he tried. It’s just that toothpaste on a hairbrush doesn’t work all that well.

Whaddayado when your Spy gets bored?

Tie Dye.

Spy and Q started with a package of five T-shirts each, some of which are here:

Then they moved on to packages of socks:

While Spymom tie-dyed their pillowcases and sheets:

We were having so much fun, that we even tie-dyed Spy’s two white long-sleeved T-shirts. His favorite? The “Rainbow Shirt“, of course.

For the past two weeks, Spy and Q have worn little else but these shirts. Then Spy came down yesterday morning in something else.

“No tie dye shirt today?” I’d just washed all of them so I knew the drawer was full.

“I’m saving them for school. One for each day.”

And this is good for the teacher, you see, because when Spy sneaks off, he’ll be all that easier to locate.

There’s a reason I encourage Spy’s penchant for bright colors.

Where boys can dig, bury themselves, throw things into water, race the waves, splash, learn to crash kites.

And generally wear themselves out to the point they collapse senseless into bed.

One of our stops was Provincetown, MA where Spy and Q went crabbing.

Q pulled out a green crab.

Spy pulled out handfuls of hermit crabs. Then hurled them back, one by one, saying “Goodbye” to each.