We had an entire day to explore Vermont last Saturday. We drove across the border and entered at Arlington, a picturesque village with lots of opportunities to take photos. First we stopped at a local cemetery. It might sound morbid but I like taking photos at cemeteries…they are full of history and local lore, not to mention peaceful.
Okay, so it sounds a little Halloween like but there is something fascinating about a cemetery… you can learn so much about a town just by walking through and towns in New England have some of the oldest cemeteries in the U.S. The symbols on the headstones tell the story of the deceased person. The Puritans didn’t believe in religious symbols so they would put carvings on the headstones like angels or skulls that would represent the soul going to heaven.
This photo is of a headstone with an angel on it.
This photo shows a headstone with a skull on it (the one with the flag in front of it)
This headstone has an urn on it symbolizes the person being taken to heaven, behind it is a headstone with the Mason symbol.
Taking a tour of a local cemetery will give you insights into some history of the town — what types of people lived there, their religions, stations in life or how they died — all from a headstone. So don’t be afraid to stop at a cemetery that you come across. Walk the grounds, read the headstones and get a mini history lesson.
We headed a little further through Arlington and came across a covered bridge.
This was a covered bridge that you drive across, once across there is a park and the town grange.
Covered bridges are all over Vermont and always make for great photo opps. It was the first time that we drove across a covered bridge. The park made a nice spot to stretch our legs and get some more great photos. If we had licenses we might have tried to do a little fishing.
We drove further and met with road construction that caused a detour. When you come to something like this and you have no idea where you are, it makes for a nice distraction and more than likely you won’t get lost. With this detour we ended up in Manchester, another quaint New England town known for its shopping outlets. We stopped at what used to be the grist mill, which is in the middle of the shopping outlets. Another peaceful spot to take some photos.
Manchester looks like a nice walking town so if you want to take in some of the world class shopping like Michael Kors, Betsy Johnson or any of the many shops just find a place to park and walk from one to the next.
