You mean that stuff in the Supermarket isn't real!
We stayed at the Fairbanks Inn in St Johnsbury last night. It was the first hotel in a long time that actually used a real metal key for the door. It had two double beds, instead of a single King or Queen, but they were comfortable, and we were dead tired anyway. Wink. Wink.
We got up and ended up running behind again. That put be in a bit of bad mood, and we decided to skip breakfast to make up some time. Neither of usually eat breakfast anyway, but I was looking forward to having a country breakfast in 
Our primary reason for staying in St Johnsbury was because Maple Grove Farms was there. When we picked 
That long winded explanation has accomplished at least one thing. I can probably get one extra picture in the body of this blog. This is a good thing. Between Margo and me we took 462 pictures. Anyway, the plan was to be at Maple Grove Farms when it opened at
It was only about a 5 minute drive from our hotel, so with skipping breakfast we got there early. When we went in, instead of catching the first tour, we discovered we were the first tour. My bad mood had vanished by the time we signed the guest book. We were directed into a room where we saw a short video on the history of Maple Grove Farms.
The tour took us to the packing room, where hairneted and white labcoated workers were taking the candy out molds, doing a quality control check, and then putting perfect pieces of candy into gift boxes. One of the workers gave Margo and me a sample as we went by. It was very good. From there are guided portion of the tour ended. Our guide directed us out a door, on the grounds to see a replica Sugar House, which is where the maple syrup is boiled down, on the farm.
The Sugar House and the displays were interesting, especially the taps. Those are the spike-like things they drive into the tree to get the sap out of the trees. We also thought it was interesting that some farms instead of putting buckets on the taps to collect the sap, use plastic tubing and channel it into a central location. We snapped a few pictures, which we had failed to do during the tour, and then made our way to the gift shop.
The first thing that I did was look to see if they had samples. They did and I headed straight for them. I had never had real maple syrup before. They stuff I had was synthetic. Real Maple Syrup is expensive. After trying it, I’m thinking it’s worth it. The maple flavor was not overwhelming, like I expected.
You don’t actually get to see syrup made, but if the line is running that day you do get to see the bottles filled. You get to see a bit of the candy making process. These go by quickly, but they are interesting. Our guide was very informative and very proud of Maple Grove. It kind of rubs off on you.
You next go to the Sugar House, which is essentially a museum with many maple syrup making artifacts inside. They have information telling you about their uses. You are self guided from and including the Sugar House. So you can stay for as long or as little as you like. We went through it kind of fast.
The last stop is the gift shop, where free samples of syrup and candy can be found. The real maple syrup is much lighter both in viscosity and taste. I was surprised, when I tried it. You will likely spend much time in the gift shop, as they have a lot of things to see there as well.
The tour is only a dollar and the whole thing including the gift shop is about an 75 minutes. We really liked the whole experience.
The good: The beds were comfortable and even though there is a busy (for St. Johnsbury) road right there, it was quiet. The room and bathroom were clean and everything worked. The neighborhood is nice and I took a nice walk around it in the morning we were there.
The bad: The hotel, and we didn’t see a lot of it, seems to be showing its age. (We got an actual metal key! I can’t remember the last time I got one of those from a hotel) It had an older feeling than the photos on their website show. We had requested a king room, but all they had for us was two queens. That is minor, but it might not be for someone else. The night clerk while she tried to be helpful didn’t give great directions to the restaurant she told us about.
The big question for me is “Would I stay here again”. I would, without hesitation. The stuff they did well was the important stuff. Clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced. The stuff they missed ( two beds instead of one and a little old) only added to our experience instead of detracting. All and all a nice hotel.
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