Sightseeing with Camila's Family

On Monday, June 16, when Brian was starting his new job, the rest of the family was having fun sightseeing with Camila, Flor and Gustavo. First we went on a luncheon cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen III:

One of Laura's and Camila's classmates, Alexander Stein, was on the same cruise with his parents and grandparents. After enjoying lunch we went up on the deck to enjoy the views:

In the photo above, the Vermont flag is limp. But we have other photos where it is right out straight! Next we toured the Vermont Teddy Bear factory:

Camila had toured the factory last fall with her group of Rotary exchange students, and both Laura and Camila worked at the factory one Saturday last winter as a fundraising event for Project Graduation.

After the Teddy Bear factory, we drove up Mt. Philo. The views were good and we had the top to ourselves. Perhaps we were alone on top because there was a thunderstorm approaching from the south!

Somehow we stayed ahead of the storms all day until the drive home, when it didn't matter. Our next stop was wine tasting in the new facility at Shelburne Vineyard:

Gustavo liked the Lake View White and the Merlot. I liked the New World Red. We met one of the owners, Ken Albert, and Nancy persuaded him to let Camila sit on the tractor that was in the yard. One of Camila's brothers had told her that in Vermont she would be riding a tractor to school, so we thought we should at least get her to sit on a tractor before she left!

Our last sightseeing stop was Bill's sugarhouse, where Laura gave a tour. Pager had left Laura's graduation party before the Sanchezes arrived, so he had not met Camila's parents, and he came down to the sugarhouse to meet them:

We completed the day with dinner at the Lunds. Paulette served a wonderful meal. After dinner there were tearful goodbyes, as we would not see Camila and her parents again before they left on Wednesday for New York, to spend time with Camila's sister and her children, before returning to Chile.

Gustavo and Flor—It was wonderful meeting you. Thank you for sharing your daughter with us and the Lunds. Camila—We greatly enjoyed getting to know you this past year. You are one of the family now, you know! We will miss you. Please stay in touch.

We hope to see all of you again in the not too distant future. Our door is always open. Whenever you are visiting Isabel and Nicolas and Sofia in New York, I hope you will consider a trip to Vermont, too. And we do hope to visit you in Chile someday.

A special thank you to both Camila and Marion: It was because each of you kept a blog during your year in Vermont that I was inspired to start this blog some nine months ago. It's been fun!