Day 236: On top of the world

Here's the obligatory 'team-photo'. The location is the top of Mount Philo in Vermont. We discovered today that unlike New York State Parks, in Vermont you pay for the people not the vehicle, so take as many cars as you like - but leave your friends and family at home.

After finding a pleasantly surprising play area at the hotel this morning where Exile #3 and Exile #4 spent a very happy 20 minutes while Exile #2 did our packing we headed to the beach. The beach in question was in Sand Bar State Park on the banks of Lake Champlain. We were the first to arrive and litorally had the place to ourselves - for about two minutes anyway. Even by the time we left at the much more peak hour of noon, it was extremely uncrowded and exceptionally nice. The contents of the warm shallow edges of the lake were particularly interesting - small fish, heron footprints and a water snake were amongst the highlights.

After the beach we headed up Mount Philo which offered amazing views of the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks as well as the lake - it was also an entertainingly steep and winding road, but not quite as exciting as I had both hoped and feared. After that, we caught a small ferry across the lake and continued our journey back on the familiar roads of New York. Funnily enough, there is a difference - signs, speed-limits and road markings all change on crossing the state line - more so than I noticed in Massachusetts.

OK, so now you know what we did - can you work out what this is a picture of?