We were privileged to have a private tour this morning of the Orvis Rod Factory in Manchester Center, VT. That’s how we started our day. When we drove into town yesterday we didn’t even know this was the home of Orvis. We found out about the tour while visiting their flagship store and decided to take advantage of the opportunity. We were split into two groups for the nearly hour-long tour and each group learned about the process of making fly fishing rods. Much of the work at Orvis is done by hand and we were able to observe each step along the way. This was no usual factory tour where you peer down on workers through windows, but a walk-on-the-floor and stop production kind of tour. Our guides (both managers at the factory) would have workers stop and explain what they were doing. I can now see why a fly rod can cost as much as they do, sometimes more than a thousand bucks each.
After Orvis we let the boys walk around Manchester Center for ninety minutes to check out stores and to have lunch in small groups. They got to pick out their own place to eat which they enjoy doing when given the chance. This is only the third time they’ve had this opportunity, the other two being in Bar Harbor.
Our major activity of the day was spending the afternoon at Bromley, a ski resort turned adventure park during the summer. The boys had wristbands giving them unlimited chances to try out about a dozen rides or activities including a climbing wall, a giant swing, trampoline jump thing, space bikes, miniature golf, water slide, etc. But their biggest thrill came from the alpine slide where they come down the mountain in a small sled on rollers. Boys learned how to control the sleds from a manager when we arrived at the park and were soon giving it a try. We did have a couple of spills, but we still have all our boys.
We had a couple of swim sessions to round out our day along with dinner at the Double Hex Restaurant and some frozen custard at a roadside stand to end the day.
It was the end to another long and fun day and you can just click to see the latest photos.
After Orvis we let the boys walk around Manchester Center for ninety minutes to check out stores and to have lunch in small groups. They got to pick out their own place to eat which they enjoy doing when given the chance. This is only the third time they’ve had this opportunity, the other two being in Bar Harbor.
Our major activity of the day was spending the afternoon at Bromley, a ski resort turned adventure park during the summer. The boys had wristbands giving them unlimited chances to try out about a dozen rides or activities including a climbing wall, a giant swing, trampoline jump thing, space bikes, miniature golf, water slide, etc. But their biggest thrill came from the alpine slide where they come down the mountain in a small sled on rollers. Boys learned how to control the sleds from a manager when we arrived at the park and were soon giving it a try. We did have a couple of spills, but we still have all our boys.
We had a couple of swim sessions to round out our day along with dinner at the Double Hex Restaurant and some frozen custard at a roadside stand to end the day.
It was the end to another long and fun day and you can just click to see the latest photos.
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