I did other things during the summer, and maybe I'll put some pictures of those up sometime too if I get the chance. I liked the trip to the Bennington monument, hence the overkill on the pictures. It was a beautiful day, and a simple, quaint kind of attraction, in spite of which the children seemed to like it, at least for an hour or so. They are pretty good about not getting constantly bored, though one doesn't want to develop too strong a tolerance of non-excitement, which I recognize now has really held me back in life.
General John Stark. I'm not sure if he is here saying "Live Free or Die" or "They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow", which are his two most famous quotes. People are surprised when they meet me by how much sexier I am in person than I appear in photographs.
This is the Gift Shop. The gift shop was pleasant and relaxing, actually. The monument costs $2 to go up in, $1 for children 6-12, so it isn't like it's being run by people who are highly skilled in manipulating visitors to part with their money.
This is the marker in front of the gift shop. For such readers as are interested in more details than I have given. I actually know very little about this particular battle, other than that it wasn't actually fought in Bennington or even in Vermont, but was 10 miles away across the border in New York, and was a prelude to the crucial victory at Saratoga, which is not far from Bennington (though I haven't been there), about a month later.
The Grounds Around the Monument. The surrounding neighborhood is very pretty, and includes among other highlights the picturesque Old First Church, in the yard of which Robert Frost is buried, and the Bennington Museum, which I believe has the largest collection of original Grandma Moses paintings in one place in the world, though I am not certain on that one. 
This Was Their Idea. I would never force anyone to pose beside a plywood cutout of a man if his will and aesthetic sense rebelled against it. They seem to like these kinds of things. As yet they don't appear to have the same sense, which I already had when I was 5, of life as a continual series of traps your social competitors have laid to make you ridiculous and weaken you for the day when you have to take them on face to face.
View of Old Bennington and in the distance Mt Wheelock or Greylock and the Berkshires in Massachusetts. I visited the town for the first time and came to see Robert Frost's grave on New Year's Eve in 1998, not knowing that the gravestone lay flat on the ground and would be buried under several inches of solid ice. That was around the height of the micro-brewpub craze, in Vermont anyway, which I liked, and I had a very good sausage and sauerkraut dinner that night at one of these places in Bennington. I don't remember the name of the place. I didn't notice whether it was still there or not.
Up in the Tower Amidst the Stonework. That round boiler-like installation behind me I believe is actually the staircase, which you aren't allowed to use anymore.
I'm not done. I'm following this post right up with a whole 2nd set of photos.
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