Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival

When my daughter was a little over 12 months old we took our first vacation with her to Quechee, VT. On the trip were myself, her, my husband and two of our friends. It was about 5 hour drive from where we live and we thought she would be miserable. It was actually the opposite. She had a blast sitting in the back seat with our friends playing games and watching WonderPets (that show is her favorite!).

Quechee is a small town in Vermont- it's very scenic, home to the "Quechee Gorge", as well as a hot air balloon festival. More importantly it was where my parents always brought me when I was a baby.

When we first arrived in Quechee we went to the Quechee Gorge which is a very long river which cuts through rocks and has a path down to follow the gorge. Once you are down at the base kids can walk around on the rocks and small crayfish and all other little water wildlife. My daughter loved sticking her feet in all the pools of water.

Although my daughter was too young to go swimming when I was a child my parents would bring me to the calm part of the gorge and let us jump off the rocks and swim. When my daughter is old enough we'll bring her back to do that. Then we went up the path and had a picnic at the picnic spot which overlooks the gorge.

The following day we went to the Quechee Hot Air Balloon festival. My daughter was in love. There are concession stands and a huge field where kids fly kites and play. There was music playing and we laid out a blanket and watched all the different hot air balloons go up. We brought her in one of the balloons parked on the ground and she was so fascinated by it. She walked around the perimeter of the basket touching everything. When we left she actually said the word balloon, the third distinguishable word she has said!

On our final day we took a drive into the mountains and took a scenic walk through the woods. She loved walking along and picking everything up. Quechee is an excellent place for kids if you want them to enjoy nature and have fun doing it.

I would definately recommend going anytime the festival is going on!