So sometime right around last winter/early spring, I was doing a quality check on the pages for What’s Great about Vermont? (cover pictured). You guys, the ground outside was frozen. I was dreaming about summer—that glorious season of warm weather and vacations that we mercifully find ourselves in the middle of right now. Can you blame me that these words in the book practically jumped right off the page? (Italics are mine.)

“Who doesn’t love ice cream? You can see how ice cream is made at the Ben & Jerry’s Waterbury Factory in Waterbury.”

Did you guys know about this?! That’s right. When it’s time to plan a summer vacation, arranging a tour at the Ben & Jerry’s factory (pretty much heaven for anyone with a sweet tooth) is an option.

Ben & Jerry’s has been in business since 1978. At the Waterbury factory, visitors view a movie to get the scoop (ha, get it?) on the company’s history. Then comes the promised tour. You can watch the ice cream churn in the workroom. See how different flavors are made. And yes, you can have free samples.

If you’re still hungry after sampling all that ice cream, you can top off your tour with—get this—a concoction called the Vermonster. It’s basically a giant sundae with (I couldn’t even make this up) twenty scoops of ice cream. It’s also got four bananas, brownies, cookies, M&M’s, Reese’s Pieces, chocolate sprinkles, hot fudge, caramel, and it’s topped with whipped cream.

If you’re planning a summer vacation, might I suggest a trip to Ben & Jerry’s? And if you’re not in vacation-planning mode, you can pick up this book come Fall 2015 and take a virtual tour in its pages. You’ll also learn about nine other awesome things to see and do in Vermont…but if you ask me, Ben & Jerry’s is the best.