Friday, June 15, 2007
Lake Champlain to Burlington, Vermont
Wednesday and Thursday, June 13 – 14. Lake Champlain is huge and beautiful with New York’s Adirondack Mountains to the west and the scenic rolling hills of Vermont to the east. The pollen and cottonwood tree fuzz has continued to do a number though, and after wheezing and coughing for several days, I finally started taking a prescription. The pollen was so thick on the lake that our wake seemed to have a greenish/yellow glow. We certainly weren’t expecting pollen in mid-June! But then, the water temperature still hasn’t reached 60 degrees here.
We would have loved to have spent more than two nights in Burlington, a friendly, sophisticated, vibrant city that is also boat friendly, The Community Boathouse Marina was convenient to a shuttle that took us up a hill where every upscale shop, coffee house, gallery, restaurant, and department store was available in a pleasant pedestrian-only plaza. There simply wasn’t enough time to take it all in. We did manage to splurge on Ben and Jerrys for supper the evening we arrived!
Unfortunately this is the last city before we get to Canada, so on Thursday we caught up on the mundane: post office, pharmacy, laundry, mail, hair cuts, and phone calls. The only sightseeing we managed to do was to take a walk (“only a few blocks” – actually a couple of miles) to the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. Bliss! We loaded up on and assortment of “seconds,” which meant that some of the truffles weren’t exactly round. Oh darn. They still taste delicious!
Yet again we were amazed and thankful for the kindness of strangers. We asked the chocolate sales person to call a us cab to get back to the boat. A lady in the store said, “Oh, I’ll take you wherever you need to go.” To make a long story short, Mary Lou Surgi, a visitor to Burlington herself, then took us shopping for Vermont cheeses before we went back to Second Wind for drinks. Mary Lou is the director of a non-profit firm in Ashville, NC, which encourages food ventures. What a fun and fascinating lady! Her friend, who was visiting, has a Huntsville and Muscle Shoals background, so we sent him a Huntsville baseball cap in gratitude. What an excellent way to end our Burlington experience.
We would have loved to have spent more than two nights in Burlington, a friendly, sophisticated, vibrant city that is also boat friendly, The Community Boathouse Marina was convenient to a shuttle that took us up a hill where every upscale shop, coffee house, gallery, restaurant, and department store was available in a pleasant pedestrian-only plaza. There simply wasn’t enough time to take it all in. We did manage to splurge on Ben and Jerrys for supper the evening we arrived!
Unfortunately this is the last city before we get to Canada, so on Thursday we caught up on the mundane: post office, pharmacy, laundry, mail, hair cuts, and phone calls. The only sightseeing we managed to do was to take a walk (“only a few blocks” – actually a couple of miles) to the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. Bliss! We loaded up on and assortment of “seconds,” which meant that some of the truffles weren’t exactly round. Oh darn. They still taste delicious!
Yet again we were amazed and thankful for the kindness of strangers. We asked the chocolate sales person to call a us cab to get back to the boat. A lady in the store said, “Oh, I’ll take you wherever you need to go.” To make a long story short, Mary Lou Surgi, a visitor to Burlington herself, then took us shopping for Vermont cheeses before we went back to Second Wind for drinks. Mary Lou is the director of a non-profit firm in Ashville, NC, which encourages food ventures. What a fun and fascinating lady! Her friend, who was visiting, has a Huntsville and Muscle Shoals background, so we sent him a Huntsville baseball cap in gratitude. What an excellent way to end our Burlington experience.
