Burlington

A Lake Champlain sunset.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

~ Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

No smoking on Church Street. Burlington, Vermont. June 2017

Let’s travel back in time and distance to Vermont.  We’ll start in Burlington and see where we go from there.  Not far, I suspect.  Our days were packed and it will be difficult to fit all of our experience of Burlington in one post.

Walking on Church Street. Burlington, Vermont.

I loved Burlington.  It reminded me a lot of Boulder, Colorado, in that it has a similar vibe to it.  Perhaps it’s not this way all the time, but it felt very positive to me while we were there.  Hot, too.  They were having an unusual heat wave and the high temperature was in the 90’s.

Still on Church Street.

We spent a lot of time wandering around the Church Street Marketplace, an open air mall that was originally conceived in 1958 (the year I was born), but not realized until the 1980’s.  The idea came up as part of an urban renewal discussion, and in 1971 they experimented with an open air market.  15,000 people showed up and that was taken as a clear sign that the folks of Burlington would embrace an open air mall or marketplace.

Walking the dog.

I did not take a lot of photos with the big camera in Burlington.  I could blame it on the heat, but honestly, I just wanted the experience of being there, and the camera can be heavy to lug around.  The phone camera is much lighter, and I did use it from time to time.

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival

We arrived in Burlington during the last weekend of the Discover Jazz Festival, and were looking forward to listening to some live music.  We did see and hear a few bands, but our timing was terrible, especially on Friday night (June 9th, the day we arrived in Burlington) .  The first band we went to see, a reggae band, didn’t start on time.  They spent over an hour setting up and when they still weren’t ready, M and I decided to leave and try another stage/venue.  Well.  By the time we got there, the band was in the midst of their last song for the night.

Waiting for the band to set up.

Early on Saturday morning we did something unusual.  We met up with friends at a beer store in Winooski to stand in line for Heady Topper, an IPA (beer) that is much in demand in that area.  Apparently it’s the thing to do on Saturday mornings.  It’s brewed by The Alchemist, a family run brewery, and sold in limited amounts within a 25 mile radius of the brewery.  We were limited to two four-packs each of the Heady Topper and two four-packs each of another IPA, Sip of Sunshine (brewed by Lawson’s).  I sent a text to a friend that said something along the lines of “Only in Vermont would I be standing in line at 9 AM to buy beer.”

Heady Topper truck.

Once we bought our allotment of IPA’s, we went to a place called Sneakers for a great breakfast.  Our friends once lived in Vermont so the early Saturday morning beer buy and breakfast at Sneakers was a ritual for them.

Sneakers hanging out at Sneakers Bistro in Winooski, Vermont.

After breakfast, M and I had a look at the Winooski River and then made our way back to Burlington to listen to more jazz music at the Jazz Fest.

Winooski River.

When people who have never lived in New Hampshire or Vermont visit here,
they often say they feel like they’ve come home.  Our urban center, commercial
districts, small villages and industrial enterprises are set amid farmlands and
forests.  This is a landscape in which the natural and built environments are
balanced on a human scale.  This delicate balance is the nature of our
“community character.”  It’s important to strengthen our distinctive, traditional
settlement patterns to counteract the commercial and residential sprawl that
upsets this balance and destroys our economic and social stability.

~ Richard J. Eward, Proud to Live Here

Dancing to what I can only describe as experimental jazz. Strange and interesting music (and dancing).

That’s about it for this edition of How I Spent My Summer Vacation.  Our next stop, when I finally get around to it, will be Shelburne, Vermont.  Thanks for stopping by.  It’s always good to see you.  This evening’s sunset show might be interesting.  Meet ya at the Point, if you’re interested.  Sunset is scheduled for 7:45 PM.

To my friends in Texas, please stay safe.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

A Saturday evening on Church Street.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  256)  Today’s lovely weather.  It’s much cooler and drier, more like autumn than summer.  257)  A red fox strolling by.  258)  Words of wisdom.  259)  Friendship and the many gifts of friendship.  260)  Sharing jokes and laughter with M at lunch today.

Cheers!