Summary
Took a nice walk to Church Street Marketplace, a 4-block pedestrian area full of restaurants and fun shops. We perused menus and settled on the terrace of Leunigs for lunch. Afterwards, we walked down to the harbor on Lake Champlain then back to our charming hotel (The Blind Tiger, “a 14-room boutique bed and breakfast located in an 1881 red-brick mansion”). In the late afternoon we drove to the house of Anna and Alex, our former (favorite) next door neighbors. We got reacquainted with their dog and met their two-year old daughter then had an excellent dinner at their favorite neighborhood restaurant, May Day.
Details
Today’s our first full day in Burlington and our first full day back in the States since our three or so weeks up in Canada. We’re staying at a bed-and-breakfast so we get breakfast, yay.
Where we’re staying is a massive old house (four floors including the below-ground level) built in 1881. The place is on a hill sloping down (in the direction of Lake Champlain) so the entrance is at ground level and the below ground level (around back) is too. For most of its life the building was a private residence, and for a time it was a retirement community. But now it’s a B-and-B named Blind Tiger. We’re downstairs in “The Minibar” room. The room doesn’t have a minibar but our fridge has a glass front and can hold dozens of bottles of wine.
When we checked in the nice girl mentioned that they’d taken the liberty of upgrading us for our four day stay, for some unknown reason. Our new room is reportedly four times the size of the one we would have been in. OK. Nice. We’re given a guided tour of our room, er, rooms. We have an entry way, two hallways, a living room, a big bedroom, of course a bath, and a private outdoor sitting area. This’ll do!
But it’s a sunny Saturday and we don’t have that much time in Burlington (and certainly not all that much on our own) so after some morning exercising in the room (Karen) and relaxing (me) we head out to do some sightseeing. The houses around us are similarly large and impressive. All I can think about is the cost to maintain and heat them. Many, we’re sure, house college students. The number of electric meters on a given house (like six) or gas meters is a give away for into how many subdivided unit a certain place has been carved.
We enjoy our sight seeing and the exercise. The city is the biggest in Vermont, but still it’s only fifty thousand people. The whole state only has six or seven hundred thousand, not even a million. Can that be right? Tiny by comparison to Austin or so many other cities, let alone states. I think Wyoming is the only less populated state. . And yet, still, there are the unhoused and substance abusers. Like all big cities.
I lived here for four (or more) years back in the late 70s to get a college education. I recognize a lot of the town, even though that was going on 50 year ago. Church street, the main drag through town (ending at a church) was always a draw, with its bars and restaurants. Back then you could drive down the street. Now you have to walk. It really is a draw for the tourists and it’s just a nice walk, so I’m sure there are a lot of locals here, too.
We find a good looking place and sit-down outside for a good lunch with a good whit beer. Afterwards we gift shop for the young daughter of the friends we’ll be seeing later for dinner. The shops are fun and funky. The Vermonters like to laugh at themselves for their old timey ways. You can tell there’s lots of stuff being sold to help college students decorate their dorm rooms, but what college student has money these days.
We grab a cone at Ben and Jerry’s, which started here when I was back in college. Back then it was just in an old gas station and they had the ice cream maker machines, complete with ice and rock salt, grinding away. At least that’s how I remember it.
We head down to the water, along the shores of Lake Champlain. We see the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain with its caricatures of “Champy” the supposed Loch Ness Monster like local lake-dwelling sea creature. We see where we’ll be meeting other friends tomorrow for a boat ride on the lake. We finally walk back home and are amazed at how much walking we did today.
After some more resting at our hotel we drive over to our former next door neighbor’s in Austin, Anna and Alex. They left when Anna was pregnant so she didn’t have to be pregnant and giving birth at the height of Austin’s hot summer. They bought a gorgeous house here where they live with their beautiful dog Lyra and their now two year old daughter Evelyn Amélia.
With the babysitter firmly in control we all slink (walk) away to a delicious dinner nearby. Burlington has a lot of fun places to eat with outdoor seating to take advantage of the nice summery weather. Winters here can be cold and brutal so people here know how to enjoy the good weather.
Over a great dinner we hear about Alex’s new job (with the company who brings you ChatGPT, wow!) and Anna’s project to develop a meeting space, third place, work/play/eat space for people with kids who don’t feel they can take them other places because they weren’t designed with accommodating families with kids in mind. Fun times and such energetic younger generations.
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