June 17, 2024, Burlington, VT
Our first stop after leaving brother Glen’s was for home fries for Sandy at the Busy Bee Café. Some things are just too important to pass by and good home fries is one.
Stowe was on our way to Burlington so we stopped by the Commodores Inn, where we stay when skiing there, hoping to say hello to owners, Bruce & Carrie. We also wanted to see what the place looks like in the summer and to check out the pond they use for radio controlled sailboat racing. Carrie wasn’t there, hosting visiting grandkids at “Camp Carrie”. But Bruce was and was in good spirits. The Inn’s restaurant has reopened and is doing well now operating as MC’s Penalty Box, the ultimate sports bar in Stowe, Vermont.
We wanted to see the “Snowflake” Bentley Exhibit at the Old Red Mill in Jericho, Vermont. But, driving in to the parking lot it became clear that was no room for us to park and just barely room for us to turn around to leave. We decided we’d come back the next day in the car.
Our campground reservations were at North Beach Campground, part of a Burlington city park. It was a nice place with grassy sites and lots of shade from tall, mature trees. The prize, though, was that a short walk brought us to the park’s popular beach. It’s a beautiful place with a long, sandy beach on the lake, parking, shade for those non-sun worshipers and even a restaurant and bar!
Almost better yet was that the walk crossed Burlington’s paved Greenway Bike/Walk Path and the Island Line Trail that follows the lake’s shoreline for miles.
We stopped by the beach bar for drinks and to just enjoy the scene. Returning to WAWA, it was time for dinner. We were scraping the bottom of our food reserves and used up our remaining Italian sausage sautéed with onions and string beans.
June 18, 2024, Burlington, VT
Sandy walked the beach while Bill wrote, read and got the bikes ready for a ride. We jumped onto the Greenway Bike/Walk Path heading north toward the Lake Champlain Causeway. It’s a beautiful rail trail with very smooth paving that mostly hugs the lake shore. The causeway, where we turned around, connects the mainland to the largest island on Lake Champlain, South Hero. Well, it doesn’t quite make the full connection. The Local Motion Island Line Bike Ferry, whose name is nearly as long as it’s route, carries bikes and walkers the last bit between the causeway and the island. Anyway, it was sunny and hot so we turned around there, opting to do the causeway another day.
Back at the campground we took showers and drove back to the Old Red Mill in Jericho and the “Snowflake Bentley” exhibit. That’s where we were unable to park our camping rig yesterday.
As a child, Wilson Bentley was fascinated by snowflakes. He followed that fascination throughout his life. He badgered his parents to buy him a microscope so he could study them. He then proceeded to pioneer the technique of photomicrography. Experimenting in an unheated shed during the winter with the microscope adapted to a large, dry-plate bellows camera. Then, at the age of 19 in the year 1885, he perfected a method to isolate a single flake on a glass plate and photograph it. He went on to photograph more than 5,000 of them.
The photographs he made are beautiful and he used them to make gifts for people. Keeping careful records of weather conditions when the flakes fell he also formulated theories about how they form. He also studied the formation of rain, dew and frost. He was widely published and his theories have stood the test of time. Quite a legacy for a rural farm boy!
The exhibit was what drew us to the Old Red Mill but the mill, itself, is historic. Besides the exhibit, there is a lovely gift shop featuring Bentley’s photographs and Vermont artist’s crafts. Most fascinating, though is that the roller mill and packaging machinery, that replaced the original millstone setup, is still installed in what is now the gift shop! Better yet, the engaging and knowledgeable woman who runs the place is a descendant of Bentley.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at Hannafords for a few groceries. Supper was “fajita” bowls using precooked and flavored chicken strips with our own toppings. Next time we’ll cook and season our own chicken.
June 19, 2024, Burlington, VT
Today we rode a few miles south on the bike trail to and through the Burlington waterfront. The city has done a wonderful job with the area. We passed a large skate park, trailside sculptured rocks, a floating restaurant and the Dragon Boat docks.
The Dragonheart dragon boat fleet was conceived as an organization that helps support breast cancer research. Dragon boats use crews of twenty paddlers to propel each boat. The organization sponsors a popular annual race.
It was really hot and, on returning to the campground we showered and jumped into the car to return downtown for lunch at the Vermont Brewing Company. It was a good choice for a way to escape the oppressive heat. Gear shops are a favorite shopping venue so we moved on to a couple of outfitter shops we know from our ski trips to Stowe. The Skirack and the Outdoor Gear Exchange offered an hour or so of uninterrupted air conditioned gear grazing.
Returning to the campground we relented, turned on our air conditioning and spent a couple of hours luxuriating in the cool air.