Greetings from Burlington, VT!

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
We're in a Sonesta ES that's like a studio apartment with a full kitchen and king bed. AHHHHHH!!! Spacious, with a pool and hot tub, fitness room, big ol' gas grill, and breakfast in the morning. When I checked in, they gave me an enormous jug of Vermont maple syrup because I'm a rewards member. We don't eat things that use syrup, so I'll have to figure out what to do with it.

Sunday we went downtown to Church Street Marketplace to walk and nose around, then down to the waterfront for lunch. It's pretty here and there's a lot to do. Lake Champlain is HYOOOOGE, and they have ferries, dinner cruises, watercraft rentals, and all sorts of things going on.

Burlington is the largest city in Vermont, with a population of....ready?...slightly over 42,000. This makes it easy to get around and enjoy the area. There appear to be two main types of people here: freaks and Muffies. Not a lot in between. You're either a seriously alternative type, or a limousine liberal. However, they don't appear to recycle, which I found odd. How can you be all hippie green and eco if you don't even freaking recycle??? Anyway, this explains their Congressional choices. (PS, pretty much everything here is named after Pat Leahy, which is just weird.)

It's very rural - there is no Target in VT's largest city, and only a small Walmart. I'd guess that's by design, except they do have at least one large mall with all sorts of chain stores. And they have at least one proper Korean restaurant (we had dinner there last night) that offers true dolsot bibimbap; a really great Hannaford Market grocery store, a Walgreens, and a Cumberland Farms with fountain soda. So all my needs are met.

What we've seen so far is quaint and picturesque. It's an ideal couples romantic getaway, with enough to do that you wouldn't get bored. We're here for a month and I don't anticipate we'll be chewing our arms off to get out of here.
 

limblips

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
I am from across the lake in NY from Burlington. Very nice area in the summer but is the devil's playground in the winter! So much to do, a month isn't long enough. Shelburne Museum is close, very good look back at life in much earlier times. Lake Placid is an easy jaunt across the Grand Isle/Cumberland Head ferry then up route 3. Take a ride down the bobsled run! Ausable Chasm is on your way to Lake P. Ft Ticonderoga is close. The Kankamagus Highway in NH is beautiful. There is a great covered bridge tour through Vermont/NH. The Northeast Kingdom area of Vermont is a very rural sparsely populated, beautiful area. A nice day drive with some quaint towns and good food. Jealous I am. But retiring in December so next summer......
 

itsbob

I bowl overhand
Wildcat Mountain..

Cannon Mountain..

ALL kinds of GREAT views from the gondolas.. and awesome hikes and views from the top of the mountains..
 
The only time I ever got to that area was in the winter when we would spend 2 weeks at a clip on all the different mountains. Don't think I have ever stayed in VT when there was no snow on the ground!
 

HeavyChevy75

Podunk FL
https://www.attitash.com/alpine-slide/

Castle In the Clouds.. is also a fun place to go.. Mt Washington Auto Road.. King Arthur Flour.. Cheese factory tours.. Ben and Jerrys.. Teddy Bear Factory..

Watch out for all the SUBARUS!!

The Alpine Slide was my favorite thing to do with family. We would go camping several times a year in the summer up there. I am sure they put speed control on the alpine slide by now considering my brother would go flying around the corners. He wiped out once.

They had water parks there that was the first place I got a bloody nose from hitting the water so hard. Fun times. I am shocked I didn't break anything with the stuff we would do.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
There appear to be two main types of people here: freaks and Muffies.

Wait! There's another major demographic: aging hippies and granola grannies. And STILL they don't recycle.

Hit the mall today because I needed a few things and it was very quiet. Whatever teenagers do here, it's not "hang out at the mall".
 

Merlin

Registered Smarta$$
Some of our favorite places to go in various places in VT:
Cajuns Snack Bar: http://www.cajunssnackbar.com/
Prohibition Pig: http://prohibitionpig.com/
Snow Farm Vineyard: http://www.snowfarm.com/
Lincoln Peak Vineyard: https://lincolnpeakvineyard.com/
Sugarbush Farm: http://www.sugarbushfarm.com/
Dog Mountain: https://www.dogmt.com/Dog-Mountain.html
Cold Hollow Cider Mill: http://www.coldhollow.com/
Lost Nation Brewing: http://lostnationbrewing.com/home.php
Long Trail Brewing: http://longtrail.com/home

Happy exploring!
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Well, the Teddy Bear Factory was a letdown. I supposed if you had a super bored small daughter and a bunch of money, it would be worth visiting. So we meandered about and found a really good Italian restaurant for lunch - Buono Appetito. Monello had an eggplant parm sandwich and I had a side of meatballs and a side of brussel sprouts. Those sprouts were crazy good. :yay: I'd go back there again just for that. We were the only customers there for late lunch, but when we left we passed an Olive Garden that had a bunch of cars in the parking lot. People. Sheesh.
 

MJ

Material Girl
PREMO Member
I'm glad you said that. I wasn't real hot on B&J but was waiting until you weighed in on whether it was worth it or not.

$4 for a smug 20-something to rattle off bad cow puns. The "free sample" was small, in a paper cup, no spoon. They only sell ice cream or smoothies, you can't even get a bottle of water. I guess it keeps their costs down. VT is weird, I'm looking forward to our trip to Key West in the fall. Will you be down that way? :lol:
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
$4 for a smug 20-something to rattle off bad cow puns. The "free sample" was small, in a paper cup, no spoon. They only sell ice cream or smoothies, you can't even get a bottle of water. I guess it keeps their costs down. VT is weird, I'm looking forward to our trip to Key West in the fall. Will you be down that way? :lol:

VT *is* weird. Ben & Jerry's (and Bernie Sanders) are true representatives - nice, affable, rural, congenial, likeable, wholesome....but once you get 'em going you realize they're bat#### crazy and don't live in reality. That's Vermont.

Or let me rephrase that: they don't practice what they preach. I can't get over that they don't recycle. And they also have a homeless problem.

We'll be in Marathon 11/21 - 1/22 - I keep just missing you. :lol:
 

lucky_bee

RBF expert
Wait, what do you mean by no recycling in VT? :confused: It's one of the like, 12 states listed on stuff like your aluminum coke cans for collecting 5 cents per can or whatever. I'm not being smart, I'm genuinely curious because CT is one of those states too, it was mandatory actually.
 
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