July 20
There isn’t a lot to do in Vermont. About the only desirable “urban” destination we could find was Burlington, about an hour and a half northwest of our AirBnB.
So we went there.
We started our morning by re-hiking two of the three waterfalls I’d already been to: Thundering Brook Falls and the falls on the South Kent Pond Trail. This was in an effort to try to wear Ash down a little since we’d be gone for the better part of the day.
We set out just after 9:00 making our first stop at Thundering Brook Falls 15 minutes later. We took the quarter-mile hike out to the falls where Brandy took her own pics and vids before we set back out to the truck.
About 15 minutes after that, we found ourselves at the trailhead for the South Kent Pond Trail. We took the short hike to the falls on that trail, Brandy once more taking her own pics and vids, then we wandered over to a different viewpoint where Kent Brook empties into the pond.
After more pictures from that vantage point, we headed back to the truck, made the 15 minute drive back to the house, kenneled Ash then headed out to our big stop for the day.
Burlington
After having made the drive to Burlington once to pick Brandy up from the airport on July 12, it was nice to see the same drive in the daylight. Interstate 89 meanders through the green mountains with the opposing directions’ lanes split by wooded and rocky islands. There are huge stretches when you can’t see the traffic in the oncoming lanes.
The drive is pretty easy, taking just under an hour and a half.
We exited the interstate and wound through the surface streets to the Church Street Marketplace, a four-block pedestrian mall with plenty of shopping and dining to be had. We entered the nearby Downtown Garage where we were greeted with a sign announcing a slight 7 foot roof clearance. We entered, crossing our fingers that our massive truck would fit.
As we approached the first concrete joist supporting the parking level above, we held our breath as the antenna, taller than the roof of the truck, scraped the cement structure. The roof passed under the barriers without issue so we were safe.
We made our way through the tight turns of the parking garage, making our way up to the third level without seeing a suitable spot. We decided to head back down and out to try to find an open air lot somewhere else when we happened upon a perfect, pull-straight-in spot up against the short wall of the garage. I let Brandy out and pulled into the spot. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to pay for our parking (which required the downloading of an app on my phone, that would only be used this one time…)
Once our fee was paid, we headed out of the garage and almost immediately found ourselves in the middle of the pedestrian mall. Due north of our entrance point, just past the north boundary of the Church Street Marketplace, sits the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, a church belonging to a denomination I’d never heard of, Universalists (apparently believing in “universal salvation”) and serves as the oldest remaining place of worship established by settlers in Burlington. From our vantage point, the 170-foot tall steeple is visible over the many trees lining the streets.
As mentioned above, the marketplace spans four blocks, though we only made it through two. We performed almost exactly as we did on our trip to Hanover, New Hampshire, the day before, stopping in a couple of shops for our standard souvenirs and stopping for lunch at the Church Street Tavern.
We decided to try a new way of eating out. Instead of getting an appetizer, and each of us getting our own entree, we instead got an appetizer and an entree to split. The appetizer we settled on was chips & queso with a side of guacamole, and we also split the Tavern Burger:
Smash burger topped with lettuce, tomato, cheese, caramelized onions, maple bourbon bacon and garlic aioli
Church Street Tavern Menu
…with onion rings as our side.
The chips and queso were fine, typical bar-food style queso, and the guacamole was a very obviously packaged product. As this was a bar, that shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.
The burger was reminiscent of the burger I had at Upstate Bar & Grill in Cooperstown. It was delicious, and even Brandy gave it a rare compliment.
This method of dining out worked out perfectly. We saved an entree’s worth of money, and we didn’t walk out with a bunch of food that we’d wind up most likely throwing out.
We did a little more browsing about before deciding our time in Burlington was over and we headed back to the parking garage, then out for a couple more stops before heading back to the AirBnB.
First, we stopped at Staples just before hopping on the highway so Brandy couple get some supplies for her work. We got on the interstate stopping in Williston for Brandy to check Ulta Beauty for a face cream that she likes. Unfortunately, they didn’t have it so we moved on to our next stop, Dick’s Sporting Goods, to look for water shoes and dry-pouches for our phones for an upcoming adventure.
We got what we needed then made the uneventful drive back.
Conclusion
Overall, it was such a low-key day that I didn’t take any pictures. We drove, shopped, ate and drove back, not a lot of noteworthy activity. It only even barely warranted a post here.
Stay tuned for the last two posts from Vermont, we did a couple of pretty cool things that I’d never done before and I’m super excited to share my experiences!
Until then!
-Phil