Sun July 18 & Tues July 20: Hanging in Burlington

 In which inertia sets in ...

We got to Burlington in high spirits - we've been here before and have fond memories.  Which we continue to have - we just could do without constant grey clouds, and Western-fire smoke. We got so low-animo from grey, that we just couldn't get off the dock to leave - even after we had run out of things to do in Burlington.  The Ben and Jerry's factory isn't giving tours, the theaters and comedy clubs are closed, the art museum has an exhibit on Bubble Gum Pop (need I say more), etc. We went to the grocery store 4 times in 4 days - that's how little we cared about life...

Great info on Lake Champlain - courtesy of our first restaurant, which put BACON in my clam chowder.  INSPIRED!!!

Lake Champlain is supposed to be a pristine, clear, cold water lake, but over the years we humans have contaminated it in a number of ways.   The lake is filled with aquatic weeds and the Blue-Green algae also known as cyano-bacteria has so taken over the lake that it almost impossible to swim (cyano-bacteria makes a toxin and at high concentrations it isn’t advisable to swim). 

This kind of makes me regret the skinny-dipping...

Public art is always inspiring...

On Tuesday we walked up to the pedestrian zone and had a nice slice of pizza for lunch.  Burlington is a very comfortable small city and we have enjoyed our stay here. 

The downtown mall is great, and reminds me of Boulder ..

And I can't resist a red-hulled sailboat.

Once again we have to consult Atlas Obscura - which encouraged us to go see the flying monkeys on top of the old train station.

Of course we end up in the wrong area of town, because we always do...  Here is the local homeless encampment.

Rick felt badly that I had to put up with so much history, so he was willing to walk two miles to see the tallest filing cabinet in the world!  Totally NOT worth it - but a great excuse to walk.

We accidentally walked by a Lake Champlain Chocolates original store and have to go in (actually, Rick here - it isn’t clear if we were walking to the tallest filing cabinet or the chocolate shop - they happened to be two blocks apart).  They aren't doing factory tours, but I wanted to see the chocolate sculptures!

All edible - and chocolate!

Too pretty to eat.

We understand that Vermont State Senator Bernie Sanders has pushed for a rule that all Vermonters must eat at least 3 ice cream creamees per week in order to support local dairy farmers.  We are certainly doing our part!

Vermont Creamees, an excellent source of calcium!

The local lake cruise boat is docked right behind us, and doing a HOPPING business.  They go out 3-4 times a day, which means that they blow their I'm-backing-up horn that often.  Scaring us to death every. single. time.

The sunset was absolutely beautiful.  We understand it was due to smoke and haze from western fires. Hard to believe that we are getting smoke from over 2000 miles away.  It must be really bad out west.