Burlington, VT

(May 8-11) Zack, Matt's buddy from highschool, flew us up to Burlington, Vermont for our first trip to the northeast. It was an easy hour long flight on Jetblue and we landed in Burlington with sweeping views of the green hills and dense woods. Matt and I had a couple of hours to kill until Zack got off work at the airport. We plopped ourselves down in the bar and ordered a couple of local Vermont brews. One beer lead into another and we found ourselves in need of a game to play. I had cards and Matt had some one dollar bills so we decided to play a friendly game of Texas Hold'em between us. The bartender quickly reprimanded us for gambling in the bar so we used beer bottle caps as chips and played a few hands until the bar closed down. Afterwards we amuzed ourselves with some old fashioned video games until Zack rescued us. Burlington's Airport is quite nice and modern. It even has an observation tower that I pretended I was a flight controller and radioed the planes in.

When Zack got off we squeezed into his little red truck and drove about 10 minutes to Winooski where he owns a house with his brother Josh, a friend Josh from Eureka and another roommate named none other than Zack. Zack has an enormous Tibetan Mastif dog which resembles a bear more than anything else. Because we'd met Bromius as a puppy he didn't remember us so we had to be extremely cautious around the family pet. I made the mistake of making eye contact and nearly wet myself when the dog went from eating to pouncing in mere seconds. Zack built a fence in the kitchen to separate the dog from the rest of the house when new visitors come by. Hair balls that look like tumble weeds blow around the house. No matter how fast you clean the dog sheds gigantic hairs.

Zack is a man that knows two things well, food and beer and we were delighted to have him as a host and a guide. What Matt and I quickly learned in Burlington was the vastness of quality brews. Our first meal was in downtown Burlington at the Pub. We sampled a few pints over burgers, my favorite being a maple beer. From there we hopped around to another bar with slightly fancier drinks before heading home with some road sodas.

The walk into Burlington from Winooski requried us to trapse along a railroad track and over a railroad bridge. I was not so sure footed walking between the big wood planks above the river where looking down it felt liked you'd fall into a cold black abyss. Zack could practically skip across, I was worried my legs would get stuck between one of the gaps. By the end of our stay I could master walking at a pace slightly above those in a walker.

Zack took us on a drive out to Shelburne farms, a large working farm, just outside Burlington. There's an amazing grande farmhouse that looks better suited for the alps than Vermont. We wandered around the grounds petting some of the animals and discovering how maple is tapped from the trees to make syrup. Later in the afternoon we picked up one of the Josh's and went hiking up on Bolton. The boys had picked a picturesque spot along a flowing river that had small waterfalls and smooth watering holes. I even saw a fly fisherman in the distance at the beginning of our hike. Vermont is just starting to come alive with life and that was clearly evident to us hiking through the woods with ferns and fiddleheads sprouting up everywhere. At one point after safely trekking along the planned paths we decided we wanted something alittle more unconventional and decided to forge our own paths. This lead to two things, lots of brush and hordes of bugs. As soon as we'd stop a steep ascent uphill bugs would swarm our heads with a fury. I would try to be Zen with the bugs yet they would whirl and swirl around me invading my personal space. The ground is so moist in Vermont that it feels as though you are walking on a wet earthy sponge. We hiked until the sun was setting in vibrant purples.

The next day we did all things Vermont. We sampled local cheeses, apple cider and made a visit to the Ben & Jerry's factory to try some Dublin Mudslide. We'd been blessed with good weather up in Vermont. High puffy white clouds with a cooling breeze and deep blue skies. Zack found us a disc-golf course near the Ben & Jerry's factory so we had a nice afternoon of chasing our terrible throws through mushy fields, trees and along the creekside. That evening was spent at the Monkey Bar playing a friendly game of Hold'em with Zack's buddies. We didn't turn in any night we were there until after 2 am. Anyone that knows me knows that I can't keep my eyes open past 9pm.

We both fell in love with Vermont and especially Burlington. I think our biggest problem on our trip will be resolving our feelings for all the places that capture our hearts. The winters would freeze our timid bones so that may be a deal braker upon our return to civilization. Being reunited with Zack was a tremedous lift to our spirits, not that we need a lift. Him and all of his roommates are just good good people. Maybe that's why Burlington felt like a home away from home for us.