Arctic Songbird Adventures

It was a late start (as usual) getting out of Burlington but there was some last minute shopping that needed to be done. Once we were underway in the widest part of the lake, the breeze stopped and we were on a giant mirror. Our first stop was Valcour Island to visit the historical area where Benedict Arnold and some of America's first Navy just about got wiped out by the British in 1776. After we circumnavigated the island we anchored in a cove on the north end. We met some nice Canadians on their sailboat and asked them about the trails on the island. The first thing they said was dont take your dogs because the island is infested with ticks. That put a huge Kibosh on our plans so we putted around the shores in the zodiac and let the dogs out on one beach. When we got back to the boat it was getting very hot so I went for an afternoon swim. The water was 64F and so nice I actually got some exercise scrubbing the bottom of the boat with my brush. The dogs even went swimming (onl...

We spent two awesome days exploring Burlington and the weather has been perfect.  This is definitely a major college town filled with parks, restaurants, shopping, and lots of ice cream and maple syrup! The only disappointing thing I can say is everything is very expensive compared to other places we have visited. Overall, it is a beautiful, fun, town, with many friendly people. Church Street is a great place to eat, shop, and watch people perform on the sidewalk. We had to go in Ben and Jerry's original ice cream store and drop $15 for a couple scoops. Allison fell in love with the VW hippie bus on display. We walked many miles up and down the moderately sloped streets and found some great parks, historical plaques and memorials, and beautiful architecture. There were a lot of battles fought here and all around Lake Champlain. On Wednesday, we rented a 4th bike for Allison and we rode 30 miles on the scenic bikeway. The dogs have once again, been the focus of 100's of people (...