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 (...

We departed Ft Edward after a late start this morning and decided to stay in Whitehall. We walked a couple miles in the burning heat and the only thing we could find that was open was the ice cream shop! It was disappointing and the town is basically dying like so many historic towns in these parts. At 4:30p we decided to go through the last lock on the Champlain Canal. Of course once we departed the wall the lockmaster informed us the lock was broken. Finally at 5:40p she got it working and off we went to find Lake Champlain before dark. We made it to Pt. Chipman Marina, which had dates on the buildings of 1810 and 1824! We met some nice folks from Vermont that own acres of farmland from many generations passed on. This is beautiful country and we are looking forward to cooler weather and more adventure around the lake this week.

We are back in some beautiful rural scenery in upstate NY as we cruise the Champlain Canal. We passed the Saratoga Battlefields and many historic sites but it has just been too hot to explore with temperatures in the mid 90's. Today is the peak of the heat wave with a forecast of 96F and tomorrow cooling into the 80's. I sure hope the forecasters are correct for once! We got off to a late start yesterday after church and reprovisioning. There were several slow spots in the canal and we had to wait for a barge on two of the four locks we transited. The locals were out in force due to the warm weekend day and the jet skiers were enjoying the wake we made. We are finding more and more bugs growing larger and larger as we venture onward, and at this rate, I am expecting to see spiders the size of my hand soon! We continue to find ticks in the boat so there are now multiple tick checks daily of the dogs. Today is our 24th anniversary! We need to get going and hopefully I will have e...