Hello there, persons of the blogosphere! I write to you from atop the Green Mountains, or at least atop one of them, or at least not far from the top of one of them! We have left the wilds of the Greater Boston area for a four-day weekend in Vermont, an event that is becoming something of a yearly tradition. It is also an event that strikes me as particularly hypocritical, considering I spend the other 361 days of the year moaning about suburbia and how we need to move back to a city. You’d think being this far from a metropolitan area would make my a bit hyperventilatey, yet somehow it doesn’t. I think the sheer distance to a major city simply overrides my City Gene.
That and the fact that it is absolutely freakin’ gorgeous up here. You can’t spit without hitting a phenomenal farmer’s market (because, you know, that would be the classy thing to do), and the locally sourced produce and bread and everythingdelicious is out of control. Plus you just can’t make up views like this:
Or the fact that you’re just ambling through a side-of-the-road sculpture park and stumble upon the most pristine stream you’ve ever seen, the kind you need to wade into and skip rocks through immediately, lest you go back home and remember never doing it:
And then there’s Burlington. While I may not be the worldliest of women, I have been more than a few places and I still maintain that Burlington, VT, is one of the best spots in the world. Honest-to-god hippies stroll shoulder-to-shoulder with Gap-bedecked UVM students, while tourists and locals alike stop to take renewing breaths of the fresh, Lake Champlain-scented mountain air, the foghorns of ferries and the tinkling of head shops and the melodies of live-music clubs all mingling to make you realize you’re really lucky to be there right at that moment.
Every time we visit Burlington, Adam and I throw around the idea of moving there, temporarily shedding our Big City Dreams for a lake-rimmed college town where we could eat our weight in local goat cheese. Then we remember, Oh! Winter! Samosa stands and charmingly dreadlocked neighbors, sure. But constant multiple feet of snow? We’re just too feeble of soul for that.
Maybe Aura will realize the Burlington dream some day. Adam’s father and uncle both were born and raised in the city, and we tracked down their homestead yesterday. It, much like the city itself, looks like a good place to have grown up.
After all, and as we reminded Aura, it’s always nice to have a legacy, even if it’s far from the place you usually call home.
Oh man, I want cheese so badly after reading that title. It looks like so much fun! Now I have to add Burlington to the list of places I have to see.
That picture of Aura in the stream is so refreshing…especially compared to the dreads. I’m down with hippies as long as they never make me touch their hair.
ooh i love me some VT. manfriend’s family is from cabot (literally right up the street from the factory) and it is SO in the middle of no where. i love it.
i haven’t been to burlington since i was little, but clearly i need to get back there asap.
Well, of course I have never been there. But I will take your word on the hippies and Farmer’s Markets. And I could definitely deal with the middle of nowhere feeling for a few days.
Looks lovely! And we have a Burlington here too – about an hour away from me!
Never been to VT. I’m a Westerner. There’s a town near Colorado Springs, CO that is very much like your Burlington. Manitou Springs, Colorado. Volkswagon vans seem to be the most popular vehicle. “If the van’s a-rockin…don’t come….’ well, you know.
Enjoy that well deserved vacation! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
I agree – Burlington is amazing and Vermont is so beautiful. We are really country folk and we often dream of living there. It’s the best of both worlds!
Your getaway sounds so peaceful and relaxing. We are thinking of taking a few kid-free days in the fall, and I would love to go somewhere quiet and away-from-it-all like that. I want to travel around the northeast US one day, so I’ll add Burlington to the list!
Looks like a great place. Some great fun! Daisy Dayz Home
[...] are freshly returned from a vacation in Vermont, a state I’ve written about before and to which I would gladly relocate if it wasn’t, well, Vermont. It is one of the most [...]