Hello Vermont

This trip has been planned since last year because I have had the Vermont Quilt Show on my bucket list for awhile.  I found a carriage house rental on VRBO, which allows us to cook breakfast and other meals, if we choose to do so.  Unfortunately, last Friday I went to the Dr. with an ear ache and was diagnosed with an ear infection, which turned into a great cold, which I then passed to Bill.  I have lost my hearing (in my "good ear), neither of us feels very good and we are both coughing.  To top it off, the weather prediction is for rain over the weekend.  Not the best of circumstances ;o(

But...we're here and we'll make the best of it.  Hopefully ;o)

We left the house around 10 this morning and the four hour drive was quite pretty and went by quickly.  Beautiful blue sky and mountains full of green.  VT is the Green Mountain State.

We arrived right at 2:00, retrieved the keys from the lock box and were pleasantly surprised at just how nice this little place is.  The owners are a young couple that live in the house near the road.  The husband and his father built this carriage house over the period of a year.  It is beautifully done with lots of granite and tile, soft colors and extra special touches like the beautiful ceiling fan and swivel tv with an electric fireplace on the other side.  It can be turned around to watch tv from the bed, or watch the fire.  Very clever!  They left some fresh eggs in the fridge for us and also provide some nice local VT soap.

After unloading our stuff and saying hello to Emily, one of the owners, we headed into downtown Winsooki (5 minutes away) where we ate lunch outside along a row of small restaurants.  We chose the Mule Bar, where Bill had a burger and I had a hot dog.  

From there we headed to Shaw's to purchase some Kcups for the Keurig (only to discover there were some in a drawer in the rental), some strawberries for breakfast and a salad for dinner.  

Next stop was the Burlington Bikeway, which wasn't the place we thought it was, but it was nice just the same.  It was a short walk along the bike path, which was super busy, to the Burlington Earth Clock.  Very cool!  

There's a circular stone in the center of the earth clock

and smaller circular stones in a semi-circle around the edge.

This is what a pano picture looks like when you wobble but they really are situated in an arc.

When you stand on today's date in the large circle, your shadow will point to the solar time on the smaller circles.

4:40 pm

This area overlooks Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains.

There is a nice public beach, including kayak and paddle board rentals. Dogs are even allowed, as long as they are kept on leash.

Further along there is a picnic pavilion, restrooms and a short path to this treehouse.

The path ended shortly beyond here, in a neighborhood area, so we turned around and walked back, which took only about 15 minutes.

Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains

The Earth Clock from the other direction

It was way past the time we settle down with our iced coffees and our books, so we picked up our coffees and headed back to the rental, where we sat on the deck and relaxed until nearly 8:00.  The sun didn't set until 8:46!

This is the view of the back yard and the chicken coop from the deck...very nice and quiet, except we discovered we were in today's flight path to the airport.

We considered going back out to watch the sunset but neither one us really had the energy so we ate our salad and settled down to watch tv.  I was kind of sorry we didn't go when I saw this view out the window over the bed.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)