VISITING CHURCH STREET

We arrived in Burlington, Vermont on Wednesday. Burlington is a college town.  As a matter of fact, there are 2 colleges here.  It is the home of University of Vermont and Champlain College.  It is the most populous town in Vermont. However, it is the least populous area in the United States to be the most populous area in a state. It is 45 miles south of the Canadian border.

They have closed 4 blocks of Church Street to vehicles and it is only for pedestrians.  It is full of shops and restaurants and forms Church Street Marketplace.  It is one of those really "urban" spots.  We decided to go check it out and have lunch.  Most of the places were chain stores that attract the college age person. We had lunch at a small cafe and ate outside because the weather was great. Anytime we go out to eat, it is always a 2 hour experience because there are 8 of us and we seem to overwhelm these small individually owned places.  It is either that or we are use to being in a hurry. Either way, it has been kind of fun just relaxing over a meal.

The RV park we are staying in is a city park. It is called North Beach RV Park. There are around 100 sites in the park.  Some have full hook-ups, some have water and electricity. The sites are gravel/grass and fairly level.From our spot, we can see Lake Champlain in the distance.  It is a short walk to the beach on Lake Champlain. It is very peaceful and quiet in the park and on the beach. We went to the beach and sat for over an hour watching sailboats and kayakers. We also watched a lady come out in her bathing suit, walk out to the water, and swim laps for about 20 minutes. When she got out and walked by us, we asked how cold the water was. We had heard the water was 60 degrees. She had her towel draped over her shoulders, but she was wet and her hair was wet and she was not shivering nor did she have chattering teeth.  (We were sitting there in jeans and jackets.) She said the surface water was fairly warm but the underneath was pretty chilly. She said that if the water was 60 degrees, it would probably be about 10 foot down because she didn't believe that it was that chilly. No matter what, she made me cold just looking at her.

North Beach RV has laundry facilities.  It is small.  It only has 2 washers and 2 dryers. But, it was very clean and worked well and was reasonably priced. The full hook-up sites are $45 per night. Every site has 50 amp service.

There is a car show in town this weekend.  The guys are going.  There are suppose to be over 1500 cars.  We may never see them again! We also plan on taking the ferry for a ride on Lake Champlain and to go see the museum in Shelburne.  It also isn't a visit to Vermont without going to Ben and Jerry's ice cream tour. We are also anxiously awaiting the sighting of a moose! There were signs all over the place in New Hampshire, but we never saw one.  The same signs are in Vermont. We are hoping for better luck.