
6/19/22
Another beautiful couple of days here in Burlington. Yesterday was mostly kind of windy and rainy, so I stayed in for much of the day, but my hosts and I did attend a Juneteenth event downtown in the evening, including some great musical and poetry performances, and even a panel discussion featuring Dr. Angela Davis! (I took photos, but the lighting made them not turn out, unfortunately.) I couldn’t believe she was in town and that I got the chance to see such a living legend.
Today I said goodbye to Heather, Ben, and Jesse, and biked only a few short blocks away to my new (and final Burlington) Servas host family: Valerie, Michael, their sons Henry and Isaac, their dog Jake, and their parrot Kiwi!
Shortly after my arrival, Valerie took me on a walk with Jake, to see her community garden plot as well as walk down to the lakeshore beach.

They are a very busy family, so although we got some good interaction time via walks, a homemade dinner of vegan tacos, and the viewing of a couple of Seinfeld episodes, I spent most of the afternoon exploring Rock Point while the parents attended Henry’s baseball game in Montpelier.
I biked north on the bike path a couple of miles to reach it, and then spent about an hour and a half hiking the incredible lakeside trail.


Along the bike trail on the way there, I passed the Burlington Amtrak station. I’m sad that the timing was just slightly off for me, because no Amtrak trains come through here now, but on July 29th they will resume service from New York City to Burlington (first time since 1953!) This is great news, and I hope I can take that line at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Heather had raved about Rock Point, and strongly recommended I visit it, and I’m so glad I did. The trees were incredible. The lake views were incredible. The sky and clouds were incredible.







I could have spent easily another hour on continuations of the trail, but I needed to get back in time for dinner, so I turned around.
One extra cool feature of the trail was a beach with a wooden xylophone and two mallets suspended from a fallen tree. I was the only one there when I descended the staircase, so I spent a bit of time hammering out “Doe a Deer” and making up a few of my own tunes, before I turned around and noticed a family of three on the steps behind me, awaiting their own turn with the music. I relinquished the spot and continued hiking, while their music floated through the forest after me.


Tomorrow is my last full day in Burlington. I plan to explore downtown’s Church Street—the brick-paved pedestrian plaza where the flagship Ben & Jerry’s shop is situated—and hopefully also meet up with a local Marillion fan.
Life is good.
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