Charlotte to Burlington, VT

We were eager to leave Point Bay Marina, which got good marks for service and amenities, but we had too many bouncy nights, and it’s a long ways from town. The weather was expected to deteriorate significantly later in the day, so we cast off our lines at 7:00 AM and motored 17 miles in calm weather to Burlington, the largest city in Vermont. Fun fact: with a population of 44,700, Burlington is the least populous city in the U.S. that is the most populous city in its state. It is home to Champlain College and the University of Vermont and in 2015, became the first American city to run entirely on renewable energy. Burlington was also the original home of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which started here in 1978 in an old gas station.

Along the lake, we passed the Inn at Shelburne Farms, where we had breakfast on my birthday. We always enjoy seeing sights from both the land and water.

We’re docked at the Burlington Community Boathouse Marina, right in town and across from the 120-foot Spirit of Ethan Allen III sightseeing and dinner cruise ship. Looking at the radar, we agreed that the first wave of thunderstorms would miss us and we got out the folding bikes for a lovely ride on the Burlington Bike Path, which goes through a number of beautiful parks, nine miles along Lake Champlain, across the Winooski River and onto an old railroad causeway in the middle of the lake, where a bike ferry takes riders further north into the Champlain Islands. The marina, surrounding parks and the bike path were all part of an extensive waterfront beautification project begun by Senator Bernie Sanders when he was Burlington’s mayor from 1981-1989. Map Link: Burlington, VT

There were a few sprinkles and one rain shower on our two-hour bike ride, but we enjoyed the trail and scenery immensely. The skies opened up around 3:00 PM and rained hard for about seven hours—the remnants of Hurricane Beryl that is dumping inches of rain in the Northeast and elsewhere. The marina’s restaurant did not open today because of the weather, so we ate dinner at the Burlington Bay Market & Cafe, a four-minute walk and the absolute closest place that we could find to walk to in the rain.