Burlington and Little River State Park, Vermont

We arrived in Burlington early to meet with Andy’s parents and purchase a new tent (more on this later). All of us enjoyed exploring the Lake Champlain waterfront, with views of the Adirondack Mountains, and eating at some delicious and unique places – the lamp shop/concert venue/restaurant Duino Duende was a favorite.

The four of us spent a morning at Shelburne Farms strolling the grounds and gardens and making sure that Priscilla could name all the parts of a chicken. Afterwards, we ate their cheese for lunch at a food cart in the super fancy barn (it looked like a fortress).

We sampled a few Burlington breweries including Magic Hat Brewery. We all like their well-known #9 ale, but we ended up liking more of the beers at Zero Gravity Brewery.

On our way out of town, we stopped to bike the Island Line Rail Trail into Lake Champlain. It started off pretty foggy, but turned into a really unique and beautiful bike ride! Priscilla got to visit a restored 1 room schoolhouse that was reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables.

Spent the next couple nights camping at Little River State Park by another lake and more mountains. Aaand… we visited a couple more breweries, The Alchemist and Idletyme brewery & beer garden. Vermont has more breweries per capita than any other state! The Alchemist brewery has the famous Heady Topper IPA, consistently one of the top five beers in the USA. Americans sure do love their IPAs, but we thought it was meh. Idletyme Brewery had some awesome beers & great food with an awesome outdoor bar & game area.

We tried to slow down our pace a bit while at Little River State Park, so spent our time doing a leisurely bike ride, short nature walk and late afternoon paddling on the lake, since the weather was unexpectedly very warm!  Also finally managed some reading by the campfire!

Highlights of Burlington, VT and Little River State Park

• Idletyme Brewery in Stowe, Vermont – they had an awesome tasting lineup and we could have hung out in their tree-lined beer garden for many hours.
• Shelburne Farms – large working farm was great to walk around in, and does a lot of youth education in its fortress barn
• Island Line Rail Trail – really unique multi-use trail. You feel like you’re alone in the  middle of Lake Champlain at times

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