Mer Sea

The run to Burlington was short. We left Vergennes and meandered slowly through the creek, then took a slow trip on the lake, arriving in Burlington at around 10:30. This may be a record for an early arrival – perhaps a dry heat with our arrival in the York River that rough day on the Chesapeake. But you don’t want to arrive too early – it’s sort of like a hotel in that way. But the great marina in Burlington was unfazed. AND the HP computer was waiting for us at the office!!!

 

Burlington is an amazing town! I had no idea that it would be so vibrant and exciting, or that there would be so many restaurants and great shops, and that it would all be easily accessible from the water either by short uphill hike or free shuttle bus!! The Jazz Festival was just getting underway the day we arrived, and there were several public performances on the pedestrian mall in town.

 

Roy and I took the shuttle into town and just wandered, taking in the wonderful sights and sounds of an ALIVE city! One notable observation is that neither of us has seen so many apparent potheads since the sixties! There are three fairly large colleges in town, and their influence is visible. But it’s also apparent in the fun little stores, and the great coop market with local and organic products, and the many people out enjoying the town. We perused the restaurant offerings, and made some plans about where we might like to eat while we’re here. Our friends, John and Sue, were busy with grandchildren until Sunday afternoon, so we were on our own to do some exploring on foot!

 

We decided to eat at the local Irish pub that night, and picked out a wonderful-looking Chinese restaurant for Saturday night. It would have been easy to eat every meal at a different restaurant, and still not run out of new places to try. But we know we won’t be able to find a good Chinese restaurant in Canada, so that made that one easy, at least.

 

The Irish pub was lively and fun. They didn’t have any music, unfortunately, but the service was good, the beer was great, and the food was good. We were visited by the manager to make sure everything was OK, and we had a really nice night. We walked back down the hill to the boat for a little exercise.

 

The next day, I spent some time on the computer, putting her through her paces to see how she was running. Everything seemed to be in order – say a prayer for us and HP that it’s really fixed this time!! It’s gonna get ugly if I have to send it back again!

 

We decided to go to a movie before our Chinese dinner that night. The earliest reservations we’d been able to get were at 7:45, so we caught a 5-something movie at the theatre in town, then went out for a drink, then went to dinner. What a dinner it was! We agreed that it was the best Chinese food either of us had ever had. Instead of using the “three pot” method, where the sauces are all pre-made, and stuff is just stir-fried and then doused with one of the sauces, this restaurant makes each dish from scratch. The food was fantastic, and we had leftovers for two days! And were glad of it!

 

Sunday morning I walked into town to do some reprovisioning at the City Market coop. What a fantastic place!! The emphasis is not only on organic, but also on local, and I was able to get local asparagus, cilantro, and other produce, and filled up the larder with all sorts of goodies. Gosh, I’d love to be able to shop at a place like that all the time. It’s even much better than Whole Foods, in my opinion, for the emphasis on local foods. Fantastic!

 

Sunday afternoon, John and Sue picked us up and took us on a tour of the area, which is beautiful from land, as well, by the way. We then hit a grocery store, where I bought the dry goods and heavy items I hadn’t wanted to get in the morning, and then headed over to their house for a delicious steak dinner! Boy, such hospitality! It really gives you a different perspective on an area when you can spend time with a local and see more than just the waterfront. We had a really fun time with them, and hope we’ll be able to hook up again in the fall when we’re both heading south on the ICW.

 

On Monday, I decided that I wanted to take advantage of the combination of easy access to a movie theatre and soggy weather, so I went to a matinee of Away From Her, (an incredible movie, by the way – Julie Christie is phenomenal), and then Roy joined me for Waitress, which was fun, and a good antidote to the other. We took the bus back to the boat, since it was raining, and had the last of our Chinese food for dinner.

 

Tuesday morning, we’d planned to leave Burlington and head further north, but the weather was not conducive to being out on the lake. VERY windy, and from the south, so it had the whole length of the lake to build up rough seas. No thank you. So we stayed in Burlington and got some paperwork done. In the afternoon, I made one last jaunt to the City Market coop for some fresh produce. I’m going to miss having this great market so accessible!

 

Tuesday night the wind was fierce! Mer Sea was pitching and rolling, the lines were all creaking, and the water was slapping up against the hull. I couldn’t sleep. Really unusual for me, but there it was. I finally grabbed a few winks towards morning, when the wind shifted direction and the boat stopped pitching about quite so much, but it was a scant couple of hours at best.

 

We had hopes of taking off on Wednesday, but the wind was still ferocious, albeit from the northwest instead of the south. It still looked like it wouldn’t be much fun on the lake, however, so we finally decided to wait one more day. We really do think that the winds will be better tomorrow, and, in fact, as I write this on Wednesday afternoon, the winds have calmed considerably, and we’d be quite happy to be underway in current conditions. And it’s supposed to be even better tomorrow, so I do think we’ll finally be off.

 

The unfortunate thing is that I guess we’re going to scoot ahead and skip the anchorages I’d planned for the lake. The flip side is that it’s really still pretty cold, and the weather is unsettled, and the lake would be better explored in warm weather when we can not only anchor, but swim as well. That will have to wait for another trip!