An Intense Day in Burlington

18.09.22 — Vermont

Before I get into the intense day, I should quickly mention the party that we attended the evening before. We’d all been invited over to Megans parents’ place to help out with preparations for Scott’s leaving do, as he was then off to Croatia to begin a new job the day after – quite the change!

Megan and I were tasked with “shucking” some fresh sheaves of corn, which just turned out to involve peeling off the inedible husk. We then set about designing the cheese platters, which turned into a competition as we fought it out to create the best designs between the cheeses, crackers, grapes, and the lovely wooden boards themselves.

Everyone then began to arrive and the party got underway, with plenty of drinks and a BBQ served buffet style. I got chatting to Megan’s family and friends and we all had a good laugh, during which I was particularly happy to be called a charmer by Megan’s great aunt!

After one of my personal favourite moments of the night – the dessert buffet – people began to head out as the night wore on. I said goodbye to Scott and me and Megan headed back home to save up some energy for the next day: our intense day around Burlington.

It was a lovely and relaxing evening before what was to come the next day…

On the way to the ball game a couple of days prior, Megan had told Breen, Aaron, and Scott of our plans to cycle down the causeway in Burlington. Breen and Scott had laughed our plans off, saying that it was going to be way too hot and that we’d wind up way too tired to do it.

Megan and I didn’t exactly rush out of bed and by the time we did the weather was already hotting up, but we decided that we had to attempt this bike ride, even if it was just to spite Breen and Scott. So, and without further ado, we packed some supplies into a backpack, grabbed the bikes from the garage, and headed out on our journey.

The first stop was at a pharmacy near Megan’s house, where we grabbed some energy drinks and bars for the journey. After noting that the mudguard on Megan’s bike had come loose, we then wound up having to MacGyver a solution with some electrical tape that we also grabbed in the pharmacy. I should note here that the pharmacies in the US are wild – they have everything that a normal supermarket in Europe would have!

Our botched job worked quite well as we powered on down the streets and to our next stop, the farmer’s market. We parked our bikes against a barn which we then headed inside in order to check out an antiques market. It was pretty hot and sweaty inside, but I did really like some of the stuff on offer like some old Vermont registration plates and road signs.

From there, we moved on to the open area of the market which was jam packed with tonnes of stalls. I grabbed a fresh ginger beer and we wandered around for a bit, resisting such temptations as nepalese dumplings but then caving to another in the form of some peanut butter cookies filled with maple syrup (of course) cream. A pretty wild combination!

We then carried on to the bay to merge onto the bike path that lead to the causeway, where I found my “base pace” (a saying that Megan taught me from her gym). We carried on for a good while, passing under a high bridge and a residential neighbourhood where the bike path deviated from the edge of the lake for a while.

It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful trail, but the heat was a fearsome opponent.

Along the way to the causeway, we stopped at a lookout spot over the lake to rest, and then at a cool bridge so that I could take a few photos and catch my breath. We then stopped at a little park for a toilet break and to refill our empty water bottles – it was now over 30°C and we were getting pretty exhausted!

After this last stop, we powered on until a dodgy gear change left the chain hanging off my bike. With a bit of teamwork and some sturdy sticks we soon had it back on, and then pushed ahead to reach our destination: the causeway.

This jetty of curved land connects mainland Vermont with one of the islands in Lake Champlain, so we cycled out about halfway and then stopped in the shade for a while. We took in the views over the water on either side as we munched on the snacks we’d bought earlier, including the wild and very sweet peanut butter and maple syrup fusion cookies.

We then began the long journey back, which soon became a pretty intense challenge as the afternoon heat combined with our exhaustion. A good few rest stops later and after throwing what was left of our water over ourselves, we concluded that we couldn’t manage the rest of the cycle all the way home. We decide we’d stop in the bay, tie up the bikes, and grab a taxi back to Megan’s place.

We tied the bikes up outside an ice cream parlour in the bay and grabbed ourselves some soft serve “creemees” – maple syrup flavour, of course. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten an ice cream so fast in my life – I desperately needed some sugar and something cold!

Megan then looked for a taxi, but the cheapest one for the five minute journey was over $23. We thus – perhaps foolishly – decided to carry on and try to push ourselves to cycle the final uphill stretch back home.

The journey began with optimism, but then the slow incline of a seemingly endless road started to really get at me and I began to lag as Megan steamed ahead. I was motivated to carry on by some light rain that began to cool me off and by Megan, who was cheering for me to carry on as she waited next to some traffic lights.

The rain became torrential as we turned off this long road and onto a steep uphill section. It felt pretty amazing, and I took off my cap to allow myself of the soaked to the skin. The killer came with the second section of this incline, where the road got steeper and the rain became properly violent, but we pushed on and eventually made it to the final stretch back home.

You can’t appreciate it in the photo but the rain really was something else.

Now finally back home, we parked up the bikes, dumped or stuff on top of the car, and ran to the pool where we jumped in fully clothed. We were on cloud nine, laughing and splashing in the relief that the cold water brought us!

We then headed inside, where we dried off and went for a nap. I was supposed to be up at 7pm, but I slept for an extra hour – I think I deserved it after the slog of a 32km (20 mile) journey that we’d done in 32°C heat! I then finally showered and headed downstairs where Breen, Aaron, Malory, Martín, Megan, and Ryan were already having some drinks in the kitchen.

I fixed myself a gin and tonic with earnest, and our evening of drinks moved to the back porch, where we played a competitive game of beer pong and then some card games. These worked a treat to get us all merrily on our way (except for the designated drivers, of course), and we headed out to Burlington to carry on our evening.

As I’d been to watch the softball game and met the team, I was greeted with a chorus of “Ollie!” as I entered the bar where we were going for our first drink – turns out the team was also there! We had a quick drink and then left for a place called “Lamp Shop”, where the roof was choc full of retro lamps that were connected up to flash in time with the music. As those who know me and of my obsession with lights can imagine, I loved it in there.

As much as I loved the decor, the music wasn’t really my jam, and so we wound up moving to yet another bar. Here it was karaoke night, so it was time for me and Breen to take the mic once again and show the Vermonters how it’s done!

In the end we didn’t have chance to sing as we’d arrived late and our requests never came up before lights on at 2am, but we had a blast dancing, singing, and chatting. I was giving it my all and signing with the best of them though, so at one point the woman leading the karaoke handed me the microphone so that me and Malory could really go for it!

With the lights on at this rather divey but very fun bar, those of us who’d stuck the out until the end then went to grab a kebab to end the night. After a good wait for our greasy goods, they went down an absolute treat and then I was given a lift back to Megan’s place.

And so ended a rather wild and intense day, but one of the best I’ve had in a while. We’d really given it our all: we’d cycled hard, we’d napped hard, and then we’d partied hard! As you can well imagine, I then slept like an absolute log and was ready for our next adventure, but more on that in the next post…

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

15.09.22 — Vermont

I pick up here where I left off in my last blog post, after another day of explorations after work over in beautiful Burlington, Vermont…

Another day saw another day at work, which ended when Petergaye and I went out for lunch together. We went to a place called “Union Jack’s”, a supposedly British establishment which was anything but. It was very funny to see their take on Britishness, with gift cards themed to look like £10 notes and weird vinyls of red telephone boxes all over the place. I took an age to decide what I wanted and then got held up as the lady behind the counter didn’t understand my pronunciation of “tomato”. British my arse!

After my lunch of a huge sub sandwich and a cookie, I laid down for a while and wound up having a decent nap. With Megan back home, the two of us jumped in the pool, which was an excellent idea as we were still battling the heat and humidity that were refusing to let us exist without excess sweating.

It was then time for us to get dressed and ready for our evening’s activities, which – as you may have guessed from the spoiler of a title – involved going to see a baseball game! Outside of the softball (like a tamed-down version of baseball from what I gather) game that I’d seen the day before, I’d never seen a “ball game”, so I was excited to throw myself into the atmosphere and see what it was all about.

We ran across this old seemingly abandoned car along the way.

Breen and Adam picked us and Scott up and we headed over to Ryan’s place, where we parked the cars before taking a dodgy back path through a forest and then a graveyard in order to get to the stadium. I was moaning about the uphill climb the whole way, but the excitement soon took over as we neared the baseball ground and began to hear the crowds.

We arrived amongst throngs of other people and there was a real buzz in the air. The shape of a baseball stadium is quite funny, as everyone gathers around the corner where the batter hits the ball, with the other three sides of the stadium practically empty.

I’d dressed as American as I could for the occasion.

Before we left, I’d been told that it was “hotdog night” or something to that effect, which it turns out involved hotdogs on sale for just 25¢ each. As you can imagine, the first thing we did was head straight to the designated 25¢ hotdog stand, where we were told that there was a maximum order of six per person.

I know what you’re wondering, and yes, we all got six hotdogs each. In our defense it was going to be a long evening of baseball and they were only pretty small!

A logistical nightmare then followed as I’d to do some exuberant gymnastics in order to get the ketchup and mustard on the buggers whilst also juggling a hotdog, the box with the other five hotdogs, my beer, my fan, and my camera. We then headed to the stand and found our seats, which involved another impromptu dance in order to clamber over the other rows of seats with my hands still very much full!

My five remaining hot dogs and my beer: the American dream!

The game had already begun as we sat down, and so we got straight into the business of eating our hot dogs, drinking our beers, chanting, jeering, and all that other good stuff. I had the rules of the game explained to me in roundabout terms by everyone who’d come: Megan, Ryan, Scott, Breen, and Aaron, and I tried to follow along for a bit before I ran out of beer and got thirsty again.

Heading out behind the stands for more beer, we wound up missing half an hour of the game as the queues for the bars were now really quite long. At one point in the queue we heard a guy yell “HEADS!” from up in the stand, only to turn round and narrowly avoid being hit by a ball that came sailing over the top of the stadium.

To our disbelief, this then happened again just a few moments later, and this time it hit the guy who was in the queue behind us square on the back. He laughed it off but I’m pretty sure he was left with quite the bruise the next day – they really are heavy balls!

Back in our seats, the sun began to set. As with all Vermont sunsets, this one was absolutely beautiful and had me wandering up and down the stands to try and find the best angle to get some shots of the sky.

There was then a rather exciting moment as the local club’s mascot, the Lake Monster, headed out on to the field flanked by some guys with t-shirt guns. We screamed and waved and jumped around, but alas we were left empty handed.

Then the most curious thing happened as some old style organ music began being piped into the stadium and everyone began to sing: “Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd…” Naturally I was very lost and had never heard the song, but it stood out to me as an unforgettable moment from an already amazing trip.

Our next trip out of the stadium to grab beer saw me also get my hands on some merchandise. I picked up a blue cap with the club mascot on it, a yellow shirt with a hotdog holding 25¢, and a pin with the lake monster mascot on it.

We were then lucky enough to catch the star of the show himself, the Vermont Lake Monsters’ mascot. We jumped in line to meet him and grabbed some excellent photos. We were having a fabulous time and were super giggly, so this is the best one I managed to salvage!

After our brush with royalty, me and Megan headed over to a stall which was selling something called fried dough. It turns out that this is just a huge plate-sized portion of just that: dough that’s been fried. It tasted like a doughnut and came accompanied with – of course – maple syrup.

Upon reentering the stadium with our snack, we saw that we’d been so long outside faffing around that the game had since ended. The rest of the gang came down from their seats to join us on the first row and share our sugary and greasy treat, which was as delicious as that may or may not sound!

I then took the opportunity to grab a photo of myself in the empty stadium, as well as some sneaky stolen shots of Megan and Ryan and another couple who were sat relaxing with views directly over the field.

And with that, the my experience at the ball game came to an end. It had been an absolute blast of an evening and something I had never experienced before. The closest I think I have come is when I went to watch my hometown, Burnley, play a match, or perhaps when I saw Atlético de Madrid play Copenhagen once. Big thanks to Megan for making this happen, as it’s something I’d been nagging her about doing for months before landing in the US!

To end the night on a high, we wound back at Al’s for more ice cream. We roped some ladies into taking photos of us on my film camera – I can’t wait to share the photos from that – and grabbed some creemees (their weird word for soft serve ice cream). As you may have guessed, the creemees were maple syrup flavored – what else!

Megan Moves

14.09.22 — Vermont

Before getting stuck in, I should highlight that the title of this post refers to Megan moving into her new place, as I mentioned in my first post after arriving in the US. She surely can move, being the salsa expert that she is, but I never did get chance to go to salsa evening – one for next time!

As I say, we pick up after our camping weekend and on the day of Megan’s big move. I had to work in the morning, so woke up bright and early and headed downstairs to join my team virtually. Megan was already up and packing the last of her boxes, after which she headed out to pick up the van she’d rented to move over her furniture and the bulky stuff.

Watching the scene unfold from the window, I just had to head outside and take a photo of everyone as they packed up the last bits into the back of the van. It was a warm day but Megan, her brother Scott, and her friend José were in high spirits whilst I was stuck inside finishing off my day of work.

I eventually finished work and disconnected, at which point I relaxed for a good while as I’d been tasked with house-sitting whilst everyone else was out leading a hand with the move. I did have to pack my suitcase, though, as I was joining Megan and her new housemate for the first night in the new place!

Ellie, the family dog, took a great liking to my socks.

Scott then came to pick me up and I thus became the last thing to be moved over. I met Petergaye upon arrival, who’d just moved into the other bedroom that very morning, and the three of us had a great chat whilst I unpacked my suitcase into my new home for the next week and a half.

As the evening wore on, the three of us wound up jumping in Megan’s car and heading into the centre of Burlington, where we grabbed some delicious pizza and cocktails to celebrate the end of a long day for all of us – even if I had been spared the heavy lifting!

After a good laugh after sharing many funny tales, we headed over to a local institution (Maureen’s words, not mine) for some ice cream. Al’s French Frys (that’s how they spell it) to me looked like the set of a 1970s movie, so I was sure to take plenty of photos along the way.

I grabbed myself a little tub of ice cream topped with warm chocolate sauce and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, one of my favourite American snacks. It did make for a delicious dessert, but I may just have over-faced myself after plenty of spicy chicken pizza.

The next day I was back at work in the morning, so joined Megan and Maureen in the afternoon as they finished unpacking some more boxes and giving some of the downstairs rooms a good scrub. Me and Megan shared some leftover sandwich and a nice warm cookie for lunch before resting most of the evening away: it’d been a demanding couple of days and the muggy weather was not letting up.

We eventually arose, showered, and headed out for the evening/late afternoon. We firstly picked up some tacos at Taco Gordo (literally “Fat Taco”), which was a cute little spot with some very tasty tacos and a fun drink that I grabbed as it was called an “Ariana Grande” and had a fun swirl in it. It was very similar to the margarita I’d had before I grabbed it, but it went down a treat, even if I wound up with brain freeze as I’d to down it when we realised we were late for our evening’s entertainment.

I enjoyed the eclectic mix of styles of the wooden houses along the streets of Burlington.

Taco Gordo was loud, colourful, and chaotic – a bit like home back in Spain!

We then drove over to a local University Centre that Megan used to take some classes in. There, we’d arranged to catch a touring piece of theatre called “Desperate Measures” that was showing in the centre’s theatre. The whole set up reminded me of my many years working at Burnley Youth Theatre, where we’d often have professional touring theatre companies stop by and I’d get a chance to catch some great theatre.

We took our seats inside and right in front of the stage, where the set indicated that we were about to watch a western. Maureen had also mentioned that it was a comedy, and so I was quite bemused that on my trip to the United States I’d wound up watching a western comedy live on stage.

The show was pretty funny, partly because I really got into it and partly because of the drinks we’d had beforehand. It had a very odd plot though. It told of how a man condemned to death could only be set free if his sister (a nun) agreed to sleep with the police chief, who then managed to fool him by switching herself out for a body double in the form of a prostitute who was in love with the condemned man and would do anything to save him.

Confused? We were too.

The head of police then falls for the “nun” and declares that they have to get married in order to secure the condemned man’s pardon, which involves some more people switching, this time under a wedding veil instead of the veil of darkness. Then everything goes to pot thanks to a contract that the sheriff coaxed the inspector into signing, during which time the nun and sheriff had somehow fallen for each other and got married too.

Got that? Me neither.

The next day saw me work until mid afternoon, so the day’s activities were left until a little later in the day. Me and Megan kicked things off with some cheep beers down at a place in Burlington which had a lovely beer garden, after which we grabbed some cheap pizza which we ate off paper plates as we sauntered back to the car.

The weather was good and the beer and pizza were cheap.

From there, we headed to a local playing field and to a softball game that had been arranged between Megan and friends and another local team. I’d no idea what baseball or softball was, but I soon learned that it’s basically just the same old rounders that we used to play at school, but with big gloves “in case the ball hurts our hands.”

As the game began, I tried some hard iced tea. This basically consisted of some grim, over-sweetened tea with alcohol mixed into it. It somehow managed to be simultaneously disgustingly sweet and unpleasantly bitter, and so me and Megan headed off to a nearby supermarket to pick up some alternative drinks.

The supermarket – like all American supermarkets – was way too big and had way too many options. This stressed me out, especially as all of the drinks were weird combinations and all I wanted was a plain old premixed gin and tonic. With time running out, I grabbed the lest horrific looking drink combination and we headed back to the pitch.

Our bench was quite a mess but we did, of course, clean everything up before leaving.

It turns out that I made a bad choice, the mojito-style creation that I’d picked up was equally as disgusting as the hard iced tea, but nevertheless I’d still to join everyone in “shotgunning” my can on the pitch. This involved making a hole in the bottom of the can with a key, then opening the top of it and downing the whole thing as it came rushing forth. It was not pleasant.

This little kick of sugar and alcohol got me in the mood for the rest of the game, during which Megan was drafted in to bat a couple of times and I made a keen observation that the other team were taking things much more seriously than ours. It was therefore a shock to absolutely nobody that they thrashed us.

I was even lent a team jersey despite my lack of sporting talent.

I’d had a great evening, despite our team’s loss and the horrible drinks on offer. I was pretty tipsy in the car ride back home, but sobered up as we arrived home and munched on cookies and reheated pasta from earlier in the day. It was great to join the team for the evening, even if the only time I stepped on to the pitch was to shotgun my drink!

Bougie Camping

11.09.22 — Vermont

After having lunch down by Lake Champlain and then having a tour of the islands which lie on it with Maureen, I was getting pretty used to being down by the water and I was slowly falling in love with this gorgeous corner of the US. My first weekend in the states was to take my connection with the lake up a notch, as we’d arranged to go camping by the water with Breen and Aaron for a night!

The day of the camping trip began as me and Megan were tasked with taking the dogs out for a walk. Megan took care of Ellie, her family’s dog, and I was put in charge of Libby, Breen and Aaron’s dog. This quick route took us back around Williston in time to pack the car ready for our weekend in the wilderness.

We then headed off in earnest towards the campsite, located in a national park on one of the islands on the lake. We stopped off for lunch at Seb’s along the way so that I could get myself a corn dog, a disgustingly greasy snack that I once had in Florida and have been pining to have again ever since. Big thanks to Megan for accommodating my random requests!

Breen and Aaron joined us there for our deep-fried lunch, which was followed by a stop at a local brewery. I grabbed myself a “flight”, which turns out is the name for a tasting selection of small beers. Megan did the same but wasn’t too keen on most of them, so I wound up drinking for two.

As you can imagine, I turned up at the campsite quite content, and so relaxed whilst Aaron helped (see: did everything) us get set up for our night of bougie camping. If you’re like me, you’ll have never heard of the word “bougie”, but Megan uses it a lot and I have fallen in love with it. It comes from the word “bourgeoise”, and means just that – something which rich people do. I guess I could have easily said “glamping”, but “bougie” is much more fun!

I say it was bougie camping because really we weren’t that exposed to the elements, as Breen and Aaron had managed to snag us a fabulous spot with a lean-to (a wooden structure open on one side) and views over Lake Champlain. We pitched our tent inside the lean-to and then went for a wander down to the water’s edge.

It was a picturesque scene with the fire roaring and the views over the lake.

We got a decent fire going to warm us up as the evening wore on. The blaze was, in fact, too decent – we wound up burning through firewood at such a speed that we (see: not me, other people who weren’t as lazy as me) had to head back twice for more. It did its job of keeping us cozy as we cracked open some beers and chatted the evening away, and then came in useful again as we toasted some hotdogs over the flames.

As the night wore on it was time for dessert and another American tradition: s’mores. These uniquely named creations consist of toasted marshmallow sandwiched with some chocolate in between two biscuits. I gave it my best shot – getting a hot toasted marshmallow off a skewer and into a sandwich is more of a logistical nightmare than it may seem – and tried my first s’more. It was nice, but I still maintain my opinion that American chocolate tastes like cheese, and so I wound up sticking to plain old toasted marshmallows!

After a trip to the toilet block to brush our teeth, we settled in for our single night of bougie camping. I slept surprisingly well, even if my nuisance bladder had me up a couple of times during the night. There was a silver lining, though, as latter of the two toilet trips saw me up to catch the sunrise over the lake.

Once I’d gotten up properly, preparations began on the breakfast of pancakes with chocolate chips which were – naturally – to be doused in Vermont maple syrup. Me and Megan were feeling pretty peckish and extravagant though, and so decided to crack the leftover hotdogs out. We toasted them over the fire and wolfed them down just as Breen finally had enough of waiting for her camping stove to heat up and popped the frying pan with the pancakes directly over the campfire.

With breakfast over, the four of us then packed everything away, extinguished the fire, and jumped back in our respective cars to head back to the mainland. Our original plan had been to stop at Seb’s for ice cream, but it didn’t open for another while and so we wound up grabbing coffee instead. In the café the four of us read the lonely hearts section of the local newspaper – it provided us with plenty of laughs!

Back at Maureen and Terry’s place, we unpacked our stuff and I sat down to write my postcards to my parents, my sister, and my auntie and uncle. In order to send them on their way, I’d only to head out into the front garden, pop them in the letterbox, and raise the little red flag up so that the postie would know to pick them up. It’s a pretty neat little system!

That evening was the last one I was to spend at Megan’s parents’ place, as the next day the two of us were to move into Megan’s new condo. We spent the last evening eating Maureen’s delicious chicken parm pasta bake and relaxing in front of the TV whilst Megan packed up the last bits ready for the big move.

We wound up watching America’s Got Talent on the TV, where a guy making pretty bad cycling jokes was booed off whilst the crowd went wild for a guy dressed as a pair of trousers made equally bad trouser-related jokes. I still don’t get American humour.

Lake Champlain

08.09.22 — Vermont

A fresh new day dawned in Williston, but we had some rather interesting plans which would take us out of the neighbourhood and down to the waterside in Burlington proper. Before this, though, I woke up suddenly energised, and decided I should go out for a jog.

This was a terrible idea as it turns out. I’ve not done anything like it for quite a long time (foreshadowing for an upcoming blog post), but I managed to get out and about before arriving back and collapsing into the hammock in the back garden. There, I waited for Maureen to return home, as Megan was still out working at the summer camp.

Maureen soon showed up with some treats in the form of artesanal Oreos, which were absolutely delicious and soon turned into a problem as they became my go-to sweet snack whilst staying at Megan’s parents’ place. With our biscuits eaten, we rested our weary legs in the pool and waited for Megan to arrive back home.

After Megan had a quick nap the two of us packed and headed out for the afternoon’s plans: kayaking! This is a sport that I enjoyed back when I was a Boy Scout and used to set out on the suspiciously murky canals of Lancashire, but this time we were to head into the vast expanse of Lake Champlain.

Lake Champlain is a huge body of water which separates Vermont from the state of New York, whose border is flanked by a huge and beautiful mountain range called the Adirondacks. I’d caught a glimpse of it when we’d gone down for lunch at the docks, but this time we were going to head down to the local community sailing club and hire a couple of kayaks to head out onto the water.

The journey down to the lake took us through the centre of Burlington and past some frat houses: another thing I thought only existed in American movies! We arrived, rented our equipment, and were soon cast out into the somewhat unstable waters of the lake – it wasn’t like the peaceful stillness of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal!

It was great fun to be out on the water and back in a kayak after quite a few years. I am quite confident in a kayak, but in a moment of stupidity and brazen commitment to getting some good photos I had decided to take my phone with me. This made me panic the whole time about falling in lest I lose it in the murky depths, so I started with a bit of a nervous wobble.

The cloudy skies and the uneven water created some breathtaking views.

We’d set out in the late afternoon, so the sun was already pretty low in the sky, making for some beautiful displays of light as it danced on the waves. We headed out and towards it and towards a beach in the distance, which we dragged ourselves up on to upon arrival as I was developing a rather painful stitch in my leg.

Back in the water, we continued our journey onwards, a journey frustrated somewhat by the kayaks or the undercurrent (we’ll never know what it was) which seemed intent on dragging us port side (to the left). We eventually made it to the spot which the guy had designated as the outer limit of the area we could explore, where we watched a group of friends jumping from a rock and into the lake. It was a gorgeous spot, so we stopped to chat there for a while whilst the sun broke through the clouds.

The rays from the sun and the isolated rock made for an almost ethereal scene.

We then began our journey back to the sailing club, which was now quite far away thanks to the two legs we’d already rowed. It turned out to be quite the slog of a trip back thanks to the distance, our exhaustion, and the unwelcome turbulence created by some passing boats.

We eventually made it back to the shore, where we showered and changed into our glad rags ready to spend the evening on the water once again, but this time in a rather different capacity. We drove the short distance down the lake and parked outside a place called Splash, a gorgeous floating dock restaurant with views out over the lake.

Maureen joined us out on the dock, where we nabbed one of the best tables in the house just by the water. Cocktails in hand, we chatted the evening away as we nibbled on some good food, watched the sun set behind the Adirondack Mountains, and saw the return of The Spirit of Ethan Allen, a boat which takes people out to watch the sunset from directly over the water.

After tea, Maureen headed back home while me and Megan headed to a local bar where we’d arranged to have a drink with some of her friends. The bar was about as American as they get, full of sports memorabilia and people who’d been our playing baseball! We stuck to our plan of one drink and then home as we’d both a busy agenda waiting for us the next day.

Megan headed back for her penultimate day at summer camp the next day as I had breakfast with Maureen, who then took me out to begin our day’s explorations together. She’d a trip planned for the two of us which would take us back out to Lake Champlain, but this time over terra firma rather than on the water itself. It turns out that the lake has three main islands on it, and our plan was to head out and see the most important sights from these: North Hero, South Hero, and Grand Isle.

Out trip started on the Sand Bar, a natural sandbar connecting the mainland with the first of the three islands. I took plenty of photos over the lake and we got chatting to another lady who was passing by before heading onto the island proper.

We first stopped at a little shale beach on another part of the island before then heading up to a gorgeous old hotel with views over the water which has now been transformed into an event space. We then headed to a hotel that Maureen used to work at when she was young, where we met the new owner and had a snoop around the renovated facilities.

These are called Adirondack Chairs, named after the mountains in the background.

It was then time for lunch, and Maureen had arranged for one of her friends to join us for lunch. We met up at an old petrol station which had a cute shop and sandwich bar. I bagged myself a turkey sandwich with all the trimmings, including bacon, cheese, and pickles – the Americans sure know how to do a sandwich properly!

We ate our sandwiches on the porch of the local parish hall, chatting away about Michael’s experience living between the US, the UK, and Spain, a trio of countries that I know pretty well. As we chatted, a cold and cloudy front blew in, so we eventually had to pack up shop and head back towards the mainland.

As the weather held out without raining on us, Maureen and I did decide to make a cheeky stop at a local institution, Seb’s. This pit stop on the island had a lovely gift shop, which we had a good snoop around so I could pick up some postcards, and a snack and ice cream counter. The two of us grabbed a hot fudge brownie ice cream, which was super rich and came with a cute little cherry on top. I simply had to get a photo of the two of us with out sweet treats!

In the car on the way home, Maureen showed of her skills tying the stalk of the cherry into a knot with her mouth, and I gave it a shot. Alas, I was useless, even after continuing to attempt it throughout the evening until it was time to go back out.

The evening took us back to the bar from before, but this time there was a whole different vibe going on: it was karaoke time! The rest of the bar didn’t seem too animated, so I signed Breen and myself up to be the first to sing. Naturally we had to kick things off with my go-to karaoke song, Wannabe by the Spice Girls. We then sang many songs, ate some free popcorn from the machine they had out, and had an absolute blast.

Back home, Megan threw some mozzarella sticks in the oven and I introduced her to the joys of dunking them in jam. It might sound a bit odd, but you can’t beat a good sweet and salty combination!

The next day was quite a relaxed one: I spent my time in the pool, having lunch, and then out shopping with Megan to pick up some supplies for her new place and our weekend plans – but more on that very soon. We ended the day with a Chinese meal back at Maureen and Terry’s place, which was a nice relaxed way to end a rather chilled day.

A scenic tour of Vermont, from the huge houses to the gorgeous sunsets.

I’ll leave this blog post here, as the weekend’s activities that followed deserve their own blog post – and because these posts are getting pretty long and it’s taking me forever to get them out! I can only beg you all for patience whilst I try and get them out in between my busy work calendar back here in Madrid…