Thursday, August 13, 2009

Lake Champlain, Lobster Rolls, Ice Cream & a Tree Farm

This afternoon we decided to explore the area a bit. So we left the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds and just outside the main gate we found a bus stop. We got on the first bus that came along and it took us to Burlington and Lake Champlain.
The lake begins in NY, is 110 miles long and flows north to Canada. The NY/VT border runs down its center. At it's widest its 12 miles wide and it's greatest depth is 400 ft. Lake Champlain is the 6th largest lake in the US. Burlington is celebrating 400 years since Samuel de Champlain sailed south from Canada in 1609.

We had a great lobster roll for lunch at a lakeside restaurant..."Splash at the Boathouse" http://tinyurl.com/llzscv

We walked along Church Street, which is a pedestrian-only street, until we happened upon Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream store...This area is where it all began about 30 years ago. We enjoyed a tasty treat and continued our "people-watching" journey until we caught the bus back to the campsite.

We sat and visited with our next door camper guy, Bob Williams, who is a tree farmer from New Hampshire. I never met a tree farmer. I asked him how long it takes to grow a tree before you cut it down to sell it to the mill. He said it takes about 70 years, so the trees he is harvesting now were planted before he was born and the trees he has planted in his lifetime will be harvested after he's gone...WOW!

4 comments:

kathy said...

Interesting facts... sounds like a nice relaxing day - question- when you caught that first bus, did you have any idea where it would go ? Or did you just hop on a bus that stopped? (might have been a prison work bus or something, that's the only reason I ask..lol)

LaSal said...

Yeah, Kathy... seriously, do they just jump on any ole bus?

And the lobster roll restaurant link didn't work for me....

You guys sure are eating well...!!!

Alice said...

Laura, I fixed the link.
And yes, we generally will get on any ole bus, fortunately this one was going where we wanted to go. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

LaSal said...

You guys are definitely brave!