We spent 5 days last week in Vermont. Burlington is still one of my favorite cities on the East Coast, I haven't been back since 1995-when I was a sound engineer for the Georgia Pacific Tree Wishes tour. Also remembered the Montreal trip, another fine city in the great country of Canada.
"I realized Cold is just a state of mind" slogan from Green Mountain Coffee is right. It was cold here the entire time but I didn't mind, I really LOVE cold, snowy weather. On Tuesday, the high was 9 degrees and the low was 1 with a -18 wind chill, yeah that's right Minus Eighteen. The driving was treacherous, icy and snowy roads, but I didn't see one accident, everyone drove patiently and slowly with the conditions.
Vermonters and New Englanders are hard-working, low-key, quiet, respectful and genuine people. They mostly keep to themselves. Maybe that's why I have always felt comfortable around here, even when I first set foot in New England (Portland, Maine) almost 19 years ago (Portland Stage Company in 1991). That was when I also discovered Dunkin' Donuts coffee doing late late night radio shows at WMPG-Gorham, Portland. People are definitely more healthy and intelligent around these parts.
Some other observations of Burlington: more people here wearing eye glasses, every other car is a Subaru Outback or Forester, lots of healthy/ New Age stores and restaurants, Dunkin' Donuts are everywhere even in the Shaw's Supermarket instead of Starbucks and there isn't a Walmart in the city limits, great coffee, the food here was awesome-we ate at Uno Chicago Grill, Three Tomatoes which was the best Italian place ever and the Burlington Bagel Place, voted the best bakery in the city. We love the Church St. Marketplace, the Echo Science Center, Lake Champlain, Vermont Teddy Bear factory, but the Bolton Valley Ski resort was OK, too crowded and chaotic. I snowboarded for about 6 hours, man, I'm getting too old for this.
I'd like to offer a FREE tip (no extra charge) to anyone reading: Do not fly United Airlines no matter how tempting or cheap an offer you get, it is NOT worth it. They are quite possibly the worst airline in America. They employ the rudest, most incompetent and lousiest workers (if you can call it work). We learned a lesson the hard way and will avoid having anything to do with United Airlines ever again. Due to their crew delay and incompetence, we missed our connecting flight had to stay overnight in Washington DC on New Year's Eve and I missed the Resolution Run 5K in Kennesaw on New Year's Day. They lost Kathy's luggage in Atlanta, but we finally got it delivered to the house today. Check out this website: http://untied.com
No comments:
Post a Comment