And I Love Vermont but it's the Season of the Sticks
Burlington, VT and a short stint in Oakland, CA — June 26-July 3, 2022
To be honest, I wanted to stay in Montréal forever. The only thing that was keeping us from extending our stay there was a photo and video shoot for my client, Hidden Valley Ranch. I flew to San Francisco and made my way to the Oakland office at the end of June. But first, we drove over the border into Burlington, Vermont, mostly because I didn’t want to have to go through customs after my flight and also I didn’t want to leave James stranded alone in Canada. Although I’m sure he would have been fine with it.
We stayed in a La Quinta hotel and James was kind enough to drop me off at the airport before the sun rose. The Burlington airport was one of the smallest I’ve ever been to. There was one terminal and 14 gates, compared to the Milwaukee airport, which has 48 gates (someone please feel free to fact check me on this one, I had a hard time finding consistent numbers across sources), and Chicago O’Hare, which has 193 (again, different sources have different numbers but here’s where I got that number). Long story short, it’s much smaller than the airports I usually fly out of. It seemed like many of the people there didn’t fly very often, which combined with my lack of sleep and coffee made for a very impatient morning. Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to enjoy the slower pace instead of stressing out about it. Hindsight is always 20/20.
So I spent a few days in the Bay area working longs hours but doing what I love most, art directing a set. I met some of the people I work with on a daily basis in person for the first time and we had so much fun, it barely felt like work! Truly, I wore a pizza costume for a solid hour. My job is pretty damn cool. Sometimes I can’t believe that I get paid to do social media, art direction and design. On the days when I feel like complaining, it’s good to have some perspective. Here’s another pizza costume video for funsies.
I fell in love with the Bay area and wondered why I chose not to go to college at the University of San Francisco, which was my original plan. But I like to think that everything happens for a reason and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for all of the decisions I’ve made before. I remember choosing to stay close to home and go to Marquette when I was 18 for a few different reasons: 1) I wanted to be able to study abroad and if I moved to California I knew I would be spending most of my money and vacation time on flying home to visit family. 2) Housing was much more expensive in San Francisco than in Milwaukee. 3) When I went on a tour at USF the tour guide referred to it as “Single Ladies University” because the demographics were largely female (30:70 at the time) and about half of the men were gay. Which honestly sounds like fun now but at 18 I was very concerned that I would never find a husband if I moved to San Francisco. Of course, I didn’t find my husband at Marquette either but if I hadn’t stayed in Milwaukee I probably never would have met James, so it all worked out.
Anyway, the entire time I was working in the Bay area, James was at the La Quinta in Burlington, Vermont. He says that he had a great time eating frozen meals, takeout and continental breakfast. Personally, I don’t think I could stay at a hotel for an entire week without a real kitchen. Hence, the Airbnbs we’ve been staying at. When I flew back to Burlington, he knew the place like the back of his hand and planned a cute date night for us. Burlington was awesome; it felt very homey. It helps that James has family that used to live in Burlington so they had recommendations for us. It kind of reminded us of Bloomington, where James is from.
Here’s a shortlist of all the fun things we did:
Walked along the boardwalk at Lake Champlain and sat on some swings
Had the best vegetarian food of all time at Revolution Kitchen
Explored downtown Burlington and the square, stopping at a record store, the Ben & Jerry’s flagship store (the factory was closed to the public at the time), a brewery and a cute little chocolate shop bar that is sadly now closed
Hiked at Mount Philo State Park
Went to a brewery on our way back from the hike and bought a frisbee there because James has golden retriever energy :)
Stumbled upon the World’s Tallest Filing Cabinet on our way back from the library, which is still one of the funniest moments of the trip
Had a maple creemee. Actually, we had a lot of ice cream in Burlington
Checked out some shops, bars and restaurants in the neighboring town, Winooski
Tried to spot Bernie Sanders. No luck.
I look back fondly on our time in Burlington; it was such a lovely time. I think my favorite thing about this part of the trip was how open we were to spontaneity. There weren’t a ton of must-see items on our to-do list, so we kind of just stopped at places that looked cool without doing much research ahead of time. Sometimes that makes for the best kind of travel. Don’t get it twisted though, I am still very much a Type A Virgo and need to have spontaneity planned into the itinerary. 🤣
On the way to our next stop, we pulled out the atlas and followed some state roads into northern New Hampshire, stopping at a brightly colored food stand along the way—another unplanned happy accident. The drive was just gorgeous! New England in the summertime was amazing. If it weren’t for the winter (aka Stick Season), pretty much anywhere in New England would have shot straight up to the top of my list for potential places to live. I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. But more on that later.
