Burlington, VT reminds me so much of Charlottesville. I’m not sure if it’s being in a house, the great restaurants, or the pedestrian mall, but it feels like home. With the huge added bonus of Lake Champlain, Burlington is definitely a place I could spend the whole summer. After our relax and reset first day, we spent the next day exploring the Echo Leahy Center, a science and nature museum for kids right on the Lake Champlain waterfront. The museum was wonderful; the exhibits were engaging enough to keep both kids occupied for multiple hours. There was a temporary exhibit about mythical creatures (unicorns, dragons and sea monsters) that was really interesting. The exhibit shared the backstory and possible scientific explanation for the creatures. There was also a hands on engineering project to build a moon drop basket (aka egg drop). Penelope was persistent and spent quite a long time experimenting until she was able to successfully protect the moon cargo twice.

The next day we booked a trip on a small sailing boat around Lake Champlain with Whistling Man Schooner. There were only 6 passengers (our family and another couple) plus a deck hand and captain. The small size made the sail feel very relaxed and private. The female captain told stories about Lake Champlain and sailing in general. We were encouraged to sit on the edge of the boat and trail our feet in the water. I brought my coffee thermos and drank probably the most scenic cup of coffee of my life. We have all decided we love sailing. Jake is starting to talk about living on a sailboat as a goal lifestyle instead of RVing, but we’d need to learn to sail first!