We love long, flat biking trails and Burlington has one of the best; it stretches for miles along Lake Champlain. It also heads out into the middle of the lake on a narrow causeway, but we didn’t make it that far. We biked from our house to the waterfront and then caught the Burlington Greenway trail and headed north along the lake. We stopped at Leddy Beach, to sun and swim for a while. Leddy beach is special because the water is clear and shallow for quite a ways out. The kids loved wading out into the cool, refreshing water after biking. The sun was more intense that we realized, and Phineas and I both got sunburns, but luckily Penelope is meticulous with her sunscreen application (and apparently Jake never burns).

On the way back home after our biking/beach adventure we stopped at Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, a local dumpling shop that was featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” We love checking out neat little places like this. We were hot, sandy and absolutely exhausted from the beach and biking, so we happily ate our weight in delicious dumplings.

Between the mountains, the lake, and the funky vibe, Burlington is an artist’s mecca. On Saturdays many local artists open their studios to the public. Being a craftsman, Jake loves visiting artist studios and learning about their techniques and process. On our last full day in Burlington we started by visiting Havoc Gallery. They weren’t technically open but the artist was working and happy to show us around. He makes spectacular art by brushing and sanding metal to “paint” designs. I didn’t get any pics – it felt weird and invasive since we were in his private studio – but check out his website! After a couple more stops we spent some time in a woodworking studio talking to a craftsman who makes custom, simple and natural coffins. It’s such a neat scene. For the afternoon Jake and Phineas split off the play board games at a nearby brewery while Penelope and I did some shopping and hit up a playground. Her favorite store is Claire’s Boutique and she snagged some cute tween jewelry.