Sometimes life drops blessings in your lap without your lifting a finger. Serendipity, they call it.
— Charlton Heston

On my last day in Vermont, I decided to drive to Middlebury, about an hour south of Burlington, to see Middlebury College where Judit’s daughter graduated, and soak up some more Vermont scenery before I left the state.

A few miles north of Ferrisburgh I happened to glance to my right and that’s when I saw her.

My immediate reaction was, What a strange humpback cow. I kept on driving and my mind kept on whispering, It’s a camel, It’s a camel, It’s a camel.

I had to find out.

I made a U turn and drove back to where I had seen the humpback cow and parked across the road.

It was definitely a camel.

People who love to eat are always the best people.
– Julia Child

Then I must be one of the “best people” because I love to eat!

One of the pleasures of a new city is discovering its restaurants.  With Annie on a summer road trip I’m limited to those with patios that allow dogs, but a surprising number of them do, especially at Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace — four blocks of a pedestrian-only open mall lined with shops and restaurants, in downtown Burlington.

On my first day in Burlington I had fish and chips at Sweetwater’s in the Marketplace. The cod was fresh and the chips were crisp and Annie was on her mat at my feet.  What more could I ask?

You had me at “hello.”
— Dorothy to Jerry, in the film Jerry McGuire

When I walked into my hotel room in Burlington and saw this view, I fell in love.

The Hilton Hotel on Battery Street runs along the Waterfront on Lake Champlain.  I had thought the Lake was one the Five Great Lakes. Silly me.  Lake Champlain — or Lake Champagne, as the hotel telephone operator called it — is a long narrow lake separating Vermont from New York State.  Look across the Lake and you see the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Sunsets in Vermont

In the evenings I usually sat with a glass of wine in my hand and Annie on my lap and watched the sun set over the Lake.  Sometimes, the sunsets rivaled those in Taos