Vermont - State #29

A 20 minute seemingly below zero ferry ride across Lake Champlain to Vermont brought us to Vermont. No welcome sign awaited us so we'll have to do our trusty U-turn trick when we get to New Hampshire in a few days.

Who knew that Lake Champlain is the 6th Great Lake? We feel very thorough in our recent Great Lakes Tour! This lake is breathtaking. It feels like a grandiose lake, rather than an ocean. And it's what causes the Burlington area to be called the Banana Belt. Lying between the Adirondack Mountains to the West and the Green Mountains to the East, this area is warmer with less precipitation. Their leaves turn a bit later, too, so it's actually less colorful here than it was in New York!

Here's a cool piece of Burlington trivia: it's the smallest city in the U.S. to be the largest city in its state. (It only has around 40,000 people!)

We drove along the water and ended up right on the immaculate University of Vermont campus. It felt so much like a miniature Ithaca! The students we saw looked very Granola. Hip, clean and crisp, a lot of woolen scarves and straight knee-length skirts and of course, Birkenstocks. I asked a group of kids for directions to a Laundromat and one girl perked up after reading our car windows with, "Wow! All 50? Well then - welcome - to - Vermont! It was really funny and Grandma and me both liked the town immediately.