Burlington or Bust!

Days 19 - 20 : 386 miles, destination Burlington, VT

Total miles: 4031

Before I got to Burlington I had to cross the border. I was taken off the highway through cornfields to the point where I thought Google Maps must be dumb and then I see I'm driving along the border and the border check is right ahead. US Customs asked me more questions than I've ever been asked before, I guess he was lonely!

In Burlington I stayed in a shared AirBNB (meaning someone lives there and lists a room in their place on AirBNB). Maria's place was small but had a great view and my room was perfect. She was also only a fifteen minute walk or so to downtown Burlington.

After sleeping in (and sleeping off a day of driving), I started my first morning with an amazing breakfast sandwich called Smokey and the Biscuit (two eggs, Gouda, maple sausage on a homemade biscuit) and a latte at Cru Coffee. Breakfast gets its own shout out because that was seriously one of the best breakfast sandwiches. After I warmed myself up from the inside out (hey, it was 55 degrees that morning - that is COLD for a Florida girl) I headed out to explore a bit. Downtown Burlington has a cute shopping street closed off to cars called Church Street Marketplace. I walked up and down and did some retail therapy, travel tip for Floridians - if you travel up North mid-September the clothes that we wear all year will be on sale because their summer season is over.

There are plenty of local breweries in Burlington as well, so of course I had to do a mini brewery tour as well. I hit up Switchback Brewing, Burlington Beer Company, and Zero Gravity Brewery - top points for all! Oh, and of course I had to see 'The World's Tallest Stack of Filing Cabinets' while I was there as well. I mean, who is going to miss out on that?

On day two I did what any self respecting tourist would do and I drove over a few towns and did a tour of the Ben and Jerry's Factory. They gave us two tastes on the tour - #1 was their standalone cookie dough bits and #2 was their strawberry cheesecake ice cream. I'd never had that flavor before and damn it was good! Once the tour was done they dumped us out into the gift shop and of course I bought some things I didn't need, but also shouldn't everyone have an ice cream scooper FROM Ben and Jerry's?? I think so. Before I left I did one last taste test on my own - I'd never had their #2 seller, Cherry Garcia so I thought it was only appropriate to give it a whirl at the mecca itself. They also had a new flavor called Marshmallow Sky and being the trendsetter I am *of course* I'm going to try the flavor that the masses haven't tried yet. Sadly I loved Cherry Garcia so much and now I want to eat more. Marshmallow Sky may take some getting used to, it's a light blue color and I must have some disconnect in my brain with eating foods that I don't think match the color I think they should be. If you're gonna lead with 'Marshmallow' it's gotta be white. Being the good and fair judge that I am, I will have to try it again before giving a final review.

Oh, and up the hill is the Flavor Graveyard, which is a hilarious homage to all of the retired flavors. It was one of my favorite parts, I'd love to have a beer with the people who come up with the gravestone text, it really had me laughing.

xoxo

iamfunchris