Dandelions and graduation

You do miss home cooked meals when you are traveling for a while. So it wonderful when you find a restaurant that makes good food. This morning we headed away from town looking for Walgreens and accidentally came upon the Spot, a Pacific 66 garage turned into a surf themed bistro. Burlington is not on the ocean so surfing isn't that common here. The owner, Russ Scully came from the west coast and decided to honour surfing in his eatery. Norm had crab cake eggs Benedict with fresh fruit. I had granola, yogurt and fresh fruit. So good!




Norm had planned to catch a collectors show in Essex Junction where he just might find some old postcards today but getting there proved too difficult. Buses don't run on Sunday. So instead we walked from Burlington to Winooski, about 3-4 miles. The weather was perfect. We got to see the Winooski's falls, have a bite to eat and then walked all the way back to our motel.




One thing we have noticed walking around here that there are thousands of dandelions, everywhere. We even talked with a fellow bus passenger about why there were so many. No real answer but maybe not using pesticides has made a difference. I think the answer is to find beauty in the dandelions!




Tonight we decided to have nice dinner and celebrate Norm passing his last exam towards his degree! He officially graduates this June with a Bachelor of Arts! We went to the Leunig's Bistro and had an outstanding feast. Norm had Spring Pea Bisque (bacon, sweet peas, leeks, creme fraiche) and Oysters Trio (6 cornmeal dredged & fried, 4 Rockerfeller and 4 raw with champagne mignonette). I had Grilled Halibut crusted with pineapple tomato pesto served with polenta fries and arugula salad with hearts of palm, gooseberries, dates, almonds, mango, avocado, papaya with a coconut balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious.
We shopped for snacks for our train trip to New York Monday morning. The local co-op grocery, City Market was perfect. Norm was in awe of the bulk food section. He counted 45 bins for granola! I think that is a record.
Tonight we are in New York City. Left Burlington at 6:45 am,walked to town, caught a bus to Essex Junction and by 9 am were heading to NY. It was a 9 1/2 hour train trip but we got to see a lot of the country along the way. Once we checked into our room we did a walk about. We found Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, Saks 5th Ave, the New York Times building and many people. Norm says by the time our week in up we will not longer feel like country bumpkins and stop staring up all the time.

Location:Burlington, Vermont