North and South

Valcour Island, New York
44 37.40 N 073 24.41 W

Yesterday, Jennifer had the day off work so she decided to go sailing with her mom and dad. There wasn't a lot of wind, so I decided to motor south about 5 miles from Burlington to Shelburne Farms. Once there, we walked the grounds and the gardens of the Shelburne Farms Inn. What a delight.

The Inn is actually the former home of Lila Vanderbilt. It was, I'm sure, one of several Vanderbilt homes. I don't know about the others but this one is magnificent. It is a huge brick and stone structure with perhaps 40 bedrooms, and numerous parlors, libraries, game rooms and sitting rooms appropriate to 19th century life. The wooden beams, wood panels, the floors, are still beautiful, as are the floors and walls of superbly crafted ornamental marble. In its, day, I'm sure that nearly every important person in business and politics must have been guests at that place.

I recommend a visit to Shelburne Farms to anyone who visits the area. It doesn't appear that the guided tours spend much time at the Inn so do your own self-guided tour of the mansion and the grounds.

After walking the grounds, we jumped into the lake to cool off and to take a nice swim. Now that summer has finally arrived, the days are hot and humid. However, the lake water temperature is just perfect for swimming. I use what I call "instant attitude adjustment" several times per day. That means, whenever I feel hot and sticky and that depresses my mood, I jump off the boat in to. That makes me sink about 6 feet below the surface. By the time I work my way back to the surface, my attitude and body temperature have been fully adjusted.

After dropping Jennifer off in Burlington, Libby and I continued north to Valcour Island. We'll spend 1.5 days here just enjoying Valcour's nature.

It seems that Canadian vacation periods must be over. The number of boats at Valcour is down 90% compared to recent weeks.

A sad aspect of this visit is that it will mark the northern apex of our water journey for this summer. When we leave Valcour, Tarwathie will head South for the season. That always makes me sad. I also get sad when we reach the southernmost limit of our winter wanderings and start to head North once again. I suppose the reason for the sadness is that we bid goodbye to regions we like so much, knowing that we won't see them again for a year or more. Even though, the north/south journey provides some of the best enjoyment, it doesn't fully offset the sadness of saying goodbye.

I also regret not being able to stay in Champlain through the first half of October. That time of year is really the best. The fall colors bloom. The weather is delightful. Formerly crowded places are deserted and we almost have the whole lake to ourselves. Alas, our aversion to cold weather is stronger, and both Libby and I believe that we should reach southern Florida no later than November 1. Otherwise, the cold nips at our heels for the whole journey south. We must leave Champlain (or Maine) by the first week in September.