Valcour Island Revisited

 South Burlington, VT

We just returned from three glorious days on Valcour Island.  I hate to repeat myself on this blog, but the natural beauties of Valcour inspire me to do so, at least photographically.

What do we do all day while camping?  Watch the video.

The bright orange is lichen.

See the ripples in the water separated by a band of still water.  This band of no wind was over 12 miles long.  Hard to imagine the science of that.

The battle between the cedar trees and the rocks is epic.  Eventually thr tree wins and it breaks up the rock. But then the tree dies, so did it really wijn?

The edge on this rock is so straight that it looks like a diamond saw cut.  But it's natura.

This rock shows why these sedementary rocks break in straight lines.  How many millions of years to lay down all those layers of limestone?

Even flowers find a way to survive in the rocks.

These rocks are fossil rich.  Close examination of this one shows an amalgum of tiny bones.  They are probably fish bones, but they look like bird bones.

Note the ruler straight vein of marble.  The limestone morphed into marble along the lines of a crack.   The rocks here have lots of marble veins like this one.

In Sweden, these are called "devil's bowls"  They are formed when a round boulder gets spun around under the glaciers and it drills a hole into the base rock.  This bowl is nearly two feet in diameter and a nearly perfect hemisphere.

The sky was so pretty on our ride back to the main land.  So wan't Libby.

A few miles south of the Peru boat launch, is Ausable Chasm.  Man oh man, what a lovely place.

Begin The Summer Routine

South Burlington, VT

We arrived here in Vermont one week ago.   The first few days were winter-like, cold and miserable.  But Jen and Pete gave a warm welcome, so all was good.

Here is my "office" for summer use.  It is the Burlington Airport, only a block away from Jen's house.   There is a 6-storey staircase to the top of the parking garage that I can use for my daily workout. Here is the view from the top of that garage.  Pretty spectacular huh?

Below is the view from my "office".   I've learned that even 12 years into retirement, I'm still an office person.  That's where I feel most comfortable.  So there is a booth on the second floor of the airport where I can sit, use my computer and where I have the view below.   When I'm done checking the news on my computer, I sit in those rocking chairs to enjoy my coffee and the view. I arrive there at 5:20 AM, so I usually have the whole place to myself.   I see the airplanes come and go in the foreground, the valley behind that and the Green Mountains on the skyline. Never before have I had a real office as nice as this.

Also, other than the bald summits of some mountains, there is no other place in Vermont with such nice views. Even billionaire's homes don't have a view this nice.

On the day I took those pictures, it was still winter-like.  The fog was so thick that I couldn't see the ground.  But as I sat there, the fog burned off thus staging a theatric quality revealing of this view.  It was great.  Look carefully in the picture and you still see fog following the Winooski River.  Wow oh wow what a nice place.

Tomorrow, Libby and I depart to go to Valcour Island for the first time this year.  That excites us.  Regular blog readers know how much we love that place. We'll stay 3 days and 2 nights.

During the summer, we hope to do side trips to Syracuse/Rome/West Chalrton/Mechanicville/Guilderland NY.  Also to Melrose MA, Vinahaven/Ilesboro/Eastport ME.  Prince Edward Island, Quebec, then Ontario/Wisconsin/Minnesota/North Dakota/Montana/Idaho/Oregon climaxing with a view of the ellipse on August 21.   None of those trips are planed in detail yet.   Whew, it makes me tired and ready for a nap just thinking about all that.