A Scenic Cruise on Lake Champlain

Every summer we try to get out on Lake Champlain at least once for a short cruise on The Spirit of Ethan Allen. The weather was forecast to be excellent this past Friday so we headed to Burlington with the grandkids in tow.

They had never been on a larger boat so this was a first for them. However, the kids surprised us by not being too fond of the idea of a cruise at first. Yes... you read that right... the two kids who can't get enough of boats while they are at the lake house weren't too fond of the idea of a cruise!

While they were eating breakfast on Friday morning, we asked them if they wanted to go on a cruise with us... they gave us some confused looks so I figured it was obvious they weren't too sure about the word "cruise"...  I then asked if they wanted to go out for a ride on a "boat"... oddly, they were enthusiastically negative about that idea too!

What is odd about this is that neither one of them seem to get enough of riding on kayaks and the sailboat whenever we are at the lake house. I quickly decided to make a case for my argument by saying, "You both like going out on the kayaks and sailboat, right?" 

They quickly responded with an enthusiastic "YES!"

I then added, "Well, how about we go out on a BIG boat on Lake Champlain and we eat on the boat?" 

At this point, they were more receptive to the idea of heading up to Burlington for a cruise but I wanted to be sure so I quickly turned on our Amazon FireTV... then opened YouTube to find some videos of this cruise...

The moment they saw what Gee and I were talking about in a YouTube video, they were excited to go for a cruise.

When we arrived in Burlington, we parked the car in our usual convenient downtown parking lot (I'm not going to tell where it is so we continue to have no problems parking in this convenient lot) and waited for Nan and Pop to arrive. Within five minutes, Nan and Pop had joined us.

We easily walked the downhill, half mile walk to the boathouse at the waterfront. It was a nice morning... warm but not hot... no humidity... easy to breath... the sun was in and out behind partly cloudy skies... it was nice weather for all of us but especially for my own health which does not do well in hot environments. This cooler day with no humidity made the walk quite pleasurable!

When we hit the tree-lined path from Battery Park, the kids and Gee started skipping down the hill. They were moving so quickly with their skipping that it was tough staying out in front of them so I could shoot photos of faces rather than the back of heads!

As we broke out of the tree-lined path and turned the corner, the kids caught a glimpse of the big boat docked at the boathouse still two blocks away. Now, they were very excited!

We easily found an empty table at the stern end of the top deck... out in the open sunshine... we ordered some drinks and an antipasto platter... and we waited for the ship to pull away from the dock... some of us more patiently than others, of course!

Lukey and Kenzie just couldn't understand why we were waiting... we were on the boat... we are all ready to go... "What are we waiting for?"

For the next twenty-five minutes, we explained, over and over, why we have to wait. Finally, some other passengers arrived so we were able to show them that other people were still arriving so we had to wait for them to get on the boat too... they seemed to understand this but, naturally, continued asking when we would leave whenever they noticed there was a lull in people boarding. No matter how much we tried to distract them nor how well we did distract them with other things, they kept coming back to this repetitive question.

At 12:05pm, the Captain fired up the engines... we could faintly feel the rumbling vibrations of the engines in our seats... the water around the ship came to life, swirling and bubbling... Lukey was peering over the railing, his head was darting back and forth from one side of the ship to the other, willing the big boat to start moving... the ship's deep horn sounded causing eyes to open wide... and we slowly started backing out of our slip into Burlington Harbor... finally!

After we sailed out of the harbor, we showed the kids around the ship. They even got a glimpse into the pilothouse. When one of the officers asked Lukey if he wanted to be a Captain of a ship, the Captain abruptly responded with, "No... he wants to fly fighter jets!" (We assume the Captain noticed my Air Force polo shirt and Lukey's NASA ball cap and made the leap to Air Force family... or maybe he knew me from the past... who knows? He made a fair assumption though. Lukey does seem to want to fly... or drive trains...)

Lukey has been known to get motion sickness in the car so we have been putting a motion sickness bracelet on both the grandkids lately and that seems to be helping. We also made sure they were both wearing their motion sickness bracelets on this cruise... just in case.

Before long, Lukey and I needed to head to the men's room. As Lukey swayed back and forth in front of the toilet, trying to aim, I remembered some of the problems I used to have when I was younger and would spend an entire day out on the water. I asked Lukey if the toilet was moving back and forth... he laughed and said, "Yeah!"

Lukey still seemed to feel fine so we didn't think much about his motion sickness. 

That trip to the men's room, however, as well as the next trip to the men's room with Lukey reminded me of the bigger problem with motion... trying to stand on firm ground again! Your brain will still be telling your body to rock back and forth but now the ground beneath your feet isn't moving. This is the time when most people have problems... back on firm ground. I made a mental note to try to remember to keep an eye on Lukey when we got back on solid ground. 

We ate a little, had a few drinks, watched the scenery pass by, talked, and I shot a lot of photos on this scenic cruise. The view of the rugged Adirondack mountains is beautiful from Lake Champlain. It was a really nice cruise on a beautiful day and the kids were having a lot of fun. 

Before long, we were back in Burlington Harbor and heading into our slip. When we finally disembarked, we gathered under a big tree in the grass next to the tall flagpole in front of the boathouse... Lukey hung on to that flagpole like he was on the bow of a ship in gale force winds and hundred foot swells! Unfortunately, at the time, none of us noticed it enough to make a connection to motion sickness. 

Terra firma... well... not so firm for all of us...

It wasn't until I was reviewing my photos at home that I noticed Lukey hugging that flagpole as if his life depended on it. If we had noticed this behavior or if Lukey had vocalized that he was not feeling well, we would have gotten Lukey off his feet and addressed his motion sickness, but, instead...

We started our trek back up the hill into downtown Burlington. We had decided to have a late lunch at Sweetwater's so we were headed straight up the hill toward Church Street. About a block and a half from Church Street, Lukey had hit his limit... 

Typically, Kenzie is the one to get tired first so when Lukey was the first one complaining about being tired this struck us as odd. All Lukey told us is he was tired and he wanted to be picked up. I think that at the time we were simply thinking he was hot and tired, however, when I felt how clammy he was, I knew immediately what the problem was... motion sickness! Uggg...  we still had a block and a half to go...

Nan carried Lukey for the rest of the way to Sweetwater's. 

When we arrived at Sweetwater's, Lukey was then doused in cool water in the rest room while laying on the big vanity until he was feeling a bit more like himself... then he was blow-dried under the powerful air hand drier. He thought that was pretty amusing! 

Although Lukey had a very rough half hour after getting on firm ground again, he recovered quickly and was able to enjoy a delicious meal at Sweetwater's. 

After lunch, we walked up Church Street to the Burlington Mall... visited LL Bean (our first of two visits to LL Bean stores this weekend)... but avoided Macy's (where Gee would have worn out the kids)... and then we walked back to the car.

We had a great time on the water on The Spirit of Ethan Allen and a great afternoon in Burlington on Church Street. It was a perfect day for this outing!

Little did the kids know, this was just the first day of an extended weekend full of activities and events...