Another Cruise on Lake Champlain

While Adam and Joi were visiting us the week before the holiday weekend, we headed up to Burlington for a very nice cruise on Lake Champlain.

We do one cruise every summer and had already done one cruise back in June with Lukey and Kenzie but this sightseeing cruise is always a nice time so doing a second cruise this summer received no objections from either one of us. Actually, we jumped at the chance to do a cruise with Adam and Joi.

Adam hasn't been here for a visit in quite a few years and he is now married to Joi so it was nice to see both of them again. We met Joi during our cross-country trip on Amtrak a few years ago. That was a great trip and we enjoyed our time with the two of them while getting to know Joi a little better. Now they were visiting Vermont... just before a holiday weekend... at the peak of foliage season... which made for a very busy tourist season in our neck of the woods. Every place we visited was very crowded with tourists.

Since it was a busy tourist time of year, we didn't bother looking for a parking spot down at the waterfront and instead parked up the hill in the downtown area of Burlington. We knew we would never find a parking spot near the waterfront so we didn't even attempt to do that. We planned to do some walking and shopping in downtown Burlington after the cruise anyway so parking up the hill in the downtown area would put the car near where we would finish our day.

The walk down to the waterfront and the Spirit of Ethan Allen was nice on this beautiful autumn day. Actually, it was pleasantly warm in the sun. The walk down to the waterfront is a nice scenic route...

There already was a long line of people waiting to board the boat when we arrived at the dock but we still managed to get a good table at the stern of the boat overlooking the lake. Sometimes there is a rushing scramble to get a good table at the stern of the boat but we had no problem meandering up slowly and finding a table on this day for some reason. I suppose most people wanted to be in the enclosed decks where the buffet was located.

It seemed like most of the people already on line were tourists from multiple tour buses. They all had lunch buffet cruise tickets in hand. The buffet is on a separate level of the boat (two decks on this day because it was so busy) so I guess this is the main reason we had no problem getting a good table out in the open air on the top level of the stern of the boat which is buffet-free.

We never do the buffet mostly because we prefer to sit on the top deck instead. I'm no fan of buffets anyway and especially during a pandemic. Actually, honestly, I've always been one to actively try to avoid buffets and even long before the pandemic. Seeing what people do with and around food is actually disgusting. So, we do not do buffets but we do, however, order food and drinks on every cruise.

In the photo below, Sheila was capturing a photo to instantly send to Joi's mom, Ahavah, as well as to post on Facebook. Our server took our drink order before we even left the dock. In this photo, drinks have arrived at the table...

Food has arrived at the table and we are just underway heading toward the Coast Guard Station...

We're exiting the breakwater between the lighthouse and the Coast Guard Station...

Below is the "lone rock" of Lone Rock Point...

Looking toward the west and the rugged New York Adirondack Mountains which is the home of some of my old stomping grounds... I climbed many of those peaks!

Below is Rock Dunder... the Abenaki's refer to it as Oodzee-Hozo. I'll skip the history and explanations of each name here because that would require a whole blog entry by itself. The lake is rather low this year so more of this tiny rock island is visible!

Red Rocks, below... in warmer weather, there are usually people diving off these cliffs which are about three time higher than what is framed in this image. This was a chilly autumny day so there were no divers, only a lone person dressed warmly and viewing the lake. I zoomed in on the cliff to capture an image of this lone person perched on a rock overlooking the lake rather than capturing the whole cliff.

The Burlington Boathouse...

After the cruise, we briefly walked some of the boardwalk on the waterfront. We quickly realized that, at this point, the wind had picked up and it was just a little too chilly to comfortably walk the boardwalk!

At the Burlington Boathouse...

Photographers always have problems with mirrored sunglasses. If you look closely in Adam's sunglasses, you can see me. It is much easier to see me in the close-up photo at the top of this blog entry but I am clearly in both photos.