An Afternoon in Burlington

While Lukey and Kenzie were visiting with us, we headed up to Burlington for an afternoon on the waterfront in the sun.  Our plan was to walk the waterfront from the Boathouse all the way up to North Beach and then back again.  It was a really beautiful day for this sort of walk but, unfortunately, my health was rather poor this particular day and by the time we reached the short distance to the Coast Guard Station, we had to turn around and find something else to do.  I was weak and generally feeling quite lousy.  We decided to head up to Church Street to have lunch instead.

On the beginning of our walk, we walked up to Battery Park.  There is a long straight path to Battery Park that is lined with trees forming a nice canopy over the walkway.  When I first decided to start doing some infrared photography, I had this particular location in mind for a photo.  I wanted to see this tree-lined walkway and canopy in high contrast and with bright white leaves on the trees.  I like how these infrared images turned out but I might do things a little differently next time...

Lukey, Kenzie and Sheila, walking ahead of me...

There was a bit of blue sky visible through the canopy over our heads.  I knew that blue sky renders close to black in infrared and I like the contrast between the bright white leaves and the darkened sky so I shot skyward through the canopy...

Clouds also render very well in infrared.  There really is no haze to be seen when shooting in infrared so the images are always very crisp.  Clouds off in the distance always render with a crispness not often seen in visible light.  

This photo, below, was shot in Battery Park overlooking Lake Champlain looking toward the Adirondack Mountains.  This particular statue is of Major General William Wells who led Vermont's First Calvary at the Battle of Gettysburg.  

This statue is a replica of the same statue at Gettysburg.  The original statue is from 1913 and this replica is from 1914.  Battery Park was a military camp during the War of 1812.  Burlington Harbor and the USS President which was moored in Burlington Bay were protected from this perch overlooking Burlington Bay and Lake Champlain.

Unfortunately, this park is in desperate need of attention.  It could use a lot of landscaping attention and overgrown trees need to be trimmed and even thinned out.  The views of Lake Champlain are almost completely obscured by overgrown trees now.  

I caught a glimpse of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul through the trees.  This Episcopal cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Vermont.  The cross on the top of the church, framed almost perfectly by these trees, caught my attention so I captured it in infrared...

There are gardens along the pathway toward the Boathouse... 

We went to Ri Ra's for lunch.  It was a nice way to introduce Lukey and Kenzie to a little bit of Irish culture...   oh...  and the food is pretty good too!

While we were ordering our food, Lukey and Kenzie heard us order Pretzel Rods.  After the server left the table, they quickly asked, "what are pretzel rods?" with a bit of a teenage puzzled look and almost a tone of disdain.  

I asked, "You never heard of pretzel rods?"  

I then went on with a story about how they are these really long pretzels shaped like a long rod like an axle and that they make them to order for each individual table and based on that table's size.  "Our table is four feet long, so our pretzel rods will be four feet long.  That longer table over there will get longer pretzel rods."

Gee and I told them that these pretzel rods are delicious but that they better be hungry because they a so long.  Then we explained about the hot pretzels we regularly get at other restaurants that are about a foot in diameter and are served hanging on a special stand.

At this point, they were still a bit skeptical but weren't sure if this was just another one of Papa's tall tales so they kept quiet.  

I explained that the pretzel rods come with a beer cheese dip and now they really thought this was a tall tale!  Beer cheese?  "What the heck is beer cheese?"   I think Kenzie said, "You have to be making this up!"  

Four foot long pretzels?  Giant pretzels hanging on a stand?  Cheese dip with beer in it?

Shortly afterward the hot pretzel rods arrived at our table on a normal-sized plate...  buttery and with herb toppings resembling an Everything Bagel.  Fortunately, they like Everything Bagels.  And, they really like cheese dips and sauces.  They were still a bit hesitant, however, since it was a cheese dip with beer in it.  

They cautiously tasted it and then they gobbled it up...  as expected...  which is why we ordered it.  We actually could have easily eaten two orders!

On the walk back to the car, we walked the entire length of Church Street and stopped to do a little shopping at Outdoor Gear Exchange.  

If we didn't have a furnace to purchase next month, I probably would have purchased two kayaks that we found in this store.  At the moment, it is a priority to get the furnace replaced though.  On the positive side, I finally found kayaks that we like and which meet our needs!  Now I finally know what make and model kayaks we want to purchase to replace our current old, beat-up, sun-bleached kayaks!

Whenever I have a lousy health day like this day, I need a few days to recover (sometimes weeks!).  When we arrived back home, we chose to just watch some episodes of 'Pushing Daisies' with the kids (their newest favorite show) and then I heated up some leftover Shish-Ka-Bob for dinner.  

Even though I felt quite lousy most of the day, it was a really nice day!