Burlinton, VT

 I arrived Monday and stayed in the hostel for $33. The hostel was only a year old, so it was fresh and it had a free washer and dryer service as well as organic and healthy!

Tuesday( 7/26) I found this:

tallest file cabinet

 

 

 

 

the beginning of the bike trail

After I dropped off my bags at my hosts house in Wanooski, a sq. mi. town next to Burlington, I went to a Laughing Yoga. Its basically a free practice where you get in a room with a group of people and do laughing exercises.  The fake laughter and silly movements and games eventually become contagious and turn into true laughter that comes from the stomach.
Laughter has so many positive effects on the body!! This is something I already knew to be true, but it was nice to get a refresher. And act silly with old people.

After that, my host and I went to this amazing themed tea place called Dobra Tea. I sat in a pillowed corner among the smell of herbs and hanging wall tapestries. The menu of teas is presented in a book form with an index in the back. In addition to the peaceful atmosphere, created by the earthy colored wall tapestries and ethnic music, the servers were super knowledgeable about the teas. Me and my couch surf host played chess as we waited for an hour. We rang this little bell, to see why it was talking so long, but we hesitated for the longest time because we did not wan to be rude, because they may have been busy. But they thought we had left already, so we got our tea pots and baba ganoush for free!!
You must go to this tea place if you are ever in Burlington. There is one in Asheville,NC as well.

Also, if you want to check out the places I write reviews about go to my Yelp profile. I am going to just start posting the link on here if I go to a place I like, rather than writing about it twice.

Intervale

 

 Its a bunch of farms on some land in between Burlington and Wanooski. I went to Adams Berry farm and picked a couple pints. They had three different varieties of blueberries: Patriots, Hardy Blue, and one other.

 

After Intervale, on the left, going toward Wanooski, there is a beautiful look out point with a trail that leads down through the woods to this awesome rock area called Salmon Hole.

On thursday night I went over to some people's house who I would be staying with later in the week and had dinner with them. Afterward we all went out by bike, to the chocolate dumpster at Lake Champlain Chocolates. This is a local chocolate maker that is apparently really pricey. As we approached the back of the building with our headlamps, four, what appeared to be college kids came  up to us, they said they had no luck. But since I am kinda small, I jumped in and moved some stuff out of the way, as the others held the lid open for me. We ended up scoring over 10lbs of chocolate. Than we went on the bike path to the center of the stone hinge sundial and ate it.

 

I saw this band called Rough Francis at Metronome. Two of the members were wearing Gorilla Biscuits t's.  Their recorded stuff does not do them justice. They are all very talented musicians. There was an all female punk band there called Doll Fight who was selling patches to support Girls Rock Camp. The show was put on for a lady named Heather who has brain cancer. 

Burlington is a lot like Asheville, in that its a small hippie town with a lot of community involvement. but the cool thing is you could run a mile away from where ever you are and jump in a lake. And there is so much local products due to the numerous farms in the area.

One strange thing I found out the other day is that you are allowed to be nude in public. Yes, you can walk around butt naked. Though, you cannot disrobe in public.  I have seen a couple naked seniors at the lake and some lower income level white folks walking around in underwear, but I have yet to see anyone in a store or in town completely bare.

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So far I have stayed at four different houses, one of which was a intentional community on Decatur St., the best street in America. For a group house of 7 people, the house was very clean. They had a garden, chickens, and a couple of them worked on farms, another at a bike outreach, it was pretty awesome!! Most houses on this street had huge gardens, bike garages, etc.

Every year in Burlington there is a battle of the North side of town vs. the South. One of the key points where music and crafts take place in Decatur st, which gets blocked off to cars. Its a festival of sorts put on by the community and anyone else who wants to contribute or participate, its called:

The Ramble

 I was busy running around to all the events around town that I didnt take time to take pictures. But there are some on Facebook.

The morning started with field games in Battery Park. I participated in the 100yd dash, h2o baloon toss, dizzy run,  and hula hoop run. I got 1/2 priced- home made strawberry basil icecream, double scoupe for $1.75  at a local eatery. I got free feather hair extentions, a yellow, orange and red one. I went to a mystical tea party at Junktiques - a local junk store.

For the rest of the day I checked out all of the community gardens, which had free food, and some had games and music. Toward the end of the day I went to a lecture about bees in one of the gardens, than was a judge for a pie contest. Apple ginger, onion, and razberry. 

 That was a thrill.

But the absolute best part was the 200 plus person bike ride that took place!!

Than me and some people jumped in Texaco lake.