We picked the early morning departure for a reason: given our recent luck with air travel, I wanted lots of opportunities to make sure we got to Burlington when something inevitably goes wrong.  And we started with a 45 minute delay out of KC which meant our 1 hour connecting time in Philly wouldn’t be enough.  Luckily the plane out of Philly was also delayed so we got to Burlington just over an hour after we planned.  We managed a quick visit with Jesse between classes, checked into the hotel and then the real visit began.

We had 2 1/2 days to spend in Burlington for what would be our last casual visit.  The purpose for this trip was to see the show for which Jesse designed the set as her theater capstone project.  We spent our time doing all the things we like to do in Burlington:

• Eating at such fabulous places as the Farmhouse and Sweetwaters for dinner and Magnolia and of course the Skinny Pancake for breakfast.
• Wandering up and down Church Street, drinking coffee and counting the various combinations of unique foot wear and hair colors
• Visiting nearby Waterbury where Frank sometimes finds cans of Heddy Topper for sale and I always find neat stuff in the Stowe Street Emporium

And of course, we went to the theater to see “That F(*&king Bird” – a play on Chekov’s “The Seagull” which was very good.  The acting was excellent and of course, the set design was outstanding (Mommy brag!).  I did have a small part in it – I picked out the calendar that hung on the refrigerator during Act 2. (They needed to hide the gaffer tape… )

And we played tourist.  On Saturday, we hit the farmer’s market – where Frank tasted at ry local distillery booth there, including our favorite “Rail Dog” stand. A local gin purchase later, we were off to Montpelier, the smallest state capital in the country and an impossibly adorable place.  Another farmers market to visit as well as several shops and we wandered off with a variety of fabulous smelling soaps, yarn, and other goodies.

And from there we visited a sugaring house (and learned how maple syrup was made), a covered bridge, a pumpkin patch and a corn maze! Grey skies and intermittent drizzle was not going to stop us! Although the corn maze did defeat us – we never found checkpoint #2 but we found checkpoint 3 four times so we feel like we accomplished something.  And Jesse won a pumpkin by finding an ear of corn in the maze with a pumpkin drawn on it (a teeny tiny pumpkin that I couldn’t have seen if my life depended on it!)

And then in the blink of an eye, we were back at the airport for the early flight out and made it home with no drama or delays.  (I had to admit even American Airlines gets it right sometimes).  So while we’ll have several chances to see Jesse again in the coming months, we won’t see Burlington again until May 2017 when it will probably be the last time because she really is going to graduate.  {sniff, sniff}