I'm finally going to write a bit about our trip to Burlington, Vermont. Vermont is gorgeous. I was thoroughly impressed. And I understand their state quarter more now, too. Bonus. If you see it, give it a second look--it's a person in the middle of the amazing maple tree tapping process used to make the delicious maple syrup that the area's known for. I respect that! Here is some of our group on the ferry to get from New York state to VT. It was cold, in case you couldn't tell. In the picture with me is Eileen, Samantha (who both go to Clarkson year round), and Yami. Fun people. They're making my summer fun. :)
Now, we keep our priorities straight here in the REU program. So the first thing we did was go to the Ben and Jerry's Factory outside of Burlington. I have never been quite so excited to see the women's sign for the bathroom--check it out. I want one for my bathroom at home. So cool. Though it might not be a good idea to bring that cone any further. ha!
The tour was actually rather lame--they were only cleaning, not making ice cream by the time we got to the manufacturing room. So we just watched some ridiculous video about how they make the ice cream. But I still don't feel like I know that much about it. Alas.
Bianca and I are being goons:
Bianca and I are being goons:
I am a much bigger fan of Ben and Jerry's ice cream now, though, so I think in all they succeeded in their goal. I'm definitely going to have to frequent our Birmingham Ben and Jerry's a bit more. :)
This road sign is priceless. I don't even think I need to explain why. Only in Vermont!
Next we toured a Wood Gasification Plant. And a composting facility. At the former, I was basically confused the whole time. The tour guide spoke in mostly abbreviations of an engineering nature. So I just donned the hard hat and enjoyed the views. So industrial! This sort of thing makes me glad I'm a biologist, not an engineer. Props to all of you out there than thrive on this stuff. That's wonderful. As for me, I'll stick to the woods and enzymes and such.
The rest of the weekend was free for us, so we hit downtown. Here's the shore of Lake Champlain. It's absolutely breathtaking with the mountains on the opposing shore. I was also pleased to hear that there's a Loch Ness monster type of story here in Vermont as well. There just may be a large creature affectionately named "Champ" swimming in these waters. Please try to maintain your composure. I know it's frightening.
The Burlington Jazz Festival was going on. You know what that means--free music, wonderful people watching, and one very happy Katie. This particular window displayed a wonderful combination of stellar things. Love it.
The city was beautiful, with many cute restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes. This is church street, where they had a block party on Friday night. The band was more of a Latin/ salsa band as opposed to jazz, but hey! That was really fun! We joined the many others in dancing on the street. Good times.
Apartment-mate love:
Shortly after this picture, we went down to the shore, watched the rest of the sunset, and danced on the rocks to the oldies tunes being played by a surprisingly untalented band in a tent further down the shore. The singing was rough. But that just made it more fun.
Friday night, we slept in tents in the backyard of one of Eileen's friends. So college! It rained, but we all stayed fairly dry. Saturday morning, Erin Fick, a friend from Samford, met me at a fabulous breakfast cafe, where we enjoyed chocolate croissants. It was wonderful to catch up with her. In all, the weekend was really, really fun. It certainly beat two more days of being in the lab!
What a fun weekend! VT looks beautiful. Who would've thought? haha. I'm so glad you got to hear jazz/ salsa music. The more Spanish the better :) I can just see you dancing on the rocks to oldies. You would.
ReplyDeleteYour pics are great and I'm sure the lawn mower races were priceless!
So glad you got my postcard too! Love you deary!