During the Easter long weekend, the boyfriend and I headed down to Burlington, Vermont!
It was a pretty relaxing getaway, knowing that there’s not that much to do in the city itself. Since we didn’t have a car, it’d mean everywhere we’d go would pretty much be on foot.
We stayed at the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain Hotel. It was a little old in feel, but otherwise clean and excellent. The forecast for the weekend had been rain, but surprisingly, after the showers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday were beautiful! Our hotel was right next to the lake. This meant we had plenty of opportunities to head down to the boardwalk area to enjoy the sun. A long Montreal winter did make us miss warm sunshine!
On the Saturday that we arrived, we headed to eat at American Flatbread. It was here that I discovered my favorite pizza of all time: eggs benedict pizza (flatbread). My goodness, it was amazing. I love eggs, so I may be biased, but I was so glad we got there in time for the brunch specials so we could try this.
Following lunch, we headed to ECHO, an ecomuseum where you can discover the wildlife and history surrounding Lake Champlain. It’s a small space, but they did a good job making sure there was plenty to see. It took us about an hour to go through all the exhibits. Since it was earth week, there was also a chance to do a mud fling. Kids could fling mud from the 3rd floor balcony of the museum down to a target set up on the first floor. ECHO was definitely more suited for kids. We’ve been to aquariums where it felt more “all-ages”, but ECHO was a neat experience nonetheless.
We explored Church Street after ECHO. Church Street is a picturesque, pedestrian-only street in Burlington. Lined with cute shops, there was plenty to see on this strip of road. It’s not long—if you had to walk from one end to the other without stopping, it’d take you 10-15 minutes to cover it. We found ourselves coming back again and again to this street between meals and activities. It was both central, and pretty to look at!
For dinner, we went to Shanty on the Shore. We were both craving seafood, so it was one of the few places that specialized in seafood in Burlington. The food was good enough, but not spectacular.
Day 2 was the day we had reserved to do some shopping, but unfortunately, since it was Easter Sunday, most stores were closed. We did get to hit up Trader Joe’s though for some snacks and supplies! I don’t know what it is about Trader Joe’s, but I love their stuff. From their cookie butter to their “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning, they make delicious foodstuffs that we can’t find in Canada. We also spent a good chunk of time exploring Barnes and Nobels. I miss having such a wide variety of English books to choose from! I’m also trying to get back into reading (and writing as you can see), so I bought myself a new book.
We then headed back to the lake-side where we enjoyed some snacks from Burlington Bay (maple + black raspberry soft serve ice cream!). I also got to read in the sun! It has been a long time since I was last able to do that 🙂
Dinner was back in the downtown core of Burlington at A Single Pebble. After reading all the rave reviews of how great the Asian food here was, we were super excited and made reservations. We ordered the legendary mock eel, dumplings, a noodle dish called “Ants Climbing A Tree”, and red oil chicken. Everything was very…flavorful. While it was yummy at first, my mouth burned from the salt and sauces. Not because it was spicy, but just because there was so much of it. Maybe it’s just not for me. The service was excellent though!
The last day was spent at Penny Cluse Cafe for brunch. So brunch has been consistently amazing in Burlington. As I mentioned, we had the delicious eggs benedict pizza at American Flatbread. For day 2, we went to The Farmhouse where I ordered a more traditional eggs benedict. Except it was served with kale. I usually hate kale, but after the vinegary way The Farmhouse served it, I realize I never had it done a way I like. I enjoyed it so much I found myself ordering the eggs and kale at Penny Cluse on the last day! Which did not disappoint. The boyfriend ordered a thick stack of gingerbread pancakes. The servings here were huge! Super worth it!
After brunch, we headed back to the hotel to check out. It was a great weekend, and I was glad to get away from Montreal for a bit. I hope to revisit Burlington in the future. Maybe when it’s mid-summer so that we can do more activities around the lake!
On a side note, it has been a long time since I wrote here. And I’d like to do a shoutout to D, who reached out to me via this site! Thanks for your encouragements to write again! And I promise I’ll have a more substantial piece up soon. I’ve had a draft written on my phone that I need to polish up before publishing. I very much do want to write more and I miss it a lot! It’s just hard getting back after taking such a long break from it.
Karen K. Lee 