I’m spending the month enjoying autumn’s changing colors and daily sunsets over Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont—the state’s largest city, with only 45,000 residents. Each evening, I walk two blocks from my apartment to the waterfront to watch the sunset over the Adirondack Mountains of New York across the lake.
After an incredible weekend in Montréal, I drove less than two hours to Burlington, Vermont. Leaving Montréal, I was amazed at how quickly the landscape changed from urban to rural. The leaves were already popping as I drove I-89 along the Green Mountains to Burlington.
My studio apartment is situated perfectly between Lake Champlain and all the great shops and restaurants of downtown Burlington—just a couple of blocks in each direction. The apartment may be tiny, but the location can’t be beat—especially during this peak tourist month during peak fall color season.
Burlington is an interesting town. The beautiful scenery is mixed with artisan shops, excellent restaurants, and many breweries. Everyone is so friendly. There’s lots of history here. It’s the home of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (yup, they make ice cream!), Bernie Sanders, and Ethan Allen, credited by many as the father of Vermont. But at the same time, there are so many sirens! I haven’t quite figured out why. In my first hour in Burlington, I heard more sirens than the entire month in Toronto, a city of six million, where my apartment was a block away from a large police station. It’s mostly fire trucks and ambulances. Are lots of cats getting stuck in trees?
On one of my first days here, as I was walking on a side street, I passed Luis Guzmán, aka Gomez Addams from Netflix’s Wednesday. I immediately recognized him as a famous actor/comedian, but it took a while in my head before I could place him. Turns out that he lives a couple of hours from here and must have wanted to check out Burlington along with everyone else!
I’ve taken a few scenic drives—with more to come—to explore the state, and fall colors are peaking everywhere. I’ll post more fall color photos soon, but for now, enjoy these sunset photos from Burlington.
