One of the surprises of our trip has been how hot and muggy it's been in the Northeastern states during these summer months. That was true even close to the Atlantic coast, and here in Vermont it doesn't even cool down properly at night. We are told by the locals that this heat and humidity are not normal but I'm beginning to suspect that my ideas of the summers back East were simply off base. Spoiled by the California coast, I guess.
This is one of only two RV parks on our travels that have encouraged us to use their WiFi for streaming video services. Most campgrounds advertise WiFi but in many cases even their basic WiFi is incredibly slow and often unusable. So while we can ordinarily use our Verizon services for hotspots to stream videos, Verizon enforces a limit to data usage, so it was deeply satisfying to stream away without worrying about bandwidth.
We signed up for a trial period of Hulu so that we could watch season two of The Handmaid's Tale, and also are enjoying Hulu's Castle Rock, based on a creepy Stephen King story. On Amazon Prime we're currently streaming A Very English Scandal, which is a brilliantly told and hilarious true story starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is funny as hell.
Burlington is an incredibly impressive town. It has a wonderful downtown pedestrian mall called Church Street Marketplace.
At night that mall becomes even more magical.
On the last night at our campground I went to a Latin jazz concert at the FlynnSpace theater just off the downtown mall. It was almost like being transported to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. This basement theater, somewhat smaller than Kuumbwa but with the same wholesome ambiance, was pretty much sold out and full of enthusiasts. The nine-piece band was called the Burlington Latin Jazz Orchestra and was headed by Ray Vega, a trumpet alumnus of the Tito Puente band and now a Senior Lecturer in the music department at the University of Vermont, which is just a few blocks away. The group was a combination of teachers from the university, local professional players, and university music students. The rhythm section was outstanding, the solos somewhat inconsistent, but the sound and drive were great. Ray Vega, shown soloing below, is a talented player and a charming leader. It was a fun and rewarding evening.
Nancy, with less enthusiasm for jazz than I, wandered the enchanted downtown mall while I was at the concert. She had a light meal at a wonderful steakhouse, browsed a bookstore, and bought some maple syrup liqueur at a shop there. Because of the local university, there was a heavy presence of young people, but folks of all ages were out in droves for the delightful evening.
We're charmed by Burlington. It has almost everything we're looking for as a place to settle down. The dealbreaker, however, as you might guess, is the climate. It's not old people winter weather up here.
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