Our last notable stop in the USA for a while was Burlington Vermont. Wow. What a great city! If the rest of the state is this lovely, I see why Bernie loves it!
We spent two nights there, walking and eating and enjoying maple and coffee Creemees. What is a Creemee you might ask? It is soft serve ice cream amped up on butter fat. It’s a thing in Vermont. A very good thing.
The downtown area was filled with restaurants and shops and lots of people enjoying the summer weather.
Even the drinking fountains were artful and unique! Kids and dogs welcome!
The waterfront was lovely and hopping with activity, especially around sunset.
We picnicked in the park along with fellow loopers and lots of locals.
We said goodbye too soon and headed north toward the border.
A day later we were there! Oh Canada! With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the True North, strong and free!
The border crossing was easy. We filled out the ArriveCan app a few days before, then cruised across the border with our Q flag flying. Don’t worry, no conspiracy theories here, it was just the yellow Quarantine flag, signaling to the border officials that we intended to enter Canada.
We tied up at the border control dock, and went in for a short interview (i.e. did we have weapons, plants, cannabis, alcohol, etc on board), then one of the agents went aboard the boat to look around. Five minutes later he emerged, giving us the thumbs up to visit his beautiful country.
The Q Flag came down and the Canada courtesy flag went up. Yipppppeeeeee!!!!
Our first stop was St. Jean sur Richelieu. And there it was that the locks began. We bought season locking and mooring passes for Canada for a total of $700 CAD (~ $550 USD) which gave us free locking and docking all over the canal systems of Canada. Such a great deal!
With business taken care of, we set out to explore the beautiful town. Art was everywhere!
The waterfront was filled with really appealing places to hang out.
With this as our introduction, I think we are going to love Canada!
To see our current voyage path with Gary’s photos, click on this: G&P Voyage Map
Hey, this is Kathleen Zorn. Just found you--finally! Every few years I check FB for you but there's nothing. I know I have a lot of catching up to do!
Wonderful post! Interesting that they’d ask if you had any cannabis — since it is legal in Canada! What an adventure you are on.