May 29, 1999
Tom Smith: Leader

Woke from a dry restful sleep, wandered down Ryan's uncle's lawn to look across Shelburne bay. I was fulfilled and overjoyed by the same view that I get from my room every morning. Mansfield, Hunger, the Hump, all the way down to Mt Ellen. I have to admit, somewhat happily, that it made me homesick, in a fashion, at least eager to be living in Burlington again. I have been looking forward to this bit of the trip, as we head into Burlington and up to campus. Tom and Ted and I (and probably some others) worked hard - wouldn't call it work though - on polishing off the leftovers from the previous evening's food drop and feast. Mostly pie. Mmmmm, pie.... gotta love that apple. The weather radio, which seems to be one of the prime forms of entertainment for us (at least John, Mr. Hooker, Matt and myself) promised mild weather with favorable winds, even though we were only paddling across Shelburne bay. It was an easy paddle - we almost got accosted by the state police boat. Passed all the familiar water front spots, Oak ledge, etc. It was a very different perspective to see the city from the water, dozens of buildings, especially the top of buildings - a highly diverse architecture there that i had never noticed. We paddled inside the breakwater to North Beach, half expecting either channel five or channel three news to be there... they weren't. We were going to make a glorious shore landing and look all hard-core and adventurous, but they weren't there so it didn't matter. The campground at North Beach was not somewhere i was excited about staying, Having ridden my bike through it many times, i had seen the same families and campers parked there for months in the fall. Also the fact that there were campers/RVs there made it weird, and the high number of weekend warriors, long term campers, and beach goers was a large change from the state parks and other areas we had camped. Especially the bathrooms, just weren't clean. LAter in the evening we had to laugh at the people that had going "camping" and brought play structures, chinese lanterns, and christmas lights. Setup the camp and embarked on what i feel many would call a death march from the camp ground down the bike path to the science museum on the water front. Matt and i quickly walked far ahead of everyone, and thinking that we had a critical 2:00 reservation there, we walked through the doors at exactly two. I don't think it mattered. Having seen the place several years ago when Jennifer worked there, i was little disappointed and thought that it had gone down hill, become a little more shoddy and slightly disorganized. I think everyone else was decently impressed.

From there we made our way up through downtown, and up the hill to campus, on our way to Perkins, to the Geology museum (left) to see not only the whale (the one from Charlotte) but all the rest of the geology of the northeast and beyond as well. I found it incredibly interesting seeing a lot of the fossils found around Vermont - from the Isle La Motte reef, the whale, some mammoths found around. Saw a lot of pictures of people I know, which really made me feel at home (Buddy, Joya, Pazmore). Had we had time (or my keys) I had wanted to run over to Marsh to visit the lab, drop in and see Joe, until I realized it was Saturday. Down the hill afterwards, walked up church street to Ben and Jerry's. Tom and I made a slight detour to find gifts for John and Mr. Hooker. That cup of vanilla chocolate chunk tasted really good. Sitting back at camp, waiting for dinner, suddenly a familiar short figure walked across the field which it became apparent was Jennifer. We went down to the beach and she filled me in on all kinds of great news, and she was very happy, which made me happy. It was good to see such a familiar face from the Burlington scene - it has been weird (though fun) hanging out with people who are part of an entirely different scene... I invited her to paddle, but she couldn't, had to work. I have come to realize how much I like Burlington.