Rhonda Bracey: At Random

My past week in Vermont – some highlights and observations:

• spending time with Kristen, my friend of 30 years, just chillin’ (and briefly spending time with her husband and amazing daughter, Ash, before they flew home to Australia)
• hot air ballooning over Lake Champlain (company: Above Reality) – highly recommended
• swimming (and bathing) in Lake Champlain – it’s not bad once your body gets over the shock of the cold!
• boating into Burlington for lunch and jalapeno-infused margaritas at Spot on the Dock, and to drink bubbly and watch the sun set over the lake
• doing the Shelburne Farms and Vermont Teddy Bear Factory tours
• eating great food with good company
• enjoying the greenness of a Vermont summer
• riding bikes in the summer rain (downpour, really) – not so much fun at the time, but easy to laugh about it now
• riding bikes across a causeway to have a burger on South Hero Island in Lake Champlain
• learning that you need good upper body strength (or a decent ladder) to get back into a ski boat from the middle of Lake Champlain
• meeting some of Kris’ extended family and the wonderful Kirsten
• test driving a 1999 SLK Mercedes Coupe (red, of course!)

Kris added these to my list:

Things that appear to have escaped your mind – although I don’t know how:

• receiving a wake up call from the ballooning company 5 minutes AFTER we’re supposed to be there (Rhonda: and then getting to the launch site before they did and waiting with the mosquitoes… I forgot the summer mozzies in Vermont too — they’re everywhere!)
• losing our Jeep to an outpouring of anti-freeze in the middle of Burlington
• getting a loan car that resembled the get-away car for Dumb and Dumber
• re-appropriating my Dad’s Acura into Thelma & Louise’s shopping cart
• eating left-over pizza for breakfast for the better part of a week
• waking up to be told the ski boat is off its mooring and floating away
• walking into Lake Champlain fully clothed after an epic bike ride on a hot and humid day
• realising that 30 years goes really quickly and changes very little – except your ability to climb back into a boat

For future reference: Flying to Burlington from Perth and back takes about 51 hours (in actual time in the air, not including about the same in airport and tarmac wait time). Allow two days to get there and two to get home.