Great Lakes Day 9: Burlington to Montreal

June 27, 2016

Notre Dame Cathedral, Montreal

With a short day of driving ahead, we decided to take a more leisurely breakfast. Kenna found a bakery, August First, a few blocks away that was wonderful. It had a comfortable environment, excellent breakfast sandwiches (9 grain roll recommended), and good coffee beverages. Burlington reminded all of us of Boulder, Colorado, both in terms of the “vibe” and of course because they are college towns.

Ben and Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard

When we got on the road, we went first to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, about a half hour south. The 30 minute factory tour was enjoyable, especially with the ice cream sample at the end. We took a walk up the hill to the “Flavor Graveyard” where the retired ice cream flavors are memorialized. Celeste reminded us that this is yet another cemetery we’re visiting this trip. I don’t expect this will be in the Find a Grave registry, though.

Traveling north again, we encountered the first significant rain of the trip. Fortunately we were driving for the duration of the storm and stayed dry. We opted to take US 2 through the Lake Champlain islands. This was a scenic alternative to the Interstate, not very crowded and didn’t add much to our trip time. We passed into Canada through the sleepy border crossing at Rouse’s Point, NY/Lacolle, QC, which was fast and pleasant.

Notre Dame Cathedral interior

The drive into Montreal was a little stressful, as it is into any large city, but we found our hotel quickly and set out for the Old Quarter (tourist district). We visited Notre Dame Cathedral, the altar of which is illuminated in blue making it distinctive and attractive. It has a very impressive pipe organ, which unfortunately we did not get to hear.

We walked around the harbor area a bit before stopping at a sidewalk cafe for dinner. The weather was warm and had fortunately cleared since the rain earlier in the day. Our walk back to the hotel took us through a jazz festival being set up nearby.

This article is part of a series about our recent vacation in the Great Lakes area. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.