Author: Lyn Smith

It doesn’t look like much of a hill from the waterfront, but Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace pedestrian mall, the place to be and see, is a breathtaking hike uphill from the marinas. We made the climb once or twice a day in our five day mini-vacation and have the calf muscles and lung capacity to prove it.

The photographs belie the fact that we were belayed for five days due to high winds. We had intended to anchor out off several of the islands in the northern part of Lake Champlain, but thankfully made the right call to stay put in Burlington. What a great city! The Burlington Harbor Marina which opened last year is architecturally cool, comfortable and linked to the parks and greenways that connect the city. We wined and dined at many creative restaurants; August First, Leunigs, Pascolo, Splash and Spot on the Dock. We missed many more that we will need to catch on the next visit.

Our side trip out of the city included the Shelburne Museum, a collection of buildings, boats, art and ephemera amassed by Electra Havemeyer Webb. She fortunately had the means to share her love of collecting with the rest of us. I have become a aficionado of decoys based on the collection at Shelburne. The craftsmanship is fantastic!

As I write, I am watching the sun set in the northwest sky, the highest compass point that the sun will reach in the northern hemisphere. We also watched the Strawberry (super) Moon rise in the southwest, over the city, upon our arrival. The park system, the city’s commitment to net-zero energy use by 2030, city-owned rentable electric-assist bikes, clean air, clean water and healthy living made the city shine. But most of all happy, gracious and content people made our visit most memorable.

It was welcome to have this urban(e) experience. Next such prospect: Cleveland or Chicago!

Traveling the coast of New England by car, boat or bike has been part of my entire life. So many familiar and memorable places! We have been cruising on the ocean waters of Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound for six days as of yesterday. Today we leave my comfort zone and head down the East River through New York City and then turn north on the Hudson River to our marina stay at Half Moon Bay. Now I will learn the ways of the inland rivers with their currents and micro-climates. It will truly be a new adventure that I must admit comes along with a bit of trepidation. I have never been transported in a lock before; never tied up at a town free wall for the night; never had to fight spiders off the line to leave the dock in the morning. So much to look forward to!

But before I make that turn to the world of the river, I find myself nostalgic for the people, places and seasons that I leave behind, even though the distance home will only be 4 hours by rental car for the next few weeks. The Spring of 2021 seemed to linger, perhaps because we all savored nature more intensely after the isolation of another Covid winter, but also for me as I knew that our departure date was approaching on June 1st. While I will miss the flowering sequence of our gardens and the comfort of knowing that the weather will be fair for a few days as the fields are hayed, I will follow the seasons in new environments with new clues to weather patterns.

I am ready to turn up the river.

Marty and I took the Liberty Landing ferry to the World Financial Center terminal on Wednesday, September 11, 2019. The sky was as sapphire blue as I remember it on September 11, 2001. 9/11 never far from our thoughts as we walked around lower Manhattan, we could not escape our own visions of the horror of the fall and aftermath of the Twin Towers destruction. The built environment has recovered; the 9/11 Memorial is an emotionally moving tribute to the 2,600 lives lost in NYC; “Oculus”, the new transit hub designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, is stunning and as the NYT states, “is positioned at an angle so that the skylight captures the sun each year during the hours when the planes struck the twin towers and the buildings collapsed”; One World Trade Center, designed by SOM, is a tapered octagon, achieving a true octagon form at mid-height, and topped off at 1,776 feet to honor the year of American independence; and the historic churches, like St. Paul’s (1766, attended by George Washington), facing the Twin Towers, but undamaged and able to provide sanctuary, food and shelter to first-responders and rescue workers.

While the debris has been removed and the landscape rebuilt, the cost of human lives, the devastation of impacted families, the health of New York City residents and responders, lives on eighteen years later and will for generations to come. I am grateful for my brother Brad’s contribution to the recovery efforts. As a member of FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Massachusetts Task Force 1, his unit was dispatched to the Jacob Javitz Center on September 12 and spent a week at Ground Zero. I can only imagine the images that are emblazoned in his memory. I am thankful that he is among the living.

After dodging the ferries and acquainting ourselves with Liberty Landing Marina, long time NJ friends Kathie Sindin and Dan Stewart kindly brought lunch to the hungry travelers. Dan, having recently undergone double knee replacements, made it up the ladder and down the stairs and back up again to tour the boat and finally to rest on the fly bridge with a lovely lunch and view of the NYC skyline. Wonderful time catching up with everyone’s adventures.

Monday we spent another perfect day in the company of Marty’s sister Eileen and her (our) friend Linda on a trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Beginning with our ferry ticket purchase at the Central Railroad of NJ terminal (1889, Peabody and Stearns architects), touring the Main Building of the Ellis Island National Immigration Museum (1892, designed by architects Tilton and Boring), and finally visiting the Statue of Liberty (French sculptor Auguste Bartholde, dedicated in 1886), the day was satisfying as an exploration of historic architecture as well as an enlightenment of the immigration process of the past. It is interesting to note that almost half of current American citizens are descended from the 12 million persons that immigrated through Ellis Island. A tribute to Thomas Patrick Halpin, Marty’s Dad, was found in the wall of remembrance (panel 182).

After we all surpassed our step goals on Monday, it was a relief to relax with Marty’s sister Barb and her husband Bob on Tuesday. Just returned from an Alaskan adventure, they were so wonderful to join us, share their travel experiences, and provide us all with an abundance of delightful luncheon fare.

Those who have gone before us on the Loop have said “Don’t wait!” We have taken their advice and are testing our mettle on a three week cruise from Warwick RI to Half Moon Bay Marina, Croton on Hudson, NY and back to Warwick. Hurricane Dorian may send us on with a slightly different itinerary than planned, but after day two, as we continue to check the weather ahead of us, we press forward with the plan. More on plans later.

We were sent off on Monday night with a toast by Lou and Cory in Warwick, cleared the dock at 8 AM on Tuesday under a glorious blue sky and calm seas, and arrived in Mystic by 2 PM. Familiar passage for us down Narraganset Bay, and aside from watching for ferry traffic out of Point Judith, the journey along the coast was more of a site seeing tour noting the places of our land adventures and those places that we had only read about (Taylor Swift’s seawall upper left!). We passed Latimer Light (a preservation project we hope to assist) and a caution maker (the yellow can in front of the light house) noting the site of a recently sunken 50′ old wooden Cheoy Lee sailing vessel. The long winding entrance along the Mystic River to our Safe Harbor Marina was a slow pleasure as was our exploration of downtown Mystic and the famed 1922 draw bridge.

Greeted by Jack and Stephanie Gosselin, our official Mystic harbor hosts, we shared a lovely sunset on the boat overlooking this protected harbor. Daughter Caty was able to join us as she will along this journey. It is all about the friends you meet and those that you make along the way!