Back in the US...

Yesterday was a driving, sightseeing day.  We found lots of back roads on our way into Quebec and Vermont.  We had time to reflect on what we were seeing and on differences between what we saw in Canada and what we see at home.  We drove through a lot of rural, agricultural areas and saw some very prosperous looking farms, but most of the places we passed were every day homes.  We noticed how nicely kept the houses and yards were.  The houses were all different from each other - many gaily accented with colorful trim adorning their plain white exteriors.  Most of the houses were a modest size - maybe two or three bedrooms, all on one floor with front porches.  These were not beige or gray mini-mansions that all look alike.  Even in the most remote areas none of the houses had old rusted out cars in the yard or junk lying around.  It made me wonder if we just have too much "stuff".  It was, for me, a striking contrast to what I see in some rural areas of Michigan.

Another contrast was signage as we approached Quebec.  The signs were in both English and French.  So, of course, I practiced my French by reading them aloud!  It didn't make Dennis too crazy - really!  I loved seeing the two languages side by side and realized that I would quickly learn basic French if I lived there.  Once we reached the province of Quebec, the signs were all in French.  I could read them with my horrible pronunciation and understood most of what I was reading.  It was fun and instructional.  Here's an example of the bilingual signs at the border crossing.

Dennis thought that the French language was unnecessarily pejorative since the word for "left" is "gauche".

We loved the border crossing into Vermont.  It was tiny and looked like a park.  There was an RV, us - in the truck, and a bicyclist.  Have you ever seen this at the Ambassador or Blue Water border crossings?

Just over the border in Vermont the highway sign designated the road as a Bikeway and we saw bicyclists all along the roads through the islands in Lake Champlain.  It was a beautiful day and we took our time looking at the water and the parks and driving through Burlington.  It is a bustling city with lots of students (two colleges), restaurants, breweries, apartments and hotels.  There were many large old Victorian houses along the main streets near one of the colleges.  There is also a big lakeside downtown area that we will explore a bit today.  Magic Hat brewery was our first stop in Burlington.  It was very good, but not as warm and welcoming as Brewery Becker.  So, on to new explorations and learning about the area!