A new and affordable flight out of RDU Airport inspired a trip to Burlington, VT in mid-October of 2025. I knew next-to-nothing about this town before our departure, and was excited to explore Vermont’s largest city (with a population of 45,000 people).
With the fall color at its peak, and fall festivities, maple ice cream, and apple cider in abundance…the trip was set up to be a great success. My friend and I began our adventure with a wagon-ride tour around Shelburne Farms, just south of the city. Designs by Frederick Law Olmsted (often considered to be the Father of Landscape Architecture), paired with the wealth of William Vanderbilt’s youngest daughter, joined forces to create this farm across hundreds of acres of rolling green pasture, maple tree forests, and rocky Lake Champlain coastline. Despite being in a rural area, the design struck me as similar to Central Park in more ways than one. Views were framed to capture glimpses of features across the landscape – like the choppy lake waters or the copper roof of the main barn. And forests were molded to create an undulating edge to some of the pasture areas.
We completed our trip with a bike ride along the Island Line Trail. This rail-to-trail travels from the downtown area to the north and south, and the urban density quickly fades into tree-filled residential neighborhoods, and eventually to a long, rock causeway that extends into Lake Champlain. It was here that a gust of wind nearly took me off my bike.
