My wife, Ikuko, was looking at the map and noticed some unexplored territory to the north – explored by others, but not by us. Here, being Queensbury, NY, we decided to drive north to Burlington, Vermont, then onto the Lake Champlain Islands to the border of Canada, and then back home down route 87. We started about 9AM and returned about 5PM with a few interesting stops along the way, consuming one tank of gas in my wife’s 2011 gold-colored Chevy Cruz. There were no tolls – always a nice thing.

Upon entering Vermont, we stopped at the Vermont Welcome Center, which had free coffee, bathrooms, literature about all the great stuff and places in Vermont and two amazing rocking chairs, crafted by Jim Geier at Starksboro, VT. I think we need a couple of these.

Next to one of the rocking chairs was a steel drum with a little mallet to tap the different size sections, creating pleasant meditative tones. Unsurprisingly, the instrument is made by Vermont Singing Drum at 4 Howard Street, Burlington, VT 04501 (802-448-4223). http://VermontSingingDrum.com I need one of these too, to tap while rocking in the chair.

Enroute to Burlington we stopped at the Dakin Farms store that markets Vermont products throughout the USA and the World. I bought a large piece of smoked trout for $20, a great snack in the car. Ikuko insisted that I open the window while eating it. Also at the Dakin store, I invested in a pair of made-in-Vermont wool socks with a lifetime guarantee for $24. https://www.dakinfarm.com/

Then finally in Burlington, we drove down to the waterfront. It had never dawned on me prior to this, probably because I had never been in Burlington before, that Burlington is actually on Lake Champlain with lots of sail boats in the harbor. Thereabouts, we sat down outside at a shop that sold soft ice creme, which locally was advertised as Cremees, and ate black raspberry ice cream cones while viewing the vastness of Lake Champlain and the sailboats.

While driving up the hill from the waterfront, there was a sign that pointed to The Arts District. A few blocks in that direction was 4 Howard Street. The metal drum folks were not there, but next door in the same building was “new new art studio” operated by Susan Smereka & Kevin Donegan, artists extraordinaire, who happened to be there at that very moment. Always interested in art and what drives artists, having been and still being a bit of one myself, we introduced ourselves and chatted a bit. Yes, Donegan is an Irish name and Smereka is a Ukrainian name. They were preparing for a show. Reasonable prices for quality art with extra artists’ sincerity and energy and inspiration stored therein.

Susan had a very good answer for a question that I am sure all artists think about and perhaps struggle with. I warned her that it was so good that I would probably mention it in a blog post, and here it is.

The question was, “How do you part with your children [your artwork]?”

Her answer was, “Well, after they have been around for 18 years, you kind of kick them out of the house, realizing that they need a life of their own.”

Susan said she had a Japanese friend, which prompted me to share what I learned recently about the Battle of Okinawa and Ikuko’s grandmother who survived it, which you can read about in my last blog post. Here’s the contact info for Susan and Kevin, which I cut and pasted from the back of their business card to the front.

We were playing our trip by ear and realized that we didn’t need to stay overnight. There were many vacation spot camping grounds along the way that it might be nice to stay at some day and rent a canoe to paddle around Lake Champlain in. On the way back down route 87 we stopped at the High Peaks South rest stop, which had a display from Natural Stone Bridge and Caves with a geode and a fossilized ancient snail cut in two with a rock saw and polished.