What do you do when it’s 70°F and sunny in Burlington, VT? Hollow out some pumpkins and paddle them in the lake, of course! This weekend was Burlington’s 4th annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta and Festival. In addition to the paddled pumpkins, pictured below, there were food vendors, music, dance performances, and even a dog costume contest.
Burlington was very lucky with tropical storm Irene. When she was a hurricane and the path was uncertain, we didn’t know if it was going to come up Lake Champlain and destroy cities along both sides of the water or if it was going to veer out to sea. Ultimately, Burlington received heavy rain for about 24 hours combined with some sustained winds.
The rest of Vermont has devastating flooding. There are covered bridges that have washed away; towns that are under water; roads that no longer exist; and significant damage to farmlands. We expect the rivers to swell over the next day or two, so I suspect the real extent of the damage is unknown at this point. Suffice to say, there will be a lot of people who need a lot of help over the coming days, weeks, and months.
The extent of the damage I’ve seen in Burlington has been limited to a few small & medium sized branches, leaves covering many sidewalks, and a potted plant that fell from a second story porch.
It’s taken a while for me to get around to blogging this wedding. I think it’s because it has special meaning to me; or maybe it’s because I had a hard time picking just a handful of photos to share here.
Last fall, two of my good friends were married at Lareau Farm Inn in Waitsfield, Vermont. For those of you that are repeat readers, you may recognize them from an engagement session in Burlington last summer.
Peter proposed with his grandmother’s ring and that vintage act seemed to set the mood for the rest of the planning. Between the beautiful Vermont fall foliage, the comfortable, rustic atmosphere at the inn, handmade invitations and wedding favors, and a talented musical lineup, the day came together perfectly.
The flowers that The Blue Toad provided were beautiful and a perfect match for the venue and other decorations.
After a morning of getting the pavilion and ceremony site decorated, Peter was ushered back to his room to get ready with his best man.
The girls ran down to the hair salon to get their hair done (and, rumor has it, stop for a creemee on the way) before returning to change and apply any finishing touches.
Peter didn’t know it, but while he was outside chatting with his parents, Emily was just feet away peeking through the bathroom window at him.
One of the smartest things we did was to find a spot for their first look which was away from the arriving guests. Across the river, there’s an old road or driveway that looked back at the inn. While Peter was waiting for his bride, he got to watch as family and friends made their way to the ceremony.
Best. Reaction. Ever.
First looks are one of my favorite times during a wedding. As a photographer, you get to watch as two people that love each other take a few minutes to themselves. It’s a beautiful sight and almost as memorable for me as for the bride and groom.
We knew that most of the guests had arrived, though, so we had to scurry off to the upper field to make it legal!
Peter was obviously feeling good about the day!
And Emily was almost floating as she made her way up the long walk with her attendants.
Normally, group shots of family & wedding party are pretty cookie-cutter, but when you’ve got a bunch of performers together you can capture out of the ordinary attitude.
The rest of the night is a blur as family and friends celebrated by playing music & dancing the night away.
And when the music finally stopped, there was a fire outside to sit around as we all digested the day’s events.
What a beautiful, perfect wedding. If you’ve got a few more minutes, please take them to enjoy a slideshow of more photos set to two original pieces played by Peter’s band-mates in The Grift.
The Burlington Department of Parks and Recreation organized a cleanup day to help waterfront park and the bike path sections from Perkin’s Pier to the dog park recover from the flooding in time for the Vermont City Marathon. Over the past few weeks, I’ve walked around the waterfront numerous times photographing the damage and debris. A couple of weeks ago, I saw this driftwood piled up on the Coast Guard boat launch.
As I passed by, I casually wondered what would happen to it and where it would end up. Little did I know that I would be part of that process. Parks and Rec. put out the call for volunteers and I heard about it through Run Vermont and the #BTV Twitter hash tag. I regularly benefit from the bike path personally and professionally so I decided to head down to help clean up.
Burlington has a lot of pride in the lake, the waterfront, and our popular bike path and a number of people showed up to help clean it up.
After a quick sign in and some free coffee, we split up into three groups to focus on Perkin’s Pier, around the Echo center and the Burlington Boathouse, and the U.S. Coast Guard boat launch and points north.
While some folks went out to start collecting & sorting debris for transportation back to the dumpster, a bunch of us stayed behind to pick through the current big pile. The goal was to provide the McNeil generating station with a dumpster of clean driftwood ready for burning. To that end, we had to hand-pick through everything to remove any metal, plastic, glass, paint, or pressure-treated wood.
While we were working on the big pile, trucks came in with the driftwood that others had collected from along the rest of the bike path.
Given the size of the pile, I thought it would take the better part of the morning but after an hour or so we were down to little bits which would have to wait for the bucket loader. After some wandering around, looking for the best next project to dive into, a small team of us ended up near the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center and the fishing pier loading driftwood into a trailer for transportation back to the dumpster. We made about three runs, filling (and sometimes overfilling!) the trailer with water-logged wood. Adam would then drive the long way around because it was the only semi-dry path that the cart & trailer could make it through.
After a few hours of work, our dumpster was full and people were reporting that Perkin’s Pier was equally filled so our work was done for the day. There’s still a lot of cleanup to do, though, and a fair bit of standing water. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and some of the water will drain on its own before the marathon!
This past Saturday, Race Vermont held their annual Spring Half Marathon. I’ve photographed a number of events for them and they’re always a good time; this one was no exception. The weather forecast threatened rain, but we only got the lightest of sprinkles during the event. The flooding in Vermont meant that Rayne had to reroute the course a little bit and, thankfully, Shelburne Farms was willing to accommodate him.
There was a good sized crowd at the start as last-minute race details were covered (including the standard no-iPod rule) and then they were off.
After the pack takes off, I relocated to Shelburne Farms’ South Gate and waited for the runners to arrive.
This guy was taking advantage of the change of scenery and cheering on the runners as they passed.
Congratulations to everyone that ran! I hope you enjoyed your morning as much as I did. All of these photos and more are available on SkiPix.com!