2026 Life Logs, Day 49: Trip to Burlington with Ollie
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 35, Low 12 degrees F (in Waterbury)
Location: At Home at an Airbnb in Waterbury, Vermont
Heather, Jed, and Jonah headed to Stowe to ski and snowboard early this morning. A little later, Ollie and I drove to Burlington. He and Jed had already been to Burlington the day prior, but I wanted to go to see Lake Champlain frozen over and visit the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain known as ECHO. Jed had already taken Ollie there while Heather Jonah visited the University of Vermont yesterday. But I wanted to see the museum, so Ollie gave me a tour.
It is a science and nature museum right on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ollie took me through the nature exhibits, but we spent most of our time on the second floor, which had engineering activities interesting enough to keep us engaged for a couple of hours. At one point I saw Ollie, one-handed since he cannot use his broken right arm, discovering the power of pulleys as he was lifting himself up easily with one hand.
When we left the museum, we ventured out onto frozen Lake Champlain far enough to say we had walked on it.
And on the way out of town, I got to see a bit of the University of Vermont. It is the first school Jonah has visited in his college search.
I forgot to mention in last night’s log that soon after I arrived, we walked down Waterbury’s charming little Main Street for dinner at Prohibition Pig. It gets its name from the combination of being located in a former speakeasy during Prohibition and their focus on barbeque and smoked meats (pork). Thus, Pro-Pig.
