5 Favorite Travel Days in 2013, A Birthday Bash at the Basin Harbor Club, Vermont

Every time I visit Vermont, I wonder why I take the extra time and effort to go anywhere else. This was especially true last August when I went with my wife’s family to the Basin Harbor Club to celebrate a momentous birthday for my mother-in-law, Fran. Talk about an ideal location. Basin Harbor Club rests on the shores of mighty Lake Champlain, backed by the Adirondack Mountains on the New York side of the lake. On the Vermont side, you’re smack dab in the middle of that fertile breadbasket known as Addison Valley, one of my favorite places in North America for road biking. 
 
Waking up on my own birthday, my wife and I took off on the enticing network of roads that branch off from the Basin Harbor Club. We biked onto Basin Harbor Road, turning right on Jersey Street, the smell of manure wafting in the air as we passed numerous dairy farms. Soon we arrived at the Panton General Store and looked across the valley at the ridge of peaks that form the backbone of the Green Mountains. Then we headed along Arnold Bay Road to get exquisite vistas of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Everywhere you look is another spectacular view. 
 
After biking, we returned to the Basin Harbor Club to sea kayak and swim with the family, relaxing on the beach with a Switchback Ale in hand between outings. That night we danced to a band at the dining room playing “Orange Colored Sky” and other Nat King Cole standards. Not a bad way to top off a perfect day.