I tabled at an event for the first time since having a baby. I can say that I don’t miss tabling and I enjoy not depending on sales for my business. However, I do enjoy meeting other artists and creators and trading. All these zines were traded with other artists in Burlington, Vermont.
Richmond is a cute town in Vermont that some friends have told me that I should move to. Too bad, because we love where we live already! I’ve been there a few times, and each time has been really magical. The first time I really got to hang out here was with my friend Nicole, who we met online! She was also new to Vermont. One sticky summer night we headed to the Bolton Pot Holes, an icy cold swimming hole.
We shared drinks on a blanket and braved letting the water come past our knees because of how cold it is. The melted snow water from the mountain drips down in waterfalls all spring and the remaining water pools at the bottom, making it stupid cold.
That night, we had dinner at a cool Asian fusion joint in town and it’s probably to this day, one of the best burgers I’ve ever had in Vermont.
Another good friend has invited me to Richmond a few times later in the summer. It’s a small town that really like-minded people have flocked to. We spent a fun summer night here, playing music (well, she was playing music, I was enjoying it). We reheated bulk carnitas and I busted out mango-juice vodkas at the only pace acceptable for three ladies on a Friday night. Two vodkas in, I rode my first electric bike here. A mutual friend rolled it out of her garage and let us ride down the the street in it.
Finally, I was there last night, where I said goodbye to that friend. We had spent many summer mornings swimming in the reservoir, and prior to Vermont she had lived in many other states, from the backwoods of Alaska with only an outhouse for plumbing, to where I met her, in a funky loft above the town’s only gas station. I don’t know why, but I was emotional when I found out she was leaving, and emotional the entire time during her going away party. I know friendships are fleeting, after all, haven’t I left so many places? But it was time for somebody else to leave and that was really sad. We ate pizza made from the house-turned-restaurant next door, and sat around another friend’s living room, at a gathering where there were more dogs than people. The town’s veterinarian was there. A mix of old and young people. I felt lucky to be a part of that room at that time, and strangely empty when my friend and I hugged at the door when it was time to leave.
South Hero is the southernmost Champlain island and only a thirty minute drive from my home. Summer weekends are where the Islands really shine, with their farmer’s markets and Vermonters going to their dachas.
Except they don’t call them dachas, they call them “camp” and we’ve always been jealous of our friends who go to camp, because we want one someday.
One afternoon I stopped by for a Filipino Festival here. It was held at a small farm owned by a Filipino family. Tents with all kinds of foods are set up in their driveway. I don’t eat much pork at home, so I pig out on pig buttocks and pork belly and everything I love about Asian food.
Something that has been irritating me a lot lately is when people say “oh, I didn’t know there was a __ community in Vermont” and it’ll apply to say, the Filipino community. I’m not irritated in that everyone should know everything about Vermont, but more that your acknowledgement equals their existence. I asked my husband what constitutes a community? Like, I am the only Cantonese person I know in my town, does that mean my town has a Cantonese community? He said with just one other family, it does. Given how big my town is, then that means there’s a Cantonese community. And it’s interesting because in South Hero, I guess there is a community because on this farm, the family and all their friends are able to hold such food-centered events regularly, at least a few times per year so that means “Vermont has a Filipino community”.
We are in the US, so there’s every kind of community – everyone the world over knows this country is a melting pot of cultures and immigrants. Since living here and working as an ESL teacher, most of my friends are people of color, but I know that’s not everyone’s experience. I know that being a minority in Vermont, I can have a fundamentally different experience than many other Vermonters. People are surprised we have truck to haul hay, straw, and more for our mini-orchard, but then some people are not surprised and are curious to know what we grow and what animals we raise. Some people are disgusted to know we have guns, but some people are like, of course you have guns, it’s Vermont after all, you’re a minority if you don’t have a gun. I’ve met people who don’t know a single Vermonter with a gun, so they have staunch opinions about gun ownership, which is a little bizarre in my opinion because Burlington can surely be a bubble.
Every week I drive a neighbor’s kid to field hockey practice and take her to art class sometimes. People in Vermont will make statements about there being no people of color in Vermont, and here we are, two people of color existing and seeing each other weekly, and can be utterly confused by that statement. I eat mostly at the Nepali and Vietnamese restaurant down the street, so when people say there isn’t ethnic food in Vermont I’m also confused because that’s most of my diet here – the Asian food I make at home and the Asian takeout from our most visited places.
I guess all this to say that I’m irritated when people remark that there isn’t such a community in Vermont, my immediate eye-roll, because I exist, and we exist, and we don’t need to be something you can visit like a Little Italy or Chinatown or something in order to exist.
We’ve had over twelve guests come stay at our guest room this summer. It’s partly due to my urging of everyone come visit us, but also because Vermont is the perfect vacation destination in the summer. There’s no place like it. Californians can’t get enough of the green, New Yorkers can’t get enough of the peaceful, untouched wilderness. A friend told me my Instagram page acts as the Vermont tourism board and I couldn’t agree more. My excitement radiates off of social media, and it’s not a curated selection of what I want people to see; it truly is that wonderful. I’ve only been here one year, but my heart swells with how much I truly love the home we’ve made here.
My favorite guest of all this summer was Mike. Mike is Casey’s dad and I lived with him for a short period of time when Casey and I were first dating. When I had to leave to go live in Russia, we got drunk and I told him he’s like a second dad to me and he is a handful of older people that I cherish because they always have my back.
We all met up in Long Island for my brother-in-law’s wonderful engagement party. A weekend of fun and festivities, and so much good eating. We returned home with Mike and while we all had to work the week away in our home in the woods, we took time to have a lot of fun. We took Mike to Nepali and Vietnamese food. Whenever we visit Mike, we always get Asian buffet and Korean bonchon so it’s always a lot of fun.
My friend and I just started a small business holding paint-and-sip classes and he got to come to our first one ever. It’s been a lot of hard work and I was proud of how much fun he and other people were having at the event we put together, that I facilitated. One thing Casey and I noticed was that Vermonters loved Mike, because he’s friendly, and fun, and knows a lot about old stuff, which is basically what all of Vermont is.
Casey gave Mike a book of Vermont’s civil war history just a few months prior so he was excited to visit museums and see old forts. So many friends recommended that we take Mike to Shelburne Museum, and I was so glad that my first trip to this outdoor theme park (let’s be honest, it’s hardly a museum in how special it is). Shelburne Museum is a campus of oddities, from a huge steam ship in the middle of a field, to fancy homes they carted from other parts of Vermont to be a part of the museum. We saw weapons, laughed it up with fun docents who told us secrets of the exhibits, and loved looking at old barns with preserved machinery. We saw an old certificate with Abraham Lincoln’s signature, really the highlight of the museum.
I found some giant puffball mushrooms in a field, honestly a mark of a really spectacular day. Shelburne is about 45 minutes from home, so on the ride back we stopped for ice cream, picked up local coffee for Mike to take home, and walked a little in a part of Lake Champlain’s embankment that I had never been.
Summer is over now, with the leaves falling, but I had an amazing time when Mike came. Going to the Shelburne Museum was a blast and I’m glad we got to experience that together.
The race of the summer is the Kingdom Swim. I had heard about this swim my very first week living in Vermont, and while I was too late to register for it in 2021 since I arrived in the summer, I registered in snowy March for the race in July 2022. I spent all year getting mentally and physically excited for it.
The race offers many distances, ranging from a one mile swim to a twenty five mile swim that takes almost a whole day to complete. I signed up for the 5K. It was held in Lake Memphremagog, a beautiful lake that both Canada and the US share. My husband and I came up two nights before, stayed at the only motel in town to prepare for the big race.
Every swimmer had to have a kayaker beside them, for safety and also for snacks. Casey was my kayaker! We had a pre-race dinner with everyone who was participating and there were swimmers and kayakers from all over New England. We even befriended a Canadian who had come down to kayak for somebody. A lot of strangers became friends, since many kayakers were volunteers for anyone who did not have one already selected.
I had even purchased a kayak the month before and practiced with Casey once in a nearby lake.
During the big race, I finished my 5K distance in 1 hour and 36 minutes. I was in the middle of the pack, which was great to know that I wasn’t last. The race organizers threw us a barbecue at the end.
One of the best memories was that Casey and I saw a bison on the drive up. We couldn’t believe it. It was such a cool animal!
We love the Northeast Kingdom and intend to come back again and again.
The summer of 2022 brought guests from all over to stay at our cozy ranch home. We finally got the guest bed set up and our tiling finished on the first floor. Our first guest came in June – the first of many.
My friend Victoria and her husband came to visit first, kicking off the summer of family, friends, and fun. Victoria and her husband were very into coffee.
If you know me at all, I can count the number of times I’ve had coffee in my life. While it is delicious, caffeine affects me a lot. I will have bad sleep for at least two nights after a single cup of coffee. So when they visited, I had to get my act together and do research on where the best cups of coffee in Burlington were.
Burlington’s coffee scene did not disappoint. My favorite coffee shop was one attached to a seltzer place (more up my alley), Brio. Their location is great since it’s attached to art galleries, local gift shops, a pickle shop, and more. I especially love the artwork at Brio.
I also loved the one in Essex, called Uncommon Coffee. It’s a roaster, in a nice large shopping plaza so you can park in front (I am an Arizonian and Texan at heart – I need to be able to drive up to my destinations). Since then, I’ve been back a lot with my laptop to schmooze their wifi. On the day Victoria, her husband, and I went to Uncommon, we got to catch a weekend arts and crafts market! It doesn’t get more quintessentially summer in Vermont than that.
Kestrel was very eh to me, but my friend’s husband loved it so much, we went around the whole town looking for fresh beans from Kestrel to buy!
I think the most unique drinks were from Onyx Tonics. They had interesting mixes like maple lattes and more.
In the same day, we also visited Vivid Coffee and Kru. Kru was the only coffee shop I had ever visited in Vermont, prior to their arrival since it’s on the heavily trafficked Church Street and I had visited with my coffee-loving sisters the summer prior.
I had mostly scones and small snacks at each place, and saved my single coffee of the day for the place I felt most worthy. I think I made a great choice because I loved Uncommon Coffee and Onyx Tonics the most. They had things on their menu that jumped out at me. It’s hard to market coffee at me, since I don’t like cold brew, or espresso, and I don’t drink milk products, which only leaves almond and oat milk lattes. I also don’t care for syrups or flavors since sugar affects many people in my family poorly.
Uncommon Coffee had a ube latte and hocjicha latter, which I still think are some of the most unique drinks around.
Strangely enough, during the pandemic I got to speak and give more presentations than ever before. Zoom made it possible for me to get involved in activism, the indie publishing scene, entrepreneurship, and more.
Prior to Covid, I had only given a few talks. I had given an art talk at an exhibit opening and a few academic conferences. But with Covid, I found myself pursuing more and more things I never had the chance to given my schedule and work commitments.
I don’t necessarily dislike public speaking, or have a great fear of it, like my husband does. When I had the opportunity to share about my small publishing business at a local organization, I jumped at the chance. It ended up being a wonderful evening where I met so many great women. A lot of women shared their stories and it was inspiring to listen to how everyone has their own passion and it’s up to us to pursue it, and support one another.
It doesn’t matter where I am, I absolutely love bookstores.
It all started when I was little. My mom would let me have my pick of anything at Border’s. As I got older, I loved going to Half Price Books in Austin. I knew that the downtown location had gems in different languages, and the one by my house always had a good sale in the CD section. I spent hours in high school at a comic bookstore a little more south than where I grew up, and felt adult buying graphic novels and hanging out with people outside of my Northwest Austin suburb.
I got acquainted with my city more after I got to know other bookstores in college. The beautiful Chicano art book store on the East side, and the weirdo basement bookstore on the drag with the conspiracy books, and the bookstore where all the cool people went on first dates downtown called Book People.
Since I’ve moved to New England, I’ve also discovered the local bookstore scene as well. The dusty ones with stacks of yellowed pages are my favorite. I’ve been to book festivals and I’ve taken part in local book fairs. I’ll always have a home in local bookstores.
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This winter, I learned to ski. And not only that – I grabbed skiing by the horns. Or the poles.
I took three lessons at Bolton Valley, a mountain about 40 minutes from my house. I heard about it from just about everyone living here that was the preferred mountain for locals. I got to know the trails very well and went over ten times this winter season.
I only had to take a few small breaks, when I injured my toe and had to learn a thing or two about ski boots. They are very painful and my barefoot-leaning feet do not do well in them. I had to bring them to Alpine Shop many times to get them fixed up. Not only that, with huge calves, they cut up my circulation regardless of the temperature and conditions outside. So they are still far from perfect. I’ve had to learn a lot more about the culture of skiing than I had to learn about techniques and strategies, in my opinion.
Still. I had a great winter. Reminiscing on how wonderful it was to learn and feel comfortable on the mountain is a real treat!
Near the end of the season I got a hold of a few free passes and jumped at the chance to visit a mountain I had never been on. I really wanted to try Smuggler’s Notch. It is the mountain that’s closest to home, that many locals go. I got to go to during a weekday off season, when it wasn’t snowing anymore. However, it was still a great time.
Smuggler’s Notch was different from my “home” mountain for many reasons.
First of all, Bolton is 40 minutes South whereas Smuggler’s Notch is 40 minutes north. So the alpine and climate is a bit different. It’s more conifers, spruces, and firs up there, so it feels more winter-y, even on a sunny day. There are definitely more log-cabins along the road as you drive up.
Secondly, Smuggler’s Notch is more family friendly. There’s more of a walking area in the parking lot and lodge to hang out inside and outside. There’s more signage and there’s a lot of decorations reminiscent of a kid’s theme park in the 80’s – like elves, fairies, and random trippy animals painted on the side of lifts and walls. At any given time, there are more group lessons going on. There’s childcare for skiiers. And there’s a Magic Carpet lift. And lastly, there’s playful little nooks and playscapes for really young children to try. At Bolton, there is almost no kids stuff, like at all.
Third of all, the paths at Smuggler’s Notch are much much more wide. So as a beginner, I’m less afraid of falling off the side. Even the manmade snow was slushy, and not as icy as it is at Bolton.
After my fantastic afternoon at Smuggler’s Notch – there’s a few things I walk away with. First, that I really enjoy my time alone in the mountains. I might never have this period of uncertainty during the winter again, so I cherish being about to ski as much as I did in the time that I did. I also am considering a season pass here next year, as the trails were much more at my level. They were less steep and more wide. I’d have to try it out a few more times with Casey and see what he thinks.
For Casey and my one year marriage anniversary, it was also pretty much the one year anniversary of us deciding to move to Vermont. We decided about this time last March to move here.
To celebrate this amazing time as an end to the most wonderful year, we decided to do a few things we love best about the Green Mountain state.
First of all, we went skiing at Jay Peak. For those who don’t know, Jay Peak is the best ski mountain in Vermont. It’s powdery unlike the rest of the Ice Coast. It’s pretty far away from the rest of the state and the rest of humanity here, so it’s a trip that you have to take intentionally.
Prior to skiing at Jay, Casey and I had only skiied together one time this season. We are still getting used to each other on the slopes. On the other hand, I had been skiing a lot this winter.
Even on a Saturday morning, the slopes were packed. There were so many excited skiiers and snowboarders on the lift. We definitely felt the festive winter energy. Nothing is better than a sunny day on the mountain.
The next day, we went home and decided to book a night at the Hilton in downtown Burlington to spend our anniversary night. Since we live outside of Burlington, it’s not like we don’t get to go there about once a week. However, making a special trip out of it made it even better.
Next door to the hotel was an amazing restaurant we had heard about from all our friends – Hen of the Woods.
It was a perfect treat – grassfed meat and the most amazing vegetable dishes by candlelight. We loved everything we ordered and felt like we were on cloud nine. Even Casey loves to be pampered.
Before we even decided to look for a house in Vermont, we came to visit. Casey was working from home so I just took the car and drove around the entire northern portion of the state to see what’s up. I drove all the way up to Swanton, which is the northern most city before the Canadian border, then went West to North and South Hero islands, which are located on Lake Champlain, then back down to Burlington.
It was a great time to just explore and get lost. Plus, my phone didn’t have service so I was relying on a tourist map I had found in the Airbnb. The first city I encountered and really liked was St. Albans. It had suburbs and what I call “typical Vermont roads” which are houses, pretty sparsely sprinkled over fields and mountains. But the best part is definitely downtown St. Albans for it’s cute historic district.
St. Albans, also pronounced Snalbins by the locals, has a cute little square with a downtown of five or so shops and cafes. It was a cute place to drive around. The best part about many Western-most towns in Vermont is that you’re just minutes away from the water.
St. Albans Bay was beautiful and I was about to break our unspoken rule of not buying a lakehouse.
There is no St. Albans vs. Burlington rivalry, because almost every job is in Burlington and people can have commutes of up to an hour everyday. However, in this beautiful landscape, it isn’t so bad.
So if Los Angeles is the Los Angeles of California, I would say that Waterbury is the Los Angeles of Vermont. Waterbury is very fun.
On one street alone, there’s Ben and Jerry’s factory, a cidery, cheese factory, distillery, coffee roaster, brewery, state police office, and huge gun outlet. It’s basically the eating capital of Vermont, though some may argue it’s actually White River Junction, as King Arthur Flour is based there; or Cabot, since Cabot cheese comes from there; or Burlington, the most urbanized area in the state. But I stand firm in that the fun capital is Waterbury.
Just down the road from Waterbury is Stowe, one of the most famous ski resorts in all of Vermont. So it makes sense that all the food fun is within minutes of that destination.
On one of my visits to Waterbury, with my sisters, we got asked to model in an apple cider catalog. That was pretty cool. We posed for photos (with our regular clothes on) for a few minutes and got donuts and ciders to take home.
