Burlington, Vermont

Locals call it Fletcher Allen but to the rest of the world it's Vermont Medical Center and it's great by any name.

 The modern medical center, formerly known as Fletcher Allen Health Care, was formed in 1995 from the merger of three organizations:

• Medical Center Hospital of Vermont

Founded in Burlington in 1879, Mary Fletcher Hospital was the first hospital in Vermont. It was renamed Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in 1967 when it merged with Bishop DeGoesbriand Hospital.

• Fanny Allen Hospital

In 1894, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph founded the Fanny Allen Hospital in Colchester. They named their hospital after Fanny Allen (daughter of Ethan Allen), a nun who nursed wounded American soldiers in the War of 1812. This site, now referred to as the Fanny Allen Campus, has an Urgent Care Center,Ambulatory Surgery Center and Rehabilitation unit.

• University Health Center

In 1971, ten medical specialty practice groups joined to form the University Health Center (UHC) at the site of the former Bishop DeGoesbriand Hospital (1924). Now referred to as the UHC Campus, most of the ambulatory clinics moved to the Ambulatory Care Center in 2005 at the main campus.

Post-merger history[edit]

In 2010, the Faculty Practice became known as the University of Vermont Medical Group, formalized through a joint affiliation with the University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care. The Medical Group is governed by a Board of Directors comprising the chairs/Health Care Service leaders, elected at-large faculty representatives, the president of the Medical Group, the UVM College of Medicine Dean, and the University of Vermont Health Network chief executive officer.

The university campus sprawls across the top of a hill above Burlington and dominates the local economy. It was a complete relief to get here and have the medical professionals take over in a modern hospital room with a surgery teams ready to take out the troublesome gall bladder. And all in English. 

While I was upstairs Rusty was downstairs and to be fair he did get pretty fed up sleeping in the car. I walked him as much as I could but I was split between looking after him and sitting bedside with my recovering wife. Stress filled times.

They have  a lot of art in the hospital  including a  thirty foot tall "thread of life" sculpture hanging from a giant sewing machine. This place is huge.

 It's like an airport terminal...

Our friend Sean in Key West called a friend and got flowers delivered to the room which was  a lovely gesture.

 I checked out the waterfront bike trail which is going to be improved with construction, as usual.

Lake Champlain looking northwest toward New York state in the distance: 

 Back to the hospital...and its miles of corridors and elevators and passageways...

And its vast spacious great lobby. I got quite proficient at finding my way from the garage to the sixth floor of the Baird wing, a ten minute walk at a brisk speed.

I wanted to see Red Rock park but I got there late so I wasn't charged eight dollars but Rusty got bored on a leash, so when I saw a gap in the trees we stepped out of the park into an empty field and he ran his little heart out. The lake vistas will be for another time I guess.

 Burlington streets in summer are covered by leaves:

 Back at the hospital post surgery recovery continued...

 Rusty got to explore the back streets...

 ...and the woods:

Until exhaustion set in:

 And the next day we mixed in some street walking with flowers never seen in South Florida:

 Drivers are remarkably polite in Vermont too. That was a pleasant change.

A nice town and I wish I could have seen it under easier circumstances.

Church Street, Burlington

I fell in love with Burlington, at least I did on an 82 degree summer afternoon with a cool breeze blowing up the main drag, a pedestrian zone called Church Street. 

Oddly enough Rusty did too. This former street dog who used to be scared of his own shadow, never mind crowds and noise, tugged me back after I tried leading him away from Church Street. So we went back into the morass.

 A bizarre water fountain/work of art:

 A man playing music and having a grand time:

 Us on an actual park bench, the sort of thing that Key West doesn't allow in its public spaces.

I get annoyed going to Duval Street where there is nowhere to sit and watch people, nothing to do, no shared space. Check out the people just hanging out on Church Street:

These two smiled for the camera. They brought a footstool and climbed onto the rock and smiled cheerfully to passers by. To me they exemplified the cheerful ease of Burlington's gathering place.

 No drunks, no bums, no begging, no smells, just people enjoying the run up to the Fourth of July. 

 I have no idea what caught his attention:

There were also food trucks on the same street as restaurants and everyone seemed to coexist just fine. Key West has a long way to come to get this nice:

 They even welcome people from forty miles away:

I was not so charitably inclined after our experiences in the Quebec hospital. Earthbound Trading can be found on Duval Street too. The Lambretta was frosting on the visual cake for me:

 Full recycling/waste/ compost options are normal in Burlington.

I got my wife a get better soon card and this woman gave Rusty pets and a cookie. Dogs are welcome in many of the non-food stores.

The local ice cream shop didn't shy away from political statements in support of the usual stuff:

The lights mark the junction of College and Church where College drops another few blocks to the Lake Champlain waterfront.

A happy dog:

I wish Key West could do this, perhaps even in my lifetime.