Oh Canada!

The first two photos are from the Thousand Islands area in the St Lawrence River, which has been a highlight of this trip. We took a four-hour tour around the islands to see Millionaires' Row and other incredible homes and landscapes in the river and the banks. There are actually 1864 islands, and they have a legal definition of what qualifies as a countable island (so many square feet and at least one permanent tree). People own the various islands, and they have summer homes on them regardless how small the island. So many were tiny and the home took up almost the entire space. Others, of course, were huge mansions on larger islands with all sorts of special landscaping, like the one photo with the waterfall in front.

The other photo is from a rich guy's boat house, which is now a little museum. But I included this photo of two old classic wooden boats because they were everywhere! Previously I had seen them on Lake Tahoe, and maybe one here or there, but in the Thousand Islands, where most people have covered boat houses, the classic wooden boats were all over the place. I loved seeing them, especially when they went scooting by us out there.

One funny thing about this area was that it took many years of intense negotiations between Canada and the U.S. to agree on where the boundary line should be drawn between the two countries. It was a game of "I'll give you this island if you give me that one." And, it included the boundary in the Puget Sound between Washington and British Columbia. In other words, if Canada wanted an island in Puget Sound, the U.S. would say yes, but you must give us this one in the St. Lawrence River in exchange. Apparently this back-and-forth went on for years and years!!

We left Alexandria Bay, NY, the base city for visiting the Thousand Islands area, on Thursday about noon. It was supposed to have stopped raining according to the forecast, from the hard thunderstorms we'd had since the previous evening. However, once we departed to head back toward Lake Ontario, it continued to rain off and on, but that was no problem really. We were cozy in the boat, and I loved the scenery as we cruised back on the Canadian side of the river. At three different points, Breaking Away was pushed around like a little toy where the river swirled strongly from the effects of adjoining waterways. The main channels there are really deep, like hundreds of feet, and if it's narrow, then the current effects can be super strong where those channels merge. Anyway, you can actually see the swirling, and yes, it turned me this way and that way until I passed through.

As we got closer to Lake Ontario, the headwinds picked up, the rain picked up, and at one point, it POURED as I've never seen before (for about 10 minutes). Luckily, we were in a wide-open section with no other boats around. We just let the auto pilot do its thing. This boat is comfortable and dry in bad weather. After that front passed over, it got sunny, hardly any wind, and we had a calm finish as we approached Kingston, Ontario at about 4 pm.

We entered a large marina at the mouth of the river here, and tied to a temporary dock to clear customs. Only it turns out you do it by phone! The books I had about clearing customs said you had to walk to the local office, but when I called to say I had arrived, they did the whole thing over the phone and gave me a number to show any official who might question our entry status.

We decided to stay at the temporary dock for the night, and headed out to see the town and find some dinner (we had not had lunch in that bad weather, so we were mighty hungry by 5:30). Kingston is truly a beautiful, clean, exciting city. It's the oldest in Ontario, founded in 1673. It's where a lot of wealthy Americans fled after the Revolutionary War if they had been Loyalists to England's rule. One thing about Canadian cities that I've experienced is that they are clean and full of English-style pubs! Yum! After our dinner, where there had been no alcoholic beverages, we stopped in at a quaint, cozy pub for a beer.

Yesterday morning, just after I returned from my bike ride, a large sailboat came in next to us that was cluttered topside with all sorts of stuff. The captain was enthusiastically asking me about how to clear customs, in his French accent and broken English, and we had fun trying to talk. His wife finally conversed too, and with her better English, I learned that they had crossed the Atlantic from Morocco with their two children!! (who were in their early teens)(they had a little yappy dog too). They had entered the States at NYC and had followed the same route we had up the Hudson and Erie Canal and Oswego Canal into Lake Ontario. I loved hearing tidbits about THEIR adventure across the Atlantic.

Bruce and I went on a trolley tour of Kingston (see photo of an 1809 hotel and the grand city hall, which are at the waterfront), and then moved the boat to the main part of the marina where we have electrical and water hookups. Over here are many yachts, large and small, with people doing the same Great Loop route that I am. I made lots of new friends and it was fun to exchange stories about where we've been and where we're going. Then, we ate dinner at a German place and they had a "real" beer garden just like the ones I remember from my trips to Europe. So, I of course had to order a liter stein of Munich pilsner with my bratwurst!

Today we will cruise westward and anchor in a cove not far from Trenton, which is the beginning of the Trent-Severn Canal that crosses Ontario to Lake Huron. That's where Bruce will depart and Janet will join, and I'll get to visit with Paulette Geougeon, Nestle Canada's labeling and regulatory manager with whom I worked closely for many years. Onward into Canada!