Last Friday we cruised only a short distance from Sackets Harbor up to Clayton, NY. The reason for the stop at Clayton was that we had been told that the antique wooden boat museum was a must. We were not disappointed. The museum was packed full of restored wooden boats from an era gone by. This area of the St. Lawrence is known as The Thousand Islands, and (once the ice clears each year) it is a boating paradise. So, the rich and famous of the early 20th century came here in the summer to play...and to boat! Dad, Dee, Carrie and I, along with Doug and Judy from Moonstruck spent several hours looking at beautifully restored watercraft of all kinds, from canoes and skiffs to yachts and race boats.
Doug, me and Dad inspecting a classic
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Dad bones up on the details
This style boat will look familiar to some of my oldest friends!
The marina we were at Friday was booked for the rest of the weekend, so we had to move several miles up to another little town called Fishers Landing, where an understanding marina owner put us up on a little used dock with no power. We were happy to have it and enjoyed a nice salmon dinner on the flybridge and a beautiful sunset as some local families made the docks their swimming pool.
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Dad digs in
Dee relaxes after the dinner
Locals having a blast on a holiday weekend
Life is good!
The next day we took the long way around (through Canadian waters for a time) to get up river to the Thousand Island Club in Alexandria Bay. If I led you to believe the homes along the Chessapeake were amazing, I have run out of adjectives to describe the island retreats here in the Thousand Islands. Likewise, the Thousand Island Club Marina is one of the nicest facilities we have stayed at on this trip, complete with a swimming pool and "Joey's" a first class restaurant on site. Not only that, but our Georgia buddies, Ron and Jan from Jolly Tolly showed up and they are always fun and good for a chuckle or two!
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The islands are dotted with houses like these
and who knows what this is? Admiral?
View of the Thousand Island Club from Once Around...
and a view of Once Around from the club! She's the pretty blue one ya know!
That evening the crew of Once Around (yeah, they're crew now, that "first-class passenger" stuff only lasted one day, then the Admiral put 'em to work!) had a great dinner at Joey's with the folks from Moonstruck.
Doug and Judy
After dinner we went dockside for a great view of the huge fireworks show put on here in A-Bay. Coincidentally they happened to be shot so that from where we sat they exploded high in the air behind a huge American Flag on the marina property. The effect could not have been more spectacular watching "the rocket's red glare" over the stars and stripes. It reminded me of our visit to Baltimore harbor where our National Anthem was written. It also gave me pause to think how lucky we are to live in this wonderful Country of ours. Depite our problems, the USA is still the best place on earth to live, raise a family and enjoy freedom. God Bless America on her birthday and keep her safe from harm.
Today we visited Boldt Castle which is on Heart Island maybe a mile away by dinghy. It was built in the early 1900's by George Boldt who, among other ventures, built and ran the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NY City. He built the castle for the love of his life, his wife Louise, who unfortunately did not live long enough to see it completed. She died at age 42 and George stopped the hundreds of workers right in their tracks, after spending some two and a half million dollars constructing it. His heirs sold it to Mr. Noble, the owner of Life-Savers Candy, but he never completed it either. The state of New York finally bought it and has been re-constructing it over the last few decades. It is remarkable. Boy, he must have really loved that lady! Carrie asked me why I never built her a castle. I told her I loved her too much to see her die before it was completed. Anyway, here are a few photos of this amazing building:
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No, not the main house, this is the power house!
No, not the main house, this is the boat house! The tallest berth will take a sailboat with a sixty foot mast!
Ok, part of the main house in the background, well house in foreground.
Some of the detail of the main house roof.
Dining Room
Who knows which room?
Dad and Dee on the main staircase.
Dick, Dee, Carrie and me (and my favorite flower?)!
After returning to the boat from the castle tour,we had grilled hot dogs served on the fly bridge for lunch. My crew must have been over-worked. Here is how they spent most of the early afternoon while I slaved away on boat chores (least that's what I told them).
Dad on the fly bridge...out...
Dee in the salon...out...
The Admiral in her quarters...out!
What a crew! Later, apparently fully rested, Dad finally got in a couple of hours of fishing late in the afternoon with my first mate as his guide. Good thing we had reservations at Caballario's in A-Bay for dinner or we would have starved!![]()
Where's the fish???
I think I mentioned once before how my good friends John and Linda on Poseidon always say, "A boater's plans are firmly made in Jello". Well, our Jello sort of ran the hell all over the table today. After agonizing about time, distance, weather, etc., we have decided NOT to go to Montreal and Ottowa after all. We (and the folks from Moonstruck agreed) felt we would be hustling through this part of the journey and forcing time constraints on our time in the Trent Severen and Georgian Bay. So, tomorrow we plan to run back towards Lake Ontario to Kingston, or Trenton, or some Jello pile in between. Stay tuned for details as they develop!
See ya in Canada, eh?
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