See the pretty boat? This view of the river was my starting point each day on vacation, and since I have several shots from this perspective, we'll include one here even though this post is about our day trip to Canada. It also gives you an idea of how wide the St. Lawrence River is in front of Sadie's place.I'll remember our Canada adventure through some photos, and will post other vacation pictures later. I know that you guys have short attention spans, so I won't cram everything into one post. Plus, I'm easily distracted, so I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. Today's tour starts at the end of my time in the 1000 Islands, and we'll go back to the first part later, just to jumble things up and keep everyone on their toes.
We drove to Canada on my last full vacation day before heading home. Upon crossing the bridge to our northern neighbor, we headed west on the Thousand Islands Parkway. The scenery was lovely, mostly rural, and there was a bicycle path to the side of the road separated by a generous median. It was hot as blue blazes, but there were a surprising number of sweaty, intrepid cyclists. They were probably all saying to themselves "I can't believe how F-ing hot it is out here. This is CANADA, for crying out loud! I don't remember this hill. Why am I doing this? I'm an idiot." Temperatures were 20° above the normal average high for July while we were there.
The first town we came to was Gananoque. I memorized the pronunciation by repeating the rhyme "The right way, the wrong way, and the Gananoque" in my head. Thank goodness for wikipedia; I also found out that Gananoque is the First Nations name for town on two rivers.
We thought Gananoque was a pleasant town. It has a population of around 5200, and we shopped along King Street in the old downtown section, which is about a dozen blocks from the river.
I liked the bowling alley/theater combo. It turns out that five-pin bowling is played only in Canada, and is the dominant form of the game in most provinces. The balls are handheld so there are no finger holes, and there is a rubber belt around the pin (which is depicted in the sign below). The pins are set up in a V formation.We also found a curling arena in town. Between curling and five-pin bowling, we felt like we were really getting somewhere other than the USA. We were in a foreign land with strange customs and very pretty paper currency.
From Gananoque, we made our way to the port city of Kingston (aka Limestone City), which is much larger than Gananoque with its population of nearly 200,000. Kingston served as the first capital of the united Canadas, but only for a short while in the 1840's. The city was a haven for Loyalists fleeing the new United States, and was a base for a British naval fleet during the War of 1812. Today, the Royal Military College of Canada is located here, along with Queen's University and St. Lawrence College. It was a busy little city, and Robespierre was immediately impressed & ready to move there.Kingston made a favorable impression on Sheldon, too, but for a different reason. Here in Kingston, right around lunch time, Sheldon spotted a McDonald's and he was determined to eat his lunch there. I told him I wasn't setting foot in McDonald's. I'm not a food snob - okay, that's a lie. I am a food snob about fast food chains. Take me to an unassuming little roadside diner, and I'm as happy as a lark. Sit me down at a place that serves regional fare, and I'm as happy as a clam at high water - I'm happy as Larry. I'm a happy camper. Happy, happy, happy. But, no way am I driving to Canada to go to McDonald's.
I went to McDonald's.
But only to take a picture of Sheldon. You can see how disgusted Robespierre feels about the situation.
Sheldon claims that he has "the tastebuds of a five-year old," but I don't buy it. He cooks good meals for himself at home using whole foods, not convenience items. He grows nice vegetables in his garden each summer. He'll tackle new recipes in the kitchen like the chocolate silk pie he's made several times that involves whipping the heavy cream and dragging out a double-boiler. He likes looking through cooking magazines.
I think he believes fast food chains are safer than restaurants operated by locals. He's gastronomically xenophobic. That's my theory. He's a closet gourmet with germophobia.
While Sadie, Robespierre & I ate lunch at a restaurant with real food, Sheldon wandered around taking pictures. The Kingston City Hall, built in 1842, is shown above. Below, shops & restaurants along King Street. The main shopping street is Queen Street, but you don't want to overlook Princess Street, either.
After a late lunch, we had to race to the docks to catch the ferry to Wolfe Island. The crossing took twenty minutes. We landed at the township of Frontenac Islands, and then we zipped straight across the island to catch the last ferry of the day back to the United States. If we'd missed it, there would have been quite a few kilometers to backtrack. We saw lots of those huge wind turbines on Wolfe Island.
Wolfe Island has more wind turbines than any other place on the planet! That's not true, but it got your attention for a moment. The Wolfe Island Wind Farm is the second largest turbine project in Canada.
The ferry from Wolfe Island to Cape Vincent, New York, was quite a bit smaller than any of us expected.
I read that the ferry from Wolfe Island to Cape Vincent was first licenced in 1802, and has been operated by the same family ever since. I wonder if they're operating the original ferry?The Customs House at Cape Vincent was about the size of a porta-potty, with two border guards in control. They were thorough about examining passports and searching the car, and they nearly drew guns on a Canadian who walked up to ask a question, so I decided against telling them to pose for vacation photos.
Robespierre & I left the next morning for home. Sheldon stayed a couple more days and returned by plane. The drive home was long and exhausting. There is a stretch of I-81 in Pennsylvania that, in 30+ years of travel through that area, I have never seen free of road construction.
The pictures below were taken at the end of Sadie's driveway. It was hay baling time in the upper reaches of New York.
Here's what I'm talking about! We were feeling peckish by the time we reached Lafayette NY, so we stopped for lunch. Robespierre spotted a likely spot with a dual moniker: Old Times Cafe or Cindy's Family Restaurant. Take your pick. I had a fantastic cheeseburger (white cheese!) that was obviously not a frozen-from-a-box imitation of an honest diner burger. Hand-cut fries provided the classic side, and they were excellent as well. Robespierre couldn't decide what to order, so he got two lunches. Not to be outdone, I finished things off with a slice of homemade strawberry-pineapple pie with whipped cream. Yes, it was so good I wanted to smack my grandma.Now, that's good roadfood when you're on vacation.
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