Day #360 – Orillia, ON

Last night we had a nice visit and dinner aboard Good News with Salvage Crew and Hank and Anne from Queen Anne’s Revenge.  We have heard their names and the name of their boat many times this year, but had never had the pleasure of meeting them.  We had a great time.

Today is catch up day.  We have been pushing pretty hard for the last week and needed a down day and time to do some laundry, cooking, etc.

Bright and early this morning Andy and I walked to the local laundromat.  You just never know who you are going to run into in these places.

We finished that up and went back to the boat and put it all away.  Then we walked up to the local grocery store for a few items.

Most of the Canadian grocery stores have extensive bakeries in them.  We had never seen this before…a self-serve bread slicer.  You could even select how thick or thin you wanted yours sliced.

We got the things we needed which included cases of water and pop.  Sooooo, we “borrowed” a grocery cart from the store and stopped by the LCBO while we had a chance.  After our purchases were made we walked back to the boat.

Don’t worry, we returned the cart.

Orillia is nice little waterfront town with bike paths, parks and beaches lining the shore.

This iron flag sits on the shore near the marina.  Another show of the Canadians pride in their country, even the sea gulls like it.

The afternoon was spent aboard as we were treated to a storm with wind, lightening, thunder and heavy rain.  The temperature dropped 16 degrees.  We keep wondering when summer starts in Canada?!?!

We wish we could stay tomorrow.  Not only was it a free night of dockage (buy 2-get 1 free), but another quiet day would have been appreciated.  However, if we want to make it to the Looper Rendezvous we need to head out in the morning and get closer to arrive on Tuesday.

Day #356 – Peterborough, ON

Last night after settling in we walked uptown to a restaurant that one of the dock masters had recommended, Hot Belly Mama’s.  It was a New Orleans style menu and quite good.  We walked right up the main street to get there and passed this amusing window display.

Would you hire any of them to do a singing telegram???

They have a beautiful river walk which we took on the way home and stopped for a photo op.

For the first time we had a day with nothing we had to do which was glorious.  We slept in, walked, shopped, cleaned, cooked and explored town.

The people in this town are unbelievably friendly and helpful.  They are preparing for their Festival of Lights Concert in the park tonight.  Tonight Town Pants will perform, they are a “West Coast Celtic” style band.

The band shell, which is in the park right next to the marina is set up

and their grounds are manicured.

I went to have some copies made in their local print shop, Package Plus, and Bruce was extremely helpful and informative.  His company is a sponsor for the concerts and wanted to assure that we had a great time.  He gave us four VIP tickets to enjoy the show.  We look forward to tonight and have really enjoyed our time in Peterborough.

Footnote:  We had a great time and the concert was terrific!  Thank you Bruce, our seats were fantastic.

Day #355 – Peterborough, ON

Yesterday after we arrived in Hastings Patti and I went and did a little exploring.

Their flower pots and baskets were all over town and beautifully planted and maintained.

The town had only one stop light, but they had everything we needed.  We visited the LCBO, the post office and the grocery store.  We couldn’t help wondering what anyone would do with this many marshmallows.

Lots and lots of s’mores we guessed.

After a nice dinner aboard Salvage Crew we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

I will never tire of those.

Up and away from the docks at 7:30 this morning for a 40 mile ride up to Peterborough.  Most of the trip was in winding rivers.

This mallard swam by with her string of peepers.

The Canada geese are plentiful and these thought it was a good idea to have a parade.

Purple loosestrife appears in the area.  At one time it was feared that it would take over the marshes as it is so invasive, but so far doesn’t appear to be the problem that was feared.

Again, Canadians show the pride in their country.  What a great canoe.

We only had one lock today and it was at the very end of the day.  We locked through, turned the corner and Peterborough was welcoming us.

We look forward to spending a day here tomorrow and seeing the area before taking off for another three day run.

Day #351 – Trenton, ON

The good news this morning was that Brad and Patti’s Garmin chip arrived as promised and it worked.  We left the docks at 8:45 and headed 35 miles away to Picton.  We traveled down the St. Lawrence River and across the Bay of Quinte.

We weren’t sure what all of the birds were feeding on, but apparently it was something really good as they were everywhere.

We saw our first loon today, but unfortunately the picture didn’t turn out.  Sure hope we see more.

This ferry runs back and forth from Glenora to Youngs Point.  We noticed the flags flying, the Canadian, the Ontario and the British.

This nice float plane sat in the yard of some one’s home.  What a great way to get from place to place.  Sure cuts down on your commute time.

We pulled into Picton at 12:30 and thought it looked charming.

Nice town, poor marina.  The docks were only 30 feet long and the cleats were about three inches long.  When I made the reservation yesterday she assured me that they could accommodate two 48 foot boats. Well….not so much.  They wanted to put two 48 foot boats back to back on a 60 foot dock.  If we had tied up where she wanted us to and the winds picked up we would have pulled the docks right along with us.

I got on the phone and started calling all around trying to find a marina that could accommodate us for the weekend.  We got lucky and Trenton, where we were headed tomorrow anyway, said they could fit us in.  So back out of Picton we motored and headed to Trenton, another 32 miles.  77 miles and 7.75 hours later we arrived, in the rain, at Fraser Park Marina and GLAD to be here.  People are friendly and it looks like a great town.

Day #350 – Kingston, Ontario

Last night we went to a great little Italian restaurant named Frankie Pesto’s.  It used to be the old train station.  Great food and atmosphere.

As soon as you walk off of the docks

you are in beautiful downtown Kingston’s Confederation Park.

Today at noon there was a concert in the park.

The streets are lined with restaurants,  pubs and shops.

After a few morning chores we went on the trolley tour around the city.  Kingston was the original capitol of Canada and they are very proud of their history.  They are named “Limestone City” as the city is built on limestone and therefore many of their buildings are made of it as well.

The tour took us past the Royal Military College of Canada.

We continued further up the hill and toured Fort Henry.  It was built to protect the area during the War of 1812.  It was actually never actually fired upon.  It overlooks the beautiful harbor named Navy Bay where we are docked.

Our tour took us through the campus of Queen’s University.  Beautiful campus located right in Kingston.

Their churches

parks

and homes

all show the great heritage and pride of the people of Kingston.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays they have a market behind City Hall.

In the winter they freeze this area over for a skating rink.

Our friend Charlotte Snider, on Foreign Exchange, told us about a couple of special shops to visit in the area and we took her advice.  First stop was Cooke’s where she said her father worked as a teenager.

We also took her recommendation and stopped at Pan Chancho Bakery…yum.  Thanks Charlotte, both great stops.

We will be sorry to leave as we have enjoyed every minute here.

Day #349 – Kingston, Ontario

We made it!  We left Oswego at 7:00 and headed due north.

The water flattened out and we had a beautiful ride across Lake Ontario arriving at 12:30 (57 miles).  There was very little boat traffic today and the trip was uneventful.  As we approached Kingston we could see all of these wind turbines in the distance on Wolfe Island.

This is a sight we had never seen…a marina located next to a penitentiary.  It opened in 1835 as the “Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada,” it is one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world. It is often referred to as “Alcatraz North”.  It is right on their waterfront.

Having boated for many years, we have now officially boated in four of the five Great Lakes…Lake Superior remains.  Canada is the third country we have been in on the trip and we have traveled a total of 6068 miles to date.

We will stay in Kingston tomorrow to explore the area and see all that it has to offer.

Day #344 – Sylvan Beach, NY

This was one of the nicer weather days we have had in a long time.  Not a cloud in the sky and 80 degrees.  Even each lockmaster commented on the weather. Each and every one along the way has been friendly and so proud to tell you about their area.

Today we traveled 53 miles and five locks.  Three of the locks took us up and the last two brought us down. Along the way we saw a couple of interesting boats.  This is one of the New York State tugs that works the canal.

This one rowed by.  The boat is registered in Ohio and we wondered where they had started and where they were planning on going.  They looked like a couple of college kids off on a summer adventure.  Ahhhh, youth!

This was our beautiful view most of the way.

Our destination for the day was Sylvan Beach and Mariner’s Landing Marina.  All of the marinas in this area are owned by the Oneida Indians.

It is located on the eastern shore of popular Oneida Lake.

Back in the 1950s Sylvan Beach was a “go-to” destination

and the amusement park still operates today.  We had to go check it out.

Some people even decided to ride these old rides.

It was a great little town and we were glad we had made it our destination.

Day #343 – Little Falls, NY

Last night we decided to go to one of the restaurants in town for dinner.  They sent a driver to pick us up which was very nice.

Brad became immediate friends with him.  Patti found her own friends.

This morning was spent cleaning and preparing as we have been on the move for a couple of days and things needed to get a little attention.

After chores we all got on our bikes and went exploring.  Little Falls is cute little upstate New York town.  Like so many others, there is quite a bit of history here.

They are very proud of their canal system as it has brought commerce and pleasure boaters to the area.

This is the site just off our starboard at the dock.

This is the site directly on the other side of it.  You surely wouldn’t want to make a wrong turn in this area.

This barge sits at the Rotary Park wall where we are docked.  People working on the canal system live here and then they move it to the next location.  We hope they don’t really use those grills in that location.

We have enjoyed our quiet day here on the canal, but look forward to moving tomorrow and discovering more of the area.

Day #341 – Amsterdam, NY

Well, today was the day we have known loomed ahead of us.  We took the extra day to relax yesterday as today was 40+ miles and ten locks.  We left for Lock #2 at 8:00 with Salvage Crew leading the way.

The “Waterford Flight”, as this section is known, is a series of five locks that are in quick succession.  As soon as you leave one, the other is just ahead.

This type of lock they drop long ropes from the top and you grab as you go by and hang on to the wet, cold line as you lock through.  This series is one right after another covering 1.5 miles and it took two hours.

The weather was predicted to rain.  About two hours into the trip the skies opened up and there was lightening.  Fortunately, we only had to navigate one lock in the rain.  Then, the skies cleared and it was a beautiful, although cool (70 degree) day.

The Canal was much more scenic and green than I had imagined it to be.

Lots of cottages and small marinas line the Mohawk River/Erie Canal.  Looks like this family was having fun!

You surely don’t want to take the wrong channel in this section.

We passed under more than twenty bridges today.  This one actually had a train on it.

We arrived in Amsterdam at the Riverlink Park and are glad to be here.

We were secure at the dock just before the storms came again.

Day #337 – Catskill, NY

We left Kingston at 9:00 since we were only traveling 22 miles today to Catskill.  This old tug sits on the shore in Kingston as you pass by.

As we travel up the Hudson River the Catskill Mountains begin to appear in the distance.

Cottages begin to line the shoreline as you enter cottage country.

This lighthouse appears as though someone it attempting to restore it.

The entire Hudson River Valley region of New York State,  is celebrating a significant anniversary. The year 2009 officially marks the 400th anniversary of the European founding by Dutch explorer, Henry Hudson.

We arrived at Catskill Marina at 11:15. It is located .75 miles up the Catskill Creek off of the Hudson.

The marina is nestled in the hillside and looks like a great place to spend the 4th of July.

People are super friendly and they are already getting ready for the 4th of July cook out and fireworks.