Ray and Deb's Great Loop Cruise: August 2009

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Learned how to add a Map to the blog. If you click on the plus or minus buttons on the map you can zoom in or out. Hope this improves the blog a little. If you have any suggestions please email us. We've traveled 1500 miles. As of this post we are in Kingston, Ontario.

Kingston harbor front. At one time Kingston was Canada's national capital, it was moved to Ottawa. During the era of the War of 1812 Kingston was heavily fortified against attack from the U.S.. Kingston is the western entrance of the Rideau Canal.

This train station is located at the foot of Marina dock, now the visitor center.

The locomotive was built in Kingston. City Hall is in the background.

Across the harbor from Kingston is Canada's Royal Military Academy. It's
the military academy of the Canadian Armed Forces, and has an old fort there.

There are six of these block houses dotting the shoreline of Kingston. Some are museums. Again built during the War of 1812 era.

It fascinates me how these structures were constructed. This is the passage that leads to this top floor. Anticipating an attack the roof would have been removed.

This column supports the top floor.

The academy.

They were doing drills in front of this building.

Fort Henry is located about one mile east of the Academy. Another old Fort.

Our previous post was our stop at Clayton, NY, home of the Antique Boat Museum. The first two pictures are of downtown Clayton.

From Clayton we headed east further down the St. Lawrence River. We travelled the south side of the river (U.S. side). This bridge takes you to Canada. The river is very wide here with many islands, some islands quite large. You can't see across the river for the islands. This bridge connects NY mainland to one of the large U.S. islands. There is a second bridge on the Canadian side. We are heading to the town of Alexandria Bay, several miles past this bridge.

We hadn't seen many ships; this one had just passed Alexandria Bay.

Our approach into Alexandria Bay; we stayed in this area of Alexandria Bay. We took on fuel and got a pump-out. We paid $3.00/gallon. It was Pirates Weekend. All the marinas turned us away, but there was a town dock near where we fueled; the dock attendants told us we could stay at the city dock - the city did not monitor it. When we returned to the boat that evening, we found a $50 ticket. At 7:30 the next morning, we got another $50 ticket. We happened to be there for that one; couldn't talk her out of it.

Downtown Alexandria Bay.

This was a pirate show.

We took the ferry over to Boldt Castle, just across from Alexandria Bay.

George Boldt came to the US from Prussia in 1860. He learned to speak English and became a successful hotel magnate - Waldorf Astoria in New York and Bellevue Stratford in Philadelphia. His wealth was considered new wealth by the elite class in the New York City area and he was not accepted into their circle. For his beloved wife, Louise, he built Boldt Castle as a retreat. The original house on the property was torn down to make room for the castle. He also built a farm nearby to raise meat, poultry and vegetables for his hotels. The construction on the castle was started in 1901. In 1904, before the castle was completed, his wife passed away and George immediately halted construction and never set foot on the property again. The castle ended up being sold to the McNally family of Rand McNally but they never did anything with it. From 1904 to 1977, it laid vacant and deteriorated to a state of disrepair. Over those years, it was ravaged by people pilfering - anything and everything. In 1977, it was sold the the 1000 Island Bridge Authority. They began the restoration and it continues today. All the rooms that have not been refurbished are covered by graffiti - names and dates of people. It is interesting how far these date back.

This is the powerhouse, which housed oil-fired boilers for steam heat and diesel generators.

Another view of the powerhouse.

Back side of Bolt Castle.

The Alster Tower (Children's Play House). The Boldts had two children, a boy and a girl. Because of the unusual design, it is believed that George Boldt designed it himself as it was built.

Main entrance.

They have restored about 30% of the castle.

This is the daugher's bedroom.

The English language has words that have dual meanings. Deer, the animal, or dear wife. The house was full of deer figures, door handles, wood carvings and statues as a tribute to his dear wife.

This picture is pleasure boat docking.

This archway with 3 deer on top leads into a protected boat mooring area, not open to public use. It is thought that it was used by the Boldts for their shuttle boats.