Sunday, August 26, 2012

This morning, after breakfast, I filled the fresh water tank (park water pressure is low, so we use the pump, but have to periodically fill the fresh water tank), then I cleaned the windshield to make vision better as we drive to my sister’s house tomorrow.  Then I decided to clean out my three contact lists – Outlook, Gmail and iCloud.  I got some of it done, will have to finish next week.

This afternoon, we went to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY.  They have boats from every era.  Here are a few.  This Chris Craft was designed with the 1958 Chevrolet in mind, with fins, dash and accelerator. 

There were yachts and racing boats. 

Here are pictures of La Duchesse.  It was built about 1900 by George Boldt (see previous blog about Boldt Castle) for about $100,000 and named for his daughter that he always called Duchess.

The piano is inside the living room, but the window opens onto the open air dance floor.

Across the road, the museum has a building filled with racing boats, 20 to 250 miles per hour. 

We went out to dinner in Clayton with Tom and Elaine.

Type at you later.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

This morning, I spent a lot of time on yesterday’s blog, updated the Escapade’s Row Game, and checked out some genealogy web sites.  Marilyn did wash, and took some mackerel fillets to Tom & Elaine.

After lunch, we drove to Fisher’s Landing, between Clayton, NY and Alexandria Bay.  Part of the reason we went out in the Jeep was for its air conditioning.  Temperatures have been in the mid to upper 80’s here in NY, just like the rest of the country.  However, this park only has 30 amp service, and they want an additional $4 per day for air conditioning.  It is one that we call one appliance at a time parks, because the voltage drops considerably from 110 as soon as you start the toaster, coffee pot, etc.,  So, we are doing what we did as kids pre-a/c, we turned on a fan.  It is still hot, but moving air feels cooler.

We had trouble finding the Rock Island Lighthouse at Fisher’s Landing, so we drove to the Visitor Center next to the Thousand Island Bridge.  They gave us directions, and told us the bridge toll was only $2.50.  We drove back to Fisher’s Landing and found Rock Island Lighthouse hiding between trees between houses.  It was obscured enough that I did not try to get a distant picture.

When we left Fisher’s Landing, we drove to Cape Vincent, which is south of Clayton, NY.  At Cape Vincent, we drove out to Tibbet’s Point, which is where the Eastern Shore of Lake Ontario ends, and the St Lawrence River starts.  Here, we could see the Tibbet’s Point Lighthouse, with binoculars we could see Charity Shoal and Pigeon Island Lighthouses, and the Wolf Island windmill farm. 

Another good day.  Type at you later.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Great day with Marilyn.  We drove the Jeep to historic Alexandria Bay on the St Lawrence River.    We took the 11:30AM Uncle Sam’s Boat Tour of some of the Thousand Islands.  The tour lasts 2.5 hours with a stop, and costs $19.  

The tour takes you past many islands (not all of the 1800 plus- note an island must be surrounded by water, be at least 1 foot high, and have at least one tree on it) with views of multi-million dollar houses.  We saw islands on each side of the US-Canadian border, which runs the length of the St Lawrence River.  We went under the Thousand Islands Bridge. 

We saw the Sunken Rock Lighthouse and ships traveling up and down the St Lawrence Seaway. 

On the way back to Alexandria Bay, the boat stops at Boldt Castle, located on Heart Island.  George C Bold came to the US from Prussia in the 1860s.  He worked his way up the hotel corporate ladder, managing and profit sharing the Waldorf-Astoria in NY, and the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia.  He purchased Hart Island, renamed it Heart Island, and started building a castle for his lovely wife Louise.  He was going to present the castle to Louise on Valentines Day in February of 1904, Unfortunately, she passed away in January in her early 40s.  He sent a telegram that stopped work on the Castle for all 300 of his workmen.  George never set foot on the island again, dying in 1916.  However, he did spend time in the Thousand Islands with his children and grandchildren.  Vandals destroyed much of the castle until it was acquired by the Thousand Island Bridge Authority in 1977.  They have been slowly restoring the Castle to the state it was in when George ceased work.  It is slowly becoming beautiful once again both inside and out.

This is our first view of the Boldt Castle from the dock in Alexandria Bay.    The first building George added and lived in was to become the playhouse with bowling alley, etc.    On an island, they had to have their own powerhouse.    The riverside entrance had to have class also – A Replica of the Arc De Triomph.    The stairs to the outside entrance were never finished, but the inside staircase is beautifully re-created.    The ceiling has a stained glass dome, and the porch even has a fireplace.    On one of the floors were pictures of George and Louise.    Outside are the heart shaped Italian Gardens, a fountain and flowering buses. 

We spent several hours in the castle, then took the shuttle to his boathouse.  I guess that is enough for one day.  Type at you later.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Yesterday, we continued moving on US 11 across the top of NY State, and then picked up the Seaway Trail heading south to Merry Knoll Campground near Clayton NY and the Thousand Islands.  In the afternoon, I scanned some genealogy documents.  Before dinner, Tom and Elaine, from Sumter Oaks, stopped by to talk.

This morning, I organized some of the files that I had scanned yesterday.  Then, this afternoon, we drove to Evans Mills to take some pictures in the Old Evans Mills Cemetery.  We found the grave stones of two of my 2nd great grandfathers – Adam Forbes, and John Wilson Northrup and his wife Hanna; and John Northrup and his wife Elizabeth Wilson.

Driving back from the cemetery in Evans Mills, we stopped at an Amish farm for some vegetables – sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic.  We also drove through the town of Clayton so Marilyn could look for xmas paper at the xmas store.  They did not have any.  We were looking to wrap some of the gifts we purchased in Canada to leave in Oswego (trying to eliminate taking them to Florida and shipping them back).  We will find some somewhere.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Since I last wrote on the 15th of August, we have had our lobster dinners on the 18th, at the Escapees Chapter 3 rally.  We bought 4 lobsters, and ate 2 at the dinner.  Marilyn pulled all of the meat out of the other 2, and made lobster stew from half of the meat, and lobster salad out of the remainder for sandwiches.  We had lobster stew, a strip steak, and Champaign for our anniversary dinner on the 19th – delicious. 

On Monday, the 20th, we left Hermon, ME via US 2 and headed south and west.  We ended up at WalMart in Gorham, NH for the night.  Along the way, we had lobster sandwiches for lunch.  Then we had lobster stew and hot steak sandwiches for dinner.

Today, we left Gorham, NH and drove along US 2, I89, and Route 11 to Malone, NY, where we are again staying at WalMart.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

I received an email from a great friend today asking if Marilyn and I were OK.  She had not seen a recent blog from me, so, I decided I better put something on the blog.  We did move on Saturday from Houlton, ME to Hermon, ME.  Hermon is just west of Bangor.  Our purpose in stopping here is to attend the Escapees Chapter 3 Lobsterfest Rally.  This is our third lobsterfest rally, having attended those in August of 2001 and 2006.

On Sunday, we did go get another lobster, which is probably the last one I will have to cook for a while.  We have also done the shopping thing at Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and the grocery store.

Yesterday most of the RVers arrived for the rally, and we went out to dinner at Anglers Seafood Restaurant.  I had delicious fried local shrimp and scallops.  Marilyn had the following for her birthday dinner – lobster stew, grilled salmon and scallops, and a free hot fudge sundae for dessert.

The rally really started today, with registration, happy hour, new member adoptee’s, dinner of seafood chowder and tacos, followed by a campfire.

Tuesday & Wednesday, August 7&8, 2012

We stayed close on Tuesday.  Marilyn shopped at Wal-Mart and the grocery store.  I added text to some pictures, and created a slide show for Marilyn’s digital picture frame.  Other than that, we watched some boob tube (Olympics).  We did meet some SKPs that moved in to the CG, and talked for a while.

Today, Wednesday, we drove back in to Canada for a tour of the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Factory.  The tour is great.  They give a large bag of Kettle Chips to sample on the tour.  They have good signs depicting the origin of the use of the potato in Europe and America, how they are harvested, cleaned and processed into potato chips.  They recognized the origin of the Potato Chip as Saratoga Potatoes in 1853 (first time that they are fried).

Next stop was to take pictures of, and walk across the longest covered bridge in the world.  At least that is what the sign says. 

After leaving Hartland, NB, we drove back to Woodstock, NB in search of lunch which we found at Krissy’s Café.  After having eaten all of those potato chips at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Factory, we were only able to eat half of our sandwiches.  So, we brought the second halves home for dinner.

We stopped for some groceries at the Atlantic Superstore that we wanted to stock up on.  They were local brands of cookies and salsa that are not found in the States.  Then we stopped at the Canadian Duty Free Store where Marilyn bought a shirt, and we converted the balance of our Canadian currency back into US dollars.

We have said goodby to Canada for this year.

Type at you later.