Marilyn & Larry On The Road: 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.