Best Western Fireside Inn Kingston

... br>Und das hat sich trozt der kurzen Zeit definitiv gelohnt. Es war einfach traumhaft bei strahlendem Sonnenschein zwischen den unaehligen Inseln herumzupaddeln. Vieleder Inseln sind Privatbesitz und es stehen Wohnhaeuser auf ihnen - das waer auch was fuer mich so fuers Wochenende oder oder die Ferien!

Es sollte auf manchen Inseln auch Straende geben, die wir allerdings nicht entdeckt haben und die auch nicht auf unserer Karte eingezeichnet waren. Also haben wir ...

This morning on our first stop, Mom decided to get up close and personal with some bushes but quickly retreated, as some of the plants starting stinging and she started developing a rash. She had to spray some Bactine on both legs, her right arm and her left hand -- just call her the Bactine kid!

We ended up going about 46.5 miles today!! We did most of it from 8 am-1:30 pm we were really ...

... all the towns/cities in Canada have outside patios!) Taking a look at Kingston from the visitors and downtown development perspective, it needs some sprucing up. Litter was a major problem and unkempt green spaces did not add to the ambiance. On a positive note, our waiter was very friendly and was a good spokesperson for general information about the colleges and ...

... and clear views of the lake.  We were seeking out the Penitentiary Prison, a tiny building giving the history of jails through the ages - sizes of cells, controlling methods and how the inmates made their weapons. Not quite Alcatraz but the kids enjoyed it.

After this riveting experience we decided it was time to eat and we joined one of Jo's friends Wendy at the local steak restaurant. We were filling ...

... that I did enjoy going into was a fantastic secondhand book shop absolutely full of books listed by authors.  Books were basically half their retail price.  I was amazed by the collection of Jeffrey Archer books available and a biography on The Princes (William and Harry) which was displayed as  'prized' book behind the till.  

Delicious ice cream, stock up on the wine and then home.
     

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Left Davis lock and bobbed along to Chaffys and then to Jones Falls. The trip down is probably the most spectacular scenery on the whole Rideau canal. the water is deep and clear and just begs for a stop and swim.

At Jones Falls we stopped for lunch at the Kennedy Hotel. The food was good and well priced. The hotel changed hands about a year ago and boy can you tell. Still a bit stuck in the 40's but at least the food has become edible. 

After lunch ...

... to go straight home. Parker's parents showed us around there home. They live in what's called a tenement on the ground floor. It was beautiful. Huge rooms with incredibly tall ceilings. Parker's dad showed us some of the unique features of these houses - a knob near the front door would open the gate onto the walk. The fence and gate around the front yard would have been removed during the 2nd world war when Winston Churchill was having them melted ...

... Taste tested pickles, unpasteurized cheese and cassoulet. We considered buying tins of cassoulet for souvenirs but decided people may not get enough enjoyment out of them. They were rediculously expensive, so they would have had to provide a lot of joy. Walked along the southbank to the Oxo tower. When buildings were not permitted to advertise products on them (hard to believe in todays world) the makers of oxo ...

With a lot of changes coming up in our lives, we've decided to take a pre-wedding vacation to help the transition between end of work, wedding, move and start of new work. Basically, we have a ton of stuff planned for the next month. We both finish work on the last day of April, then we leave for Cuba on the first of May via bus from Toronto. We'll spend 11 ...

... quite well in that I immediately found a great used bike and was able to get into a motorcycle safety course within a week. An operator's license and bike in hand the next hurdle was getting a bike carrier attached to my trailer. My planned date of departure came and went. My deadline to leave to get to Kingston came and the carrier that was coming from the U.S. was stuck in Customs at the border. On the road now, my motorcycle is collecting dust in my garage ...