Kingston

Trip Start Sep 03, 2007
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Trip End Jun 17, 2009


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Flag of Canada  , Ontario,
Saturday, September 15, 2007

Well - for those with a "Mission Control Itinerary" you'll notice we've gone on a side track. We`ve gone to Kingston - ( Yes Jamaica would have been cool but not this time ). Kingston is south of Ottawa and is on the northern edge of Lake Ontario. We're here to see the 1000 Islands that dot the St lawrence river out of Lake Ontario.  Yes- the 1000 Island salad dressing was created right here by a local woman who gave a dinner one night for the owner of New York`s Waldorf Astoria hotel - the rest is history. We didn`t try any whilst we were here but the original recipe sure doesn`t sound like anything we`ve tasted before !

The "B & B" is an old mansion , the Rosemount Inn and its a fabulously intriguing olde worlde place with afternoon tea and cookies, a spa, a resident ghost and a breakfast that is quite inventive - fresh fruit salad with an eggy wheat muffin soaked in maple syrup is some combination Kingston VIA rail station
Kingston VIA rail station
 . Our room had a verandah and a tower ! Norah rated the bed as Cloud 9 level - an expert opinion !! There were a lot of small black canadian squirrels about the area.

We hired a car and drove 20 miles to Gananoque to catch a lake ferry for a 3 hour cruise. Its like going on Lake Windermere in the UK but instead of one island there are 1800 of them, ranging from the size of a table top to some which have small villages. Many have houses on them or even mansions, where the rich and famous of north America and Canada came to spend their leisure time. Very pretty and impressive. The American / Canadian border runs through the middle of this part of the St Lawrence river, which is also part of the shipping route from the Atlantic through to the Great Lakes. The weather was fine and sunny but cool out on the water - glad we took our fleeces ! After the cruise we drove along the 1000 island parkway which followed the St Lawrence shore - a really scenic drive. What did surprise me was the number of raccoons that were dead at the side of the road.

Kingston on a Sunday night was very quiet and we struggled to find somewhere open for supper. It did feel like it was getting towards the end of the summer tourist season. The detour was certainly worth it to see the 1000 islands.
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