Thursday, July 23, 2009 Ontario
Today we went from Chaffeys Lock to our final destination of Kingston.
We had a great breakfast at the old Opinicon Hotel. You could order anything and everything you wanted from the menu for $7.25. We had omelets, french toast, oatmeal, fruit, juice, coffee. Judging by the furniture, the hotel looked like it was last updated in the 1950s. Sitting around a table with a cotton tablecloth and napkins felt like civilization to us. The hotel had a little grocery store next door with a “liars bench” outside. The “liar” part of the bench refers to a story we read in one of the boating guide books. It seems that a young couple with a newborn, along with a set of
grandparents, went to the Opinicon Hotel. They weighed the newborn on the scale used to weigh fish, and low and behold the newborn weighed 22 pounds! The grandmother fainted. I guess the rest of the baby's relatives understood how a baby could weigh so much on this type of scale.
Then we went through several little lakes with narrow passages between them. Dad keeps wondering how the cruise ship (20feet wide, 120 feet long—fills the locks completely) gets through these little areas. There were 4 locks at Jones Falls (numbers 39-42 in the Parks Canada/Rideau system). We had about an hour wait there because a boat was coming up the locks. There happened to be a lockmaster's house open to the public, and we went to see that. There was a young lady dressed up from the time period (circa 1820) who told us about life there at that time.
Then we went to Upper Brewers locks (43 and 44). a lot of boats stayed there for the night. We went on. Next was lock 45 at Lower Brewers/Washburn. We were tied up at a dock before this lock. Then we motored off from the dock, having been detached from it by Mom and Steph. But things didn't go quite as smoothly as usual. Mom and Steph pushed the boat from the bow and middle, respectively. Usually Mom would not push from the bow, as it bows out, and it's not necessary to push from there, but there was no traffic and things were pretty relaxed, and she got a bit sloppy, and for whatever reason she decided to try this. The bow got too far from the dock for her to pull her dock leg onto the boat. I coiled my rope in the stern, took hold of my boat hook, began to raise my gaze as SPLASH! Surprised by the unexpected sound, I directed my attention towards its source. Mouth drooping into what must have been a comically dumb gaping look, I watched as my mom, fully clothed and dripping, was pulled from the water by three boaters. “Are you ok?!” We all pummeled her with questions, wanting to know if she'd hit her head, if she wanted a towel, if she wanted to sit down, if she was completely and utterly alright. Grinning in response, she resumed her post at the bow, exclaiming, “Back to work!” Laughing with relief, we waved to my mother's rescuers, and continued on into the lock.
Kingston Mills was next.
We might have been fine quitting for the day here, but there is 
NOTHING there, no town, no ice cream, so we hoped it was not too late to be put through these last 4 locks (46-49). Fortunately the lock people put us through. We dropped 45 feet through these 4 locks and came out at the level of Lake Ontario, though we are not quite there yet. We saw a few blue herons and loons as we motored toward Kingston. The loons seemed to talk back to us when we tried to imitate their sound.
We arrived at Kingston Marina at 6:30pm. They closed at 6, but Dad had called ahead and talked with them, and they had a place for us. This is a working marina. They are making two fire boats out of aluminum right now—one for Tampa and one for Dubai.
The marina is on the edge of Kingston, a small city of about 140,000 people. We walked around the city and found it to be very much alive... Many shops and restaurants are here and they even a great outdoor market. We went to see a outdoor movie called Singing in the Rain. Unfortunately rain of the real sort made us return early to the boat.
Sara
Friday, July 24, 2009 Kingston, Ontario
Today we took showers!!! Then we toured Queen's University in Kingston. What a beautiful campus and the tour staff were excellent. The school borders Lake Ontario and is comprised of mostly stately limestone buildings dating from the 19th century. They also have an large new state-of-the-art library and are building a new sport's complex. Stephanie was interested in knowing that they did have a Synchronized skating team. We next explored the city by foot and by bike before dinner back aboard Lucy III. Some of the same boats that we have seen for days have ended up here in Kingston.
Saturday, July 25, 2009: Kingston, Ontario & Montreal, Quebec. Today we returned to Montreal by rental car to retrieve our family car that we had left in Montreal two weeks earlier at Emma Rioux's house. The day was highlighted by lunch with Aunt Dorothy at a very nice diner style restaurant in Montreal and a visit for dessert with Emma Rioux at Beaconsfield. We returned to Kingston in time for a visit to Fort Henry and their “Tattoo” that is best described as a military musical celebration. There were lots of bagpipes, drums and dancers as well as a load fly over by the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds. A special treat was the United states Navy's precision drill team and the bands playing in a rather wet, it was raining heavily, parade square for a dazzling fireworks finale. The rain ended as the show ended. We went downtown with our good friend Marie Bedard for some hot chocolate and carrot cake.
Sunday, July 26, 2009: Kingston, Ontario. Today we returned home with a stop in Syracuse, NY to visit Syracuse University. The Lucy III will remain in Kingston for the week until our return on the 31st.
Marc
Today we went from Chaffeys Lock to our final destination of Kingston.We had a great breakfast at the old Opinicon Hotel. You could order anything and everything you wanted from the menu for $7.25. We had omelets, french toast, oatmeal, fruit, juice, coffee. Judging by the furniture, the hotel looked like it was last updated in the 1950s. Sitting around a table with a cotton tablecloth and napkins felt like civilization to us. The hotel had a little grocery store next door with a “liars bench” outside. The “liar” part of the bench refers to a story we read in one of the boating guide books. It seems that a young couple with a newborn, along with a set of
grandparents, went to the Opinicon Hotel. They weighed the newborn on the scale used to weigh fish, and low and behold the newborn weighed 22 pounds! The grandmother fainted. I guess the rest of the baby's relatives understood how a baby could weigh so much on this type of scale.Then we went through several little lakes with narrow passages between them. Dad keeps wondering how the cruise ship (20feet wide, 120 feet long—fills the locks completely) gets through these little areas. There were 4 locks at Jones Falls (numbers 39-42 in the Parks Canada/Rideau system). We had about an hour wait there because a boat was coming up the locks. There happened to be a lockmaster's house open to the public, and we went to see that. There was a young lady dressed up from the time period (circa 1820) who told us about life there at that time.
Then we went to Upper Brewers locks (43 and 44). a lot of boats stayed there for the night. We went on. Next was lock 45 at Lower Brewers/Washburn. We were tied up at a dock before this lock. Then we motored off from the dock, having been detached from it by Mom and Steph. But things didn't go quite as smoothly as usual. Mom and Steph pushed the boat from the bow and middle, respectively. Usually Mom would not push from the bow, as it bows out, and it's not necessary to push from there, but there was no traffic and things were pretty relaxed, and she got a bit sloppy, and for whatever reason she decided to try this. The bow got too far from the dock for her to pull her dock leg onto the boat. I coiled my rope in the stern, took hold of my boat hook, began to raise my gaze as SPLASH! Surprised by the unexpected sound, I directed my attention towards its source. Mouth drooping into what must have been a comically dumb gaping look, I watched as my mom, fully clothed and dripping, was pulled from the water by three boaters. “Are you ok?!” We all pummeled her with questions, wanting to know if she'd hit her head, if she wanted a towel, if she wanted to sit down, if she was completely and utterly alright. Grinning in response, she resumed her post at the bow, exclaiming, “Back to work!” Laughing with relief, we waved to my mother's rescuers, and continued on into the lock.
Kingston Mills was next.
We might have been fine quitting for the day here, but there is 
NOTHING there, no town, no ice cream, so we hoped it was not too late to be put through these last 4 locks (46-49). Fortunately the lock people put us through. We dropped 45 feet through these 4 locks and came out at the level of Lake Ontario, though we are not quite there yet. We saw a few blue herons and loons as we motored toward Kingston. The loons seemed to talk back to us when we tried to imitate their sound.We arrived at Kingston Marina at 6:30pm. They closed at 6, but Dad had called ahead and talked with them, and they had a place for us. This is a working marina. They are making two fire boats out of aluminum right now—one for Tampa and one for Dubai.
The marina is on the edge of Kingston, a small city of about 140,000 people. We walked around the city and found it to be very much alive... Many shops and restaurants are here and they even a great outdoor market. We went to see a outdoor movie called Singing in the Rain. Unfortunately rain of the real sort made us return early to the boat.Sara
Friday, July 24, 2009 Kingston, Ontario
Today we took showers!!! Then we toured Queen's University in Kingston. What a beautiful campus and the tour staff were excellent. The school borders Lake Ontario and is comprised of mostly stately limestone buildings dating from the 19th century. They also have an large new state-of-the-art library and are building a new sport's complex. Stephanie was interested in knowing that they did have a Synchronized skating team. We next explored the city by foot and by bike before dinner back aboard Lucy III. Some of the same boats that we have seen for days have ended up here in Kingston.
Saturday, July 25, 2009: Kingston, Ontario & Montreal, Quebec. Today we returned to Montreal by rental car to retrieve our family car that we had left in Montreal two weeks earlier at Emma Rioux's house. The day was highlighted by lunch with Aunt Dorothy at a very nice diner style restaurant in Montreal and a visit for dessert with Emma Rioux at Beaconsfield. We returned to Kingston in time for a visit to Fort Henry and their “Tattoo” that is best described as a military musical celebration. There were lots of bagpipes, drums and dancers as well as a load fly over by the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds. A special treat was the United states Navy's precision drill team and the bands playing in a rather wet, it was raining heavily, parade square for a dazzling fireworks finale. The rain ended as the show ended. We went downtown with our good friend Marie Bedard for some hot chocolate and carrot cake.
Sunday, July 26, 2009: Kingston, Ontario. Today we returned home with a stop in Syracuse, NY to visit Syracuse University. The Lucy III will remain in Kingston for the week until our return on the 31st.
Marc
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