Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: Kingston provided Royal Memories!!!

KIngston, Ontario Kingston Marina July 16-18, 2016

We had an overcast day to leave the US behind for awhile. I’ll miss the purple and white clover to mark…Mom ended up joining me on the floor of the salon for the first couple of hours crossing Lake Ontario. She managed to get coffee, an apple, almonds and water to dad before she and I cuddled up on the floor. Eventually it settled down…we never were without sight of land, but very few ships were out with us. Our looper buddies, Jammin Jane and Knot Sew Easy had both gone their separate ways. Our other Texas friends, Kevin and Steve on Lone Star were waiting to help us tie up when we arrived here. So good to see them again! We are going to travel through the Trent Severn with them. They all had a wonderful dinner at Chez Piggy, but once again brought back no leftovers! Boo! Lone Star had been traveling with Leap of Faith. We will catch up with them in Trenton on Wednesday.

M & D told me they are going with Steve and Kevin on the Trolley Tour this AM. Kate and Ray Finney are meeting them downtown by the old Train Station Tourist Center at lunch time. They are all going to lunch with them before they bring us back here with our new boat hook handle courtesy of their nephew. …But, for the kindness of strangers!!! Wow!

Mom and dad told me they all walked around the waterfront area where some of the original battlements and one Martello Tower remains…now, decorated with flowers…a lovely touch. The government buildings are majestically beautiful and dominate that area. If only we could have stayed up late, some of the marina residents told us about a fantastic jazz group at the Irish bar in this area…It didn’t happen! Steve and Kevin came back to pick up Kevin’s laundry from our washer/dryer…Kevin stayed to chat and have a last glass of wine, but even with that it was 10:00 when we went to bed to read.

Woke up to another beautiful day after seeing to my needs, M & D left with K & S for their Kingston trolley tour. So much to see and learn about this beautiful town. It turns out Kingston was the first capital of Canada, but it only lasted a short while when they realized that it was way too close to the USA!

Ft. Frontenac was built there and some of the forts walls still remain. Kingston became the forwarding area to St. Lawrence & other waterways in its early days. In the 1832 the Rideau Canal and other seaways opened up and Kingston was bypassed. In the 1840’s they lost City Hall and much of the town to a fire thanks to all the wooden structures. The Neoclassical City Hall was rebuilt with blue limestone that we see today. Lots of different groups use city hall…

There was a antique fair on Sunday and a Farmer’s Market on Saturday.

In 1874 the Royal Military College of Canada was started and modeled off West Point. They train all their military there both Navy, Coast Guard and Army. There are still 9 Martello towers left from 1812 war battlements with 4 that can be seen around Kingston. Married officers and their families lived in some of these towers. Shipyards here built some of the big battleships like HMS St. Lawrence, but when they were no longer needed many were scuttled in the waters around here. Making these waters ideal for scuba divers exploring the wrecks. There are over 1800 islands within the Thousand Islands. Cedar and Wolf Islands are two that can be seen from Kingston. Wolf has windmill farms and is a great place to ride bikes and picnic with ferry service going to both. It turns out the Maple Leaf flag wasn’t adopted until 1965.

Ft. Henry was built in a 2 year time period for the War of 1812, as part of those defenses and rebuilt & enlarged over 5 years in the 1840’s. It was used as a fort for a number of years, but not really needed. They kept prisoners there during one of their wars before the fort was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Historians recognized it’s importance and it was restored for a tourist site.

Sir John A MacDonald, a Scotsman became Canada’s first Premier and favorite son. He was knighted by Queen Victoria. Bellevue House, an Italianate was where he and his family lived. It’s been restored to look like what it would have been when they were all living there in the 1840”s.

Kingston became known for it’s penitentiaries including one for women. None of the prisoners were allowed to talk even little children or they would be whipped. The Warden’s House is the Museum, but tours of the big Pen are sold out for this entire season. Both Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway came to visit and write about Kingston’s penitentiaries because they were so famous.

In 1841 Queen Victoria established Queen’s College here…it now has over 20,000 students. It’s art center has a massive collection many of them courtesy of the Bader family including 3 Rembrandts. The college owns the penitentiaries, and the Frontenac Courthouse (the site of many hangings on it’s gallows there.) The current campus hospital was the site of the first Parliament building. In the late 1930’s FDR came to this city and accepted an honorary degree from Queen’s College and pledged the US' support to Canada.

It turns out Chez Piggy where we had dinner the night before was started by one of the band members of the 70’s rock groups, “Lovin Spoonful” to help revive the city center.

We all met up with our FL condo neighbors, Kate and Ray Finney for lunch at “Monte’s Tir nan Og” which was inside the St. George Hotel and behind the Ole Speckled Hen bar…What a fabulous old establishment right by city hall! The food was slow getting to us, but wonderful when it arrived! It was great seeing them and catching up! They brought all of us back to our boats to drop off our leftover lunch & our new boat handle (they brought to us and some goodies)…We love goodies! After a quick Moondance tour, they took us all back to Ft Henry so we could do that tour.

Ft Henry along with the Rideau Canal are two World Heritage Sites located in this area. The fort does various reenactments and tours each day…mom didn’t make it through the entire tour, but she really enjoyed the fife and drum corp practicing in the center parade grounds!

We were all exhausted and still full from our late lunch…so instead of dinner we had Lone Star dock tails & yummy appetizers along with fresh smoked salmon that Kevin made.

I especially loved the salmon skin that mom brought home to me! It was a wonderful day!

It turns out we were all up early to catch the bascule bridge 7 AM opening. It’s 61+ nautical miles to Trenton today, so it’s going to be a long day! It seems none of us slept well because of the high winds last night straining our lines to the max and creating lots of noise from our bumpers. It was so bad, dad got up in the middle of the night to check the lines.

As we crossed Lake Ontario, the high winds pushed against us at sustained speeds of 21 miles per hour and gusting winds of 27-30 miles per hour...keeping dad & mom on their toes…as we were able to follow the coastline closer, the waves died down, so it wasn’t quite so wild, but since we were heading into the wind, it sure slowed our speed down!

Sounds like M & D are just hanging around our boat tonight and not going out with anyone…Lone Star is as exhausted as we are!!!

We had a long extended conversation with the girls in Croatia...they are having a terrific vacation over there...Their photos are simply stunning!