Kingston, Ontario
Rideau Acres Campground June 16-19

We left Toronto and headed east on the 401 to Kingston. We will spend a couple of days touring the area. We took a 3.5-hour boat cruise of the Thousand Islands. Over 1000 islands all privately owned some have very small houses to very large, there are some islands that are large enough to have small villages. Electric, water and phone are all done underground- in this instance it would be under the river . And - Yes, this is where 1000 Island dressing got is name.

Below is a picture of the Boldt Castle on Heart Island- George Boldt the owner of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York wanted to build a “summer home” for his wife. Construction started in 1900 it was to be a 120 room, 6 story a replica of the Rhine Castle- unfortunately she died in 1904 before the castle was finished. The building stopped and the castle was abandoned no one has ever lived in the castle. In 1977 the Thousand Island Bridge District took over the restoration and opened it up to the public.

Fort Henry- What a great fort very entertaining and educational. This fort was built to protect Kingston against the Americans- but we never came and the fort was never under attack. One interesting note- if you wanted to be an officer in the British Military you could buy your rank the more money you had the higher up you could go. Thankfully this was changed and you moved up the ranks because of ability not money. Enlisted soldiers were paid daily at 12 cents a day and 6 cents a day had to be paid back to the military for their food and clothing- didn’t leave much left over and if they wanted to go into town they had to pay 1 cent each way to cross the bridge. Didn’t leave much left- this was intentional so the soldiers wouldn’t go into town and get drunk .

We attended the sunset ceremonies it was a spectacular show. It was a 90-minute event that depicted life for the soldiers in 1860 with drill and artillery maneuvers, military music and ended with the song God Save the Queen and fireworks show.

For more pictures of our time in Kingston click the link below

http://picasaweb.google.com/jcrobnik/Kingston

Next stop Montreal, Quebec- where French is the main language- gosh hope I don’t get my Sivou Plea mixed up with my Por Favors……