Back From Vacation! A Few Pics To Share...

[Scrolling Days]

Hi, all! We just returned from our summer vacation trip to the Thousand Islands and I thought I'd share a few pics.

I was looking for spending a week with the family and just getting in some real quality time....in addition to some needed R & R! We rented a house which was on the water with a dock, so there was lots to do. I was a bit disappointed with the dock area, as the water wasn't very deep there and there was quite a lot of seaweed, which made fishing and swimming less favorable. But the weather was nice and we had a great time.

What are the Thousand Islands?

If you haven't gone there, I highly recommend it. The Thousand Islands, aside from being the place where the salad dressing was invented (it's true, Jerry! ) is an area on the St Lawrence River just as it leaves Lake Ontario and heads toward the sea. There are literally thousands of islands scattered about, many with lavish homes built on them. I guess tons of millionaires from New York City bought up islands decades ago and build their "summer homes" there. The area is absolutely fantastic to look at, even if you are just a visitor like us.



Here's me out on the river in my canoe. I was a little nervous when I had the kids out earlier, as I was unfamiliar with the wind/current there, but I stayed close to the bay we were on, and the water was pretty calm.



Here's my wife and kids enjoying the view from our dock on a breezy day.

[Scrolling Days]

Castles!

The Thousand Islands is home to several magnificent castles, which sit on their own little islands. The largest is Boldt Castle on Heart Island, which was built by the owner of the Waldorf Hotel in NYC, as a gift for his wife. When she died unexpectedly, he abandoned it and left it in disrepair. It was bought by the local Bridge Authority and has been refurbished and is open to the public.

The castle can be seen on the island in the background of this photo from Alexandria Bay.



This next picture shows my favorite structure on the island, even more so than the castle itself. This is the Boldt Castle Powerhouse. Here, massive generators and pumps were built which supply water and electricity to the castle. All of the pipers and wires run through secret passageways so they are not seen.

I hope to make a puzzle soon based on this photo I took.



This is Singer Castle on Dark Island, which was built by one of the presidents of the Singer Sewing Machine Company as a "hunting lodge." The interior is fantastic to see, and we were given a tour of its contents. One of my favorite findings was an early edition of The Raven signed by Edgar Allen Poe.





We took a smaller shuttle boat to Singer Castle and the captain let the kids stear for a few minutes, which totally made their trip!

[Scrolling Days]

Ships!

One of the things we had the most fun doing was sitting on the dock and trying to look for big ships. The St. Lawrence River is a major shpping route and if you look long enough, you might be lucky enough to see a huge cargo vessel going by.

My daughter spent a lot of time looking and was getting discouraged. Then one day, we saw one heading our way. At the last minute, a second ship appeared from around the corner and the two behemoths crossed right in front of us, with horns sounding!

That was really great to see, and by the end of the trip we saw four ships in total.

[Scrolling Days]

Beasts!

The place we stayed at was nice on the inside, but not for the sqeamish on the outside! I think I saw just about every breed of spider out there, and on our first day, we discovered a rather large snake sunning himself on top of the firewood.



Here is a massive nest (I'm thinking it's gotta be an eagle) which sits atop a telephone pole about 1/4 mile from the house.



Family Time

There was no shortage of that! I have to say, it is probably healthy to get away from the TV, computer, work, etc for a while and just have fun together. The kids had a really great time, as did we, and hopefully we'll make it back there again sometime.

[Arcy]

Welcome back! Sounds like you had a blast!

That castle should make a great puzzle. It just needs a dragon, and it looks like you have a couple of knights in the penultimate picture ready to fight it off (and dragon-flame'll get those marshmallows nice & toasty!)

--Rob

[JohnB]

G'day Shawn,
Good to have you back mate.
Keeping Jerry and Jim in line by myself was a full time job. LOL

Absolutely beautiful place for a holiday, and some very nice pics.

I'll file this place away, for that day (Hopefully) when we get a chance to visit the States.

The nippers sure look like the enjoyed themselves.
And it is great isn't it!, to get away from the telly and computer, dig out the old board games, that's what life is about.

[scrollpup]

Welcome Back Shawn! Definitely not what I thought the Thousand Islands would look like! Great pics! Glad to see the kids knew which side of the fire to stand on (upwind

Did ya'll do any fishing ? (yea I'm a redneck) And thats either an eagles nest or the MOTHER of all squirrels! (LOL)...Could you imagine....hehehe

"The Raven" and "Tale of The Tell Tale Heart (sp?) are my two favorite EAP poems.

Glad ya'll had such a wonderful time together and was nice enough to share a few pics with us.

Check out Jim's toucan and put your name on the list for it. That will bring ya back to reality quicker than anything (hehehe)!

I'll see ya later. It's almost 6 AM and I need some sleep

Jerry

[Scrolling Days]

Originally Posted by scrollpup

Did ya'll do any fishing ?

That's one thing I was a little disappointed in. I brought my tackle box fully loaded and had a fair amount of bait, but when we got to the vacation home, the water off the dock was pretty shallow and full of seaweed for maybe 30 yds . That kind of made fishing and swimming from the dock pretty tough. We went out to a beach one day to swim, but never really did any major fishing.

I'll have to snag some extra salmon from around here this month to compensate!

[jim_mex]

Hi Shawn! - good to have you back, although I'm sure you wouldn't have been too disappointed if you could have stayed on hols with the family a little more time.

Thanks for the posting the photos and sharing your experience, Some great snaps there and I agree with you, the one of Boldt powerhouse looks fantastic - especially with that dinky bridge leading over to it.

As to helping John keep Jerry and myself in line now that you're back. I'm sure that like me you know who the real trouble maker is!

Looking forward to you joining in the fun as usual

PS - give Jerry a bit of encouragement with his intarsia venture. You know how we all hate to see grown men cry!

Cheers pal!

[groverd]

looks like there was plenty to keep all the kids happy, , large ones and small alike. . . great pictures