In my last post I got as far as the morning of Day 4 of my motorcycle trip, spent visiting Fort Henry (located near Kingston, Ontario). I’ll pick up from there.
After Ralph, Earl, and I finished our visit to Fort Henry we needed to decide what to do next. I had read about a tourist attraction called the 1000 Island Tower which offers superb views of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The tower was a short trip off our route home; we had seen it from a distance on the way to the Fort. Earl and I decided to visit the tower while Ralph headed back to Brockville to spend some time with his girl friend.
For background, the St. Lawrence Seaway is controlled by locks at both ends so the water level is very consistent. There are 997 islands in the seaway; Canada owns about 2/3 of them but America has the bigger islands. As a result, the two countries have about the same amount of real estate. Almost any tiny island has a structure on it. Bigger islands have wells and septic systems; smaller islands have holding tanks.
Tiny island has a house
Sometimes it looks like there is more house than island:
Big house, small island
These all look like summer or vacation houses as the seaway freezes over in winter making access difficult. The house above has boat garages to house the summer transport.
The 1000 Islands Tower looks like this from the ground:
1000 Islands Tower
Basically one buys a ticket to ride the internal elevator to the top observation decks. The last two floors, one with windows, the other open, are reached by spiral steps. I did shoot some video from the top but still photos tell just as good a story so I will stick with them.
Here is a shot of the bridge we traveled to get from Canadian 401 to the tower which is located on Tower Island:
Bridge to Tower Island
Stern-wheel boats provide a fun way to view the islands up close
Stern-wheeler cruises the islands
The top of the tower is a good place to spend some time looking out over the islands and water.
Islands and water view from top of the tower
After a pleasant visit, and some great ice-cream at the Tower’s restaurant, we headed back to Brockville. There we met some other rally folks and went to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. Good food, good talk, and a few adult beverages rounded out a good day.
I have a couple more seaway photos that I’ll include here as they would be out of place in another post.
Sailboat entering a city-owned marina in Prescott
City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada from Fort Henry
This concludes Day 4 of my trip. Next time: The rally gets under way!
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
(PS: Pam says she has no comments for this post.)
“Just for fun”, I’ve looked at islands-for-sale from time-to-time, though those in the Caribbean are a bit more appealing…
‘difficult to imagine the prospective buyer of the “tiny island” — a few rocks, some sand, and a few bushes. Not a “dream vacation home” for most of us. At least a “walk around the island” for post-breakfast exercise wouldn’t take long!
oh my-those house-islands are adorable!! though I can’t help but worry about rising water issues?? Love the bridged house islands..can i move there?
Hmm..not a lot of yard for the dogs to run in though-nevermind. But I bet the houses are pretty amazing inside! Ah to have too much money ;o)