Travelogue – island hopping

Twice this morning I sat up, then decided I hadn't had enough sleep. As I said yesterday I got up early, so today I was making up for it. So I finally got out of bed at 8:30 and on the road by 10:30.

I has been considering a five hour boat cruise and would have had to leave Toronto at 7:30. There was even thought of a one out boat cruise demanding a 9:30 departure. I didn't make either one. Glad I didn't make reservations.

I drove out of Toronto and headed east for three hours, stopping for lunch and gas. For a while I listened to a commercial classical station out of Toronto and even got the public radio station out of Rochester on the other side of the lake.

At the little town of Gananoque I got off the expressway for the Thousand Island Parkway. It parallels the St. Lawrence River with views of the islands and vacation homes. I learned there are 997 islands in the area with another 800 plus rocks and shoals. I saw an island with a house on it – the house wasn't much bigger than mine (1200 square feet) and the island wasn't much bigger than the house. The boat cruise I didn't take was around these islands.

I took the international bridge to Hill Island to the Skydeck (thankfully before the international border – I could see the line waiting for customs coming back into Canada). This is some of what I saw from the top. First, the bridge on the Canadian side:

The House of Seven Gables, somebody's fancy mansion. Alas, I didn't have time to see the castles.

Some of the small islands.

From there it was another nearly three hours into Montreal, where I am now. Not having a working CD player and no classical music stations I ended up listening to a talk station out of Ottawa. The show was about the unusual items in the day's news. Better than quiet? A bit. NPR would have been so nice.

My lodging is a B&B that is in a 3 storey row-house. My word for the place is eccentrique. I'm on the 3rd floor, under the eaves. There is a skylight with a door I can swing to cover it so the light doesn't wake me in the morning. The owner led me up the stairs, then we went back down to get my big suitcase out of the car, then down again to park the car. He guided me around the corner (disobeying the one-way sign), into the alley, and into his personal garage (and I think he may have places for 4-5 cars). I'll need him to unlock the garage when I'm ready to leave.

Here's the main entrance:

I walked around the surrounding area to find a restaurant for supper. Most of them have outdoor seating and prices seemed high. I stopped at one where the hose proclaimed the chicken was raised on grain in a humane manner. I'm not sure what the roasted vegetables were, though I think it included red peppers, zucchini, and eggplant. I have no idea what the fourth item was. More walking afterward suggested other places for tomorrow evening.