1000 Islands, NY

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Back in the USA – after 25 days in Canada we return stateside

May 28 – 31, 2013 saw us entering the Thousand Islands Area of northwestern New York State. We made the drive from Montreal to Clayton, NY, the trip were marked with a lot of traffic driving through the city, road construction, and a trip to the “Twilight Zone” by our GPS, Miss Maggie. We suddenly lost Maggie’s directions, her dials were spinning, she was making weird noises and she would not respond to my pushing her “buttons”.  We realized that we must be on a new freeway, crazy, because we were the only vehicle we could see for a long way – had we run a road block?? Guess that Mags had not been programed with this new road – interesting experience, we were pleased to finally find our way out of the zone and got back on the route and Maggie came back on line just as quickly as she had disappeared.

For the next few days we explored the beautiful St. Lawrence River area of upper New York.  We spent some time in Alexandria Bay, a cute little tourist town, enjoyed a bit of shopping and a nice river view dinner. We took a boat cruise on the river seeing many of the 1,386 islands (1000 Islands just sounds better) that inhabit this area.  Yes, this where 1000 Island Salad Dressing was created.  We had taken a cruise a few years ago, and again enjoyed the views of these islands.  The islands must have at least one tree and most with cabin, house or mansion.  WOW some of these people have a lot $$$$.  We stopped at Dark Island and toured Singer Castle (owned originally by the president of Singer Sewing Machine Company) – a beautiful structure built in the 1900’s. On the way back to port we circled Deer Island, a 40-acre retreat owned by the Skull and Bones Society, a secret society associated with Yale University. Guess it has become a bit run-down in the past few years, but still a bit of mystique?

We enjoyed visiting the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, which houses a collection of over 3000 antique and classic boats, about 300 are on display at any one time. We were amazed at the great variety of beautiful speedboats, some from the early 1900’s, several wooden canoes, many with small sails and walked through the shops where volunteers work to restore the boats.  There was a houseboat we were able to walk through that had been owned by the McNally family (Rand-McNally – map folks) It was a beautiful vessel that sailed the St. Lawrence River most summers from 1915-1940 (so that is how the other half lives J).

This area is a wonderful resort area to visit – the Wraights would come back here again if and when the MoHo wanders back this way.  It would be nice to try it in season, but then again it is nice to not fight the summer crowds.