Clayton, NY to Kingston,Ontario, Canada

Monday - June 25, 2018 - Happy 80th Birthday Mom!!!

A bit of a late start today.  We had a couple of things to tend to before we departed the USA for Canada. Keep in mind we arrived in Staten Island, NY on June 1st and now it's June 25th and we are just leaving New York. One errand was to the post office and the second was to the hardware store to find a hose fitting to fix our clogged fill pipe on the water tank.

We have our flag and are ready to enter Canada

Today, it's only a 18 mile run to Kingston, Ontario and would only take 1 1/2 hours at normal cruise speed. As we approached the big Kingston City Marina we hailed them on the VHF radio for a slip assignment and directions to enter the marina through the man mad breakwater . Wow, is this marina ever big and our slip is located about as far out as possible from the main entrance, a real hike to the secure entrance gate. Another little issue being this far out is there is little to no WIFI.

Kingston, Ontario Skyline

That said, we are instructed by the dock hand that we must check in with Canadian Boarder Patrol. This process is discussed on a regular basis on the daily Loop forum . So, this is what I did. Left Lou Ann on the boat and took our passports and walked to the main entrance of the marina. There is a single pay phone and a sign with a 800 number to contact the Customs Agent. I picked up the phone and dial the number. The agent answers and ask for my name address passport number same with Lou Ann, the boat registration numbers and asked a few questions, guns, fruit, liquor. Within 10 minutes she gives me a number to post on the inside window of the boat, simple as one, two, three, we're in!

The marina is located in the very middle of Kingston historic district. As we stepped through the marina gate there is a beautiful park with a fountain, gazebo, and an historic old steam train. And just across the street is City Hall.

Steam Train and Visitors Center

Kingston was once Canada's Capitol before moving to Ottawa. Once the capitol was moved the government decided that they needed a better means to travel to the Port of Kingston so they built the Rideau Canal.

This first day we walked the downtown area first to get some Canadian money from the ATM and secondly to get a fell of what there is to see, we plan on spending 3 nights in Kingston.

The second day we chose to get tickets on the Hop on Hop Off Trolley. First stop is the historic Fort Henry that guards the entrance to the port. The trolley drove through their equivalent of our West Point or Navel Academy. After the fort the two attractions we wanted to visit where closed on Tuesday, the penitentiary and the Bellevue house, an historic home. This was not a total loss the trolley drivers provide a very interesting narration, as we traveled through the streets and neighborhoods of Kingston.

Fort Henry - Kingston Ontario

Royal Military College of Canada

As luck would have it there was an afternoon concert in the park next to the marina so we stopped, sat on the wall, and enjoyed the entertainment with lots of other folks . Lunch on the boat then back to the farmers market, not much left by mid afternoon. We did enjoy a guided tour of the Kingston City Hall. When it was completed in 1844, it not only functioned as city government office, it was also a market place, and jail. In all a very impressive building . Our tour guide turns out to be a boater also so we hit it off. Tonight we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant where we dinned outside watching all the locals pass by. Did I say we tend to eat out not more than twice a week.

City Hall

City Hall Prison - Rene is always in trouble

Day 3 in Kingston. The plan is to see if we can get to the Kingston Penitentiary but today it just rained all day, so stayed on the boat, went over the charts for our trip to Trenton and worked on the blog. This is the first day we have had rain during the daytime, oh well we can't complain, we enjoyed our visit to this very historic city.