The Collected Traveler

Back in July, good friends Lisa and Peter renewed their wedding vows (36 years!) on Grand Isle (an island in Lake Champlain) in Vermont at the North Hero House Inn and Restaurant. The weekend was special, fun, and memorable for so many reasons - my husband and I saw friends we hadn't seen in a few years and we met some wonderful people who are now new friends - and apart from our time spent at North Hero House we enjoyed good meals at Blue Paddle Bistro, the Kraemer & Kin outpost at the Alburg Golf Club, and the Farmhouse Tap & Grill in Burlington.  And we had to make a stop at Seb's in South Hero for a unique selection of postcards, greeting cards, culinary specialties, T-shirts, and gifts of all kinds (it's easy to spend a lot of time at Seb's).   

The celebratory weekend was also an excuse to visit Thousand Islands, where we've talked about going for years.  Thousand Islands is so named because there really are a thousand (actually even more than 1,000) islands in the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes region of the U.S. as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota.  Some of the islands are tiny, just big enough to hold a small house and nothing else, except a boat.  We learned that most of these small islands are vacated during the winter months but there are definitely some people who live there year round. The border between the U.S. (New York) and Canada is in the middle of the waterway, so people who live on the New York side can't simply get in their boat and go visit their friends on the Canadian side, and vice versa.  They can all get in their boats and stay in their boats, but they can't disembark, so crossing a bridge is how one gets to the other side (in this part of the Seaway the bridge to cross is the International Bridge at Ogdensburg-Prescott). People we met on both sides take this quite seriously.  We stayed in Rockport on the Canadian side, and we took a scenic and informative boat ride with Rockport Cruises; but we concluded that the best way to visit Thousand Islands is to stay in a house on the water and have access to a boat (not that my husband or I have any experience with a boat, so we would need an invitation to stay with people who have one).  However, the next best way to visit Thousand Islands is to stay somewhere with easy access to Boldt Castle, in Alexandria Bay, positively the must-see attraction in the entire Thousand Islands area (Boldt Castle was commissioned by George Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York and the Bellevue-Stratford hotel in Philadelphia).  Had we known about Hart House, on Wellesley Island on the New York side, beforehand, we would have stayed there (full disclosure: among the 'wonderful people' we met in Vermont was Marianne, who owns Hart House with her husband, Jamie).  We were given a complete tour of Hart House, within walking distance of the Boldt Yacht House, which is quite worthwhile apart from the castle and is where visitors take the (very) short (and complimentary) ferry ride to the Castle.  Marianne also showed us around the historic section of Wellesley Island and we had a great evening at Di Prinzio's Kitchen, which has dockside outdoor seating on the St. Lawrence.                

The Thousand Islands National Park consists of several mainland properties and more than 20 islands between Kingston and Brockville.  It's also the territory of two distinct Indigenous cultures, the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations-Iroquois Confederacy) and the Misi-zaagiing (Mississauga Anishinaabe). Within the National Park we enjoyed hiking several trails in the Landon Bay property, which is situated within the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Foundation.  There are 7 trails in Landon Bay and the Lookout Trail affords a great panoramic view over this section of Thousand Islands.    

Rockport was a bit of a food desert, but nearby Gananaque and Kingston are much bigger towns, and in Gananaque we had drinks on the outdoor patio at The Gananaque Inn and dinner at the Stonewater Pub  and in Kingston we had a great dinner at Tango Nuevo.  Kingston, established in 1673, is worth exploring for Fort Henry (a national historic site built to protect the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard during the War of 1812), Princess Street, and walking around the area close to the water.   

I haven't met many people who've been to Thousand Islands, which is somewhat understandable as there are many competing places to go in the summer that are closer (Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, Maine, etc.); but I think Thousand Islands is a worthy alternative, and I think it's gorgeous in the fall.  

Our friends' niece, who lives near Gananaque, told us we "must" go to Ottawa, so en route there we stopped in Kemptville (one of the hamlets of North Grenville) and had a great breakfast at Bubba & Bugs Coffee Bar.    The coffee here was quite good, menu items were made-to-order and all the baked goods appeared to be à la maison, and the staff were particularly friendly, taking time to talk to us enthusiastically about Canada Day in Ottawa.  Kemptville is on the route of the North Grenville Giant Chair tour: a giant Adirondack chair in each place along the route was uniquely painted by local artists to reflect its character (a cool idea).   The Kemptville chair is just below.  

Ottawa is a very pleasant city, and is a nice, two or three days add-on to a Thousand Islands trip.  Similar to being on the Saint Lawrence, the dividing line between Ontario and Quebec is in the middle of the Ottawa River.  We stayed on the Ontario side within (a rather long) walking distance from the Byward Market.  We had a fantastic lunch at Fairouz Cafe and a very good dinner on the Quebec side at Chez Fatima.  The National Gallery of Canada / Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada is an outstanding museum - works by the artist trio General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal) grace the main lobby, pictured below.  

The museum's collections are in Indigenous Art; Canadian Art; European, American, and Asian; Contemporary Art; Photography; and Prints and Drawings.  We saw a terrific exhibit, 'Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons' on one of its final days in the Canadian Art wing.  Artist after artist that you've never heard of: Helen McNicoll, James Wilson Morrice, Henri Beau, Franklin Brownell, and A. Y. Jackson among them.  If the works weren't entirely as polished as those by the French Impressionists, there were definitely a few gems.  At the time these Canadians were painting, their work wasn't always appreciated.  A. Y. Jackson, for one, noted that "few people liked the work I brought home from Europe.  The French Impressionist influence...was regarded as extreme modernism."  The Indigenous Art section is outstanding.  It's very thorough, beautiful, and thoughtful.  A few of the great quotations on the walls throughout the collection are "Beauty is indispensable to all human life.  That's why we must sow it all along our path" (Alfred Laliberté), "We have to grasp the wisdom of the old and introduce it into our present way of seeing" (Piqtou Kun), and "My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back" (attributed to Louis Riel, 1885).  

The Rideau Canal is the major highlight of Ottawa and it's truly fascinating.  The canal is 125 miles of scenic waterway that winds from Kingston to Ottawa, and it's the oldest continuously operated canal in North America.  And it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as a National Historic Site of Canada and a Canadian Heritage River.  The locks are operated nearly the same way as they were when they opened in 1832.   We spent a fair amount of time watching the lock masters in the section next to the Château Laurier Fairmont Hotel, which is in a splendid location near the impressive Parliament Hill, before taking a boat cruise on the Ottawa River with Paul's Boat Line.

My take-away phrase from this trip is the motto of the National Gallery, 'Ankosé - Everything is Connected - Tout est Relié.  (Ankosé is a word that emerged in conversation with Algonquin Elders and Knowledge Keepers in 2021, and it's a powerful Anishnaabemowin word.)