Eating and hiking

On Monday, while George spent the day fishing, we took Rosetta to Clayton and had lunch at The St. Lawrence Spirits and Chateau, a distillery and restaurant.

The grounds and buildings are beautiful.

This old beauty, sitting out front, is completely restored.

We ate on the patio overlooking the St. Lawrence River

This was our lunch view. 

After lunch, we went to the bar for a tasting.  Of course, we left with a couple of bottles. 

On the last day of the rally, a group of us went to Wellesley Island State Park for a nature hike. This park is known as the queen of the New York state parks.  It's a huge park with several RV campgrounds.

We paid a visit to the butterfly house where Vickie made a friend.

Then we took a hike through the woods along the river.  It got pretty rocky and steep in the middle of the hike but we all made it, even the ones with tricky knees.  Geezers on a hike.

That night, we had our last campfire before we all had to head out the next morning.

We headed home with a stop to visit our grandson for a couple of days.

St. Lawrence River and Boldt Castle

We headed over to Alexandria Bay for our boat tour of the St. Lawrence River with a stop at Boldt Castle.  We got there early and had breakfast at Rileys and toured the town.  

There were some interesting old neon signs that brought back memories.

We found this small museum on a side street staffed by volunteers who gave us a history of the town.  

Here is a view of the main street looking toward the docks.

Here is a view of Boldt Castle from the tour dock.

Here is a "laker" passing by.  Lakers never leave the Great Lakes, Salties come from overseas.  

Here is one of the 1864 islands.   To be designated an island, it must be above water 365 days a year and have at least one tree on it.  If the tree dies, it becomes a shoal and is no longer considered. an island.

Some islands big and not so big.

This was the arched .entrance to Boldt Castle.  

When George Boldt bought Hart Island with plans to build a castle on it and give it to his wife Louise he changed the name to Heart Island.  The heart shaped theme is everywhere on the island and is part of the family crest. 

The first building he had built was the childrens play castle complete with a two-lane bowling alley.

George planned to present the castle to Louise on February 14th, Valentines Day which was also her birthday and their wedding anniversary but she passed away a couple of months before that.  He was so heartbroken, he had all construction work stopped immediately and never set foot on Heart Island again.  The castle was 95% complete when it was abandoned.  For 60 years it lay victim to the elements and vandals. Since it's acquisition by the Thousand Island Bridge Authority in 1977, the castle has been slowly restored room by room.      

This is the main staircase and the skylight five stories above it.

The following pictures are just a sampling of the rooms that have been restored.

The Boldt crest

We had quite a busy day was looking forward to getting back and putting our feet up.

2018 Northeast Rally

We left home on Friday morning and headed North.  Our first stop was in Emporia, Virginia where we met the Persons and Abernathys at a Pilot station.  After fueling up, we all headed to Haymarket, Virginia for our first overnight stop at Greenville Farm Family Campground.

Here we are for the evening.

This was our early morning view 

The second days' travels landed us in Belvidere, New Jersey in the driveway of Steve and Betty Senderovitz's house.   Here we are filling his driveway for the night.  

We had a really nice visit and Steve and Betty were great hosts.  Vickie's selfie came out a little blurry but it's still a good picture of all of us.

The following morning, we said our goodbyes and headed out for New York.  Here we all are fueling up again.  

And a rest stop to stretch our legs.

The causeway over to Association Island, our home for the next ten days.

All set up in no time!

On Monday, we drove to Clayton to visit the Antique Boat Museum

This ship was passing by the museum while we were there.

The Claton Fire Boat moored next to the museum. 

A mother osprey feeding her young.

After the museum, we had lunch and some local beers at the Wooden Boat Brewery

The rally begins on Tuesday evening.  More to come.