Thursday, July 16
Today we planned to tour Kingston then go only to the first set of locks for this afternoon. It was a beautiful morning. Yesterday I mentioned getting through a bridge without it opening, this morning we got pictures of the bridge closed, then open
with a sailboat going thru. Unfortunately the bridge has a metal grating and is very busy. This produces an almost constant low rumble as vehicles cross it.
We choose the Kingston Marina because we need a place here for guests coming aboard to leave a car. The big marina, Confederation Basin, is right downtown but there is no parking nearby. Kingston Marina is a working marina with lots of repair work and new construction, they said for a fee a car could be left for a week.
They have for sometime built fire and rescue boats. This 65 footer for Tampa is far and away the largest they have ever done. It was started last fall and is due for delivery in a couple of weeks. It is all aluminum with big Cummins diesels. It will get to the destination at over forty miles per hour then the engines switch to driving large pumps that pump 12,000 gallons a minute. They now have orders for two similar, but slightly larger boats. Word is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers paid for the paint job.
After admiring the fire boat, we walked the little more than half a mile to downtown. The first picture is of the city hall built in the 1840s. Next door is the Prince George Hotel built in 1809. Across the street are a nice park and the old train station which is now a tourist information center, beyond the park is the big public marina.
Kingston is a very old city. First the French build
a fort in the early 1700’s which was quickly taken by the British and replaced with a fort of their
own. Because it is at the junction of the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario it was considered very strategic when all travel was by water. It i
s also just a short distance across the water to New York and the breakaway colonists. It was feared for a long time that they might attack.
There is a one hour trolley tour of the city. We hopped on the 10:00 tour and enjoyed it a great
deal. They start by crossing the river and going to the Royal Military Academy. This is the equivalent of Annapolis, West Point and the Air Force Academy all in one, although they have only about 1,200 cadets. During the summer the cadets are away on military exercises elsewhere, but they have high school students in for special programs. Also on that side of the river is Fort 
Henry the old British Fort. Diana got a nice picture of the downtown area from across the river.
There are four of these round towers along the water front; they were built as defensive sites.
We crossed back over the river and toured the
rest of the city, there are many lovely old homes in the city, the pictures are just a sampling.
After our tour of Kingston, we went to the local farmers market (three days a week) and had lunch at the Iron Duke. Then it was back to the boat.
Today we planned to tour Kingston then go only to the first set of locks for this afternoon. It was a beautiful morning. Yesterday I mentioned getting through a bridge without it opening, this morning we got pictures of the bridge closed, then open
with a sailboat going thru. Unfortunately the bridge has a metal grating and is very busy. This produces an almost constant low rumble as vehicles cross it.We choose the Kingston Marina because we need a place here for guests coming aboard to leave a car. The big marina, Confederation Basin, is right downtown but there is no parking nearby. Kingston Marina is a working marina with lots of repair work and new construction, they said for a fee a car could be left for a week.
They have for sometime built fire and rescue boats. This 65 footer for Tampa is far and away the largest they have ever done. It was started last fall and is due for delivery in a couple of weeks. It is all aluminum with big Cummins diesels. It will get to the destination at over forty miles per hour then the engines switch to driving large pumps that pump 12,000 gallons a minute. They now have orders for two similar, but slightly larger boats. Word is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers paid for the paint job.
After admiring the fire boat, we walked the little more than half a mile to downtown. The first picture is of the city hall built in the 1840s. Next door is the Prince George Hotel built in 1809. Across the street are a nice park and the old train station which is now a tourist information center, beyond the park is the big public marina.
Kingston is a very old city. First the French build
a fort in the early 1700’s which was quickly taken by the British and replaced with a fort of their
own. Because it is at the junction of the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario it was considered very strategic when all travel was by water. It i
s also just a short distance across the water to New York and the breakaway colonists. It was feared for a long time that they might attack.There is a one hour trolley tour of the city. We hopped on the 10:00 tour and enjoyed it a great
deal. They start by crossing the river and going to the Royal Military Academy. This is the equivalent of Annapolis, West Point and the Air Force Academy all in one, although they have only about 1,200 cadets. During the summer the cadets are away on military exercises elsewhere, but they have high school students in for special programs. Also on that side of the river is Fort 
Henry the old British Fort. Diana got a nice picture of the downtown area from across the river.There are four of these round towers along the water front; they were built as defensive sites.
We crossed back over the river and toured the
rest of the city, there are many lovely old homes in the city, the pictures are just a sampling.
After our tour of Kingston, we went to the local farmers market (three days a week) and had lunch at the Iron Duke. Then it was back to the boat.
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