GANANOQUE

Beautiful day on the St. Lawrence River today. We left Kingston by 9:30 and took the small northern channel (the bateau channel) to Gananoque, about 40 miles downriver. The day started out with a heavy haze and some clouds, but by mid day it was mostly sunny and in the 70s. Saw some very nice "cottages" lining the river and cruised through a pretty part of the river with many islands. 

Some unique warning buoys

Our friends Kent and Linda had invited us to stay on their dock in Gananoque, so we were headed there, not completely confident as to where “there” was. They said it was the red house, right next to the Playhouse Theatre (a well-known theatre in these parts) and we couldn’t miss it. So we went by the Playhouse, saw a red house with what looked like their runabout in the boathouse, and pulled up to the dock.

The red house next to the theatre

We figured that if it wasn’t their house, someone would come out and chase us off.

Kent and I relaxing on the dock

We guessed right, however, as Kent came out and welcomed us. Linda was off to Ottawa, but we had a nice visit with Kent before spending a few hours exploring the small town on foot.

Part of the afternoon was spent sitting on the dock reading our cruising guide to get some idea of where we might go over the next week or so, then Kent came down and shared a bottle of wine with us before we all took of for a local German restaurant for great schnitzel and spaetzle. Felt like we were back in Germany for the evening.

We will start exploring the 1000 Islands tomorrow, staying on the Canadian side of the river as long as possible to minimize the hassle of clearing customs more than once…