Three days in Kingston Town

With the weather looking like it will be cooler and wet (there is lots of rain in the forecast) we opted to stay in Kingston for three nights and do a little sight seeing. The marina is downtown and located in Confederation Basin, beside the Delta Hotel and it's relatively large and operated by the city of Kingston. They provide washrooms and showers for the boaters as part of the transient fee we pay to dock in the city marina. We took advantage of the facilities and can testify that the quality and cleanliness was excellent.

Jan and Cynthia decided to do some shopping while the Captain had to get a few things done on the boat. Swabbie finally got his X-Box out and stayed onboard playing video games for the first time in over 3 weeks.

The girls walked downtown and found lots of interesting buildings and other areas of interest and took many pictures for our blog. Historically Kingston is an older city in Ontario and much of the construction is Limestone which makes for interesting structures.

In the afternoon Swabbie and the Captain decided to take a taxi and visit Fort Henry and take in as much as we could during the afternoon. It was an opportunity for Swabbie to get a hands on History Lesson. The Fort was open to the public for outdoor tours and they offered several displays and demonstrations during our tour.

The original Fort Henry was built on Point Henry during the War of 1812 (1812-1814), a conflict fought between Great Britain (Canada being a British colony at the time) and the United States of America, but bears no resemblance to the existing fort. During the War of 1812, the British anticipated an attack on Point Henry due to its proximity to the Royal Naval Dockyards (at the site of the present-day Royal Military College) and to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The fort's location was advantageous, and the loss of this vital trading route would have cut off communication between Kingston and everything to the east of the city.

Fort Henry's Restoration began between 1832 and 1837, and a second fort was built on the site of the first. The second fort built is the one you see today. It was considered even more necessary to fortify this point after the War of 1812, due to the completion of the Rideau Canal (built from 1826-1832), placing Point Henry at the intersection of three important waterways: the Rideau Canal, the St. Lawrence River, and Lake Ontario. Fort Henry was intended to be the linchpin in a new, extensive system of defensive works that would protect the confluence of these trading routes. Because the construction of the Rideau Canal went over budget, only the Fort and four Martello towers, spaced along the Kingston waterfront, were completed. Nonetheless, Fort Henry is the largest fortification west of Quebec city. The Fort alone cost 70,000 British pounds sterling to construct, which is the equivalent to approximately $35,000,000 in modern Canadian currency.

The Fort was abandoned by the British Army in 1870, and was garrisoned by Canadian troops until 1891. The fort subsequently fell into disrepair until 1936, where it was then restored under the direction of Ronald L. Way as a living history museum. The fort was first opened as a museum on the 1st of August 1938.

During out walking tour we were treated to demonstrations on artillery use, rifle and bayonet use, how the canons were used for defensive purposes and how the Garrisons lived with their families and children. We were able to view the bakery, the school rooms, jails for prisoners, sleeping quarters for the families and the administrative offices. It took us back in time with the demonstrations, especially the rifle shooting.

For dinner we decided to go out as we have been preparing almost all our meals on the boat. There were many restaurants in downtown Kingston but with Covid-19 restrictions still in place, it had to be outdoors and reservations were a must. We made a reservation at The Keg for 8:30 pm. Dinner was excellent as Swabbie and Jan had Prime Rib and the Captain had a seafood platter including Lobster Tail and Crab. It was the first time Swabbie had Prime Rib and he so enjoyed that meal.

During our meal Jan noticed two males sitting at another table enjoying several bottles of Caymus wine. During our dinner the quantity of Caymus wine bottles continued to increase and Jan became interested to know why two younger men would enjoy such high quality wine, so after our meal she took the opportunity to visit them and ask about their choice of wine. It turns out they were drinking both Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel from Caymus. At the Keg the Cab Sauv is $179 and the Zin is $110 per bottle and we saw at least 5 bottles consumed.

They were kind enough to invite us to join them and guess what, they ordered more for us to drink as well. What a treat to enjoy such fine wine at The Keg.

After consuming the wine we invited them to our boat for a nightcap and they proceeded to purchase another bottle of the Zinfandel and brought it to Out to See III to drink. We learned more about the two as Ian, the one with the grey baseball cap, works for Michael in a local Jewelry Store and they were just out for a relaxing evening. We discussed European travel, jewelry design, music and opera as well as relationships during the time on our boat and Swabbie got another lesson in life. Michael was intrigued by the Captain's hair - nice colour and nice thickness. We know he just had way too much to drink to control his hands.

Today it rained most of the day so we spent time in the boat playing card games, watching some movies and Swabbie played some video games. During the afternoon the rain stopped so we went downtown to get our hair cut as both Captain and Swabbie were starting to look a bit rough. We found a great place and for $15 each had our hair trimmed. On our way back to the boat we walked through pouring rain and our umbrellas helped a bit. Jan got soaked as she wanted to hit the LCBO for a few more items

Tomorrow morning we head to Trenton where we will meet up with our service technician to look at our generator and find out why it just quit. Hopefully he can correct this and allow us to use it when we are docked without shore power. Next route for us is back up the Trent Canal system.

The Hallman Experience: It was not a nice day to be on the water with all the rain and wind.

Solution: Always check the weather before heading out onto the water.

Glad we are on land during the rain storm !

Trenton next and then back up the Trent Canal to Midland