Kingston, Les Mille ÎlesAug 1, 2007
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One of Four Early Martello Tower
Fort Henry Built to Fend Off the Americans; Recent Addition to World...
Royal Military College
Kingston had its 15 minutes of fame in 1841 when it became the capital of Canada, and even though that lasted only three years, it still can boast Bellevue House, the home of John A. Macdonald, the first Canadian Prime Minister. Nowadays it is better renowned as the place to take a cruise through "Les Mille Îles", a beautiful collection of small islands in the St Laurence River.
Since the weather is quite warm, 35°, and feels much hotter, up to 42° because of the high humidity, taking a boat trip is just what we need. The harbour area has a number of limestone Victorian buildings that still look quite British and on the other side of the bay is the Royal Military Academy, the Canadian equivalent of Sandhurst or Westpoint, founded immediately after the British left to quickly build up the Canadian Army and dissuade the Americans from taking over. Next we cruise by Fort Henry, built for the same purpose, and then we sail out on a wide stretch of the river.
The Indians told the story of the Great Manitou who promised the warring tribes paradise on earth if they made peace with each other. They did and paradise was created, but the wars started again and the Great Manitou descended from heaven and picked up paradise in a buffalo skin. But on his way back to heaven the skin broke and thousands of small fragments of paradise fell back to earth and so became the Thousand Islands Archipelago. The more prosaic version being that the islands are the granite peaks of submerged mountains; depending on the definition of an island, at least 6 square feet and one tree, and the water level, recently just over 1,800 were counted. Some of the islands are part of the Canadian national parks, but most are private property and as you will agree there is worse to make your home, as long as you provide your own electricity of course.
The old steamer-style boat takes a good three hours to do the round trip, with its own jazz band playing during the less interesting bits, so if ever you come this way it is better to take a cruise departing from Gananoque a bit further downstream which also covers Boldt Castle, after George Boldt, owner of New York's Waldorf Astoria, who created what the islands are probably best known for: the Thousand Islands salad-dressing.
