Rio Travelers

We get so spoiled with having instant internet and phone access but there are a lot of areas that do not have that availability so we have a lot of catching up to do. After we left Clayton and the Wooden Boat Museum we headed west along the south shore of Lake Ontario with a stop in Sodus Point and a visit to an old lighthouse as well as enjooying a beautiful sunset over the lake. After that, it was on to the Buffalo area where we visited with our friends and neighbors from Highland Lakes, Cal and Arlene. We had a few enjoyable days together, tipped a few martinis and had dinner at a restaurant overlooking a waterfall. We got to nervously watch these teenage boys jump over the falls.

While in the Buffalo area, Ken and I drove to Lockport, NY to see a set of locks on the Erie Barge Canal. The unique thing about these locks they were two pair of a flight of 5 locks due to the highest lift on the system. These the only ones like this on the canal system. It always amazes me when I see what people were able to accomplish without the aid of our modern technology. Today there is only one set of two steel door locks which replaced one set of the five in the early seventies.

After our visit to Buffalo we crossed the border into Ontario to visit with more friends and see some of Canada that we had not visited before. Jim, Mercedes and their daughter Katie took us sightseeing to the Elora gorge in northeastern Ontario and we also spent an afternoon wine tasting in the Niagara region. We had some excellent wines, a great dinner at Peller Estates and a very enjoyable visit with good friends. After leaving their place in Stoney Creek, we drove west along the northern shore of Lake Huron with a visit to the largest island in fresh water in the world - Manitoulin Island. It is a very popular summer vacation spot and a great fishing area for bass, walleye, trout and salmon.

We crossed back into the U.S. at Sault Ste. Marie, MI and drove down to the small town of Branch to visit Craig and Ann Finley. Craig and Ann are neighbors in Highland Lakes who are originally from MI and who, like us, leave Florida in the summer. They have a beautiful house on a lake and we spent a very nice weekend with them. We got to see the mid to north western shores of Lake Michigan and the towns of Petoskey, Charlevoix, Traverse City and Luddington. They reminded us of the resort towns along the Atlantic that we are familiar with, minus the waves and salt water. We visited a beautiful golf course that was designed using the native plants found along the lakeshore and a family resort that has been around since about 1919. Western Michigan also produces most of the cherries that we eat.

This Fresnel lens is the same as the original but not the original.Iinterestingly this lens came from the south light on Governors Island in New York City where I was stationed in the Coast Guard many years ago

OVERLOOKING LAKE ONTARIO AT SUNSET

ERIE BARGE CANAL AT LOCKPORT, NEW YORK

THIS PICTURE AND THE ONE BELOW ARE OF THE NEW LOCKS

THE ORIGINAL LOCK ( NOT IN USE)

RESTORATION UNDERWAY OF A SET OF THE ORIGINAL WOODEN LOCK DOORS

LOCKPORT UNDERGROUND CAVE AND BOAT TOUR

This was really not a cave but a tunnel constructed by the Lockport Hydraulic Company in the early 1900's. The purpose of which was to provide water to operate mills along the canal. One such company was the Holly company which invented the fire hydrant. Eventually it went out of business when the factory burned down. It was an interesting tour.

One of the water supply pipes

Our friends Cal and Arlene

While dining with Cal and Arlene the kids in the picture decided to jump over the falls and they did.
Oh! only to be invincible again

On to Ontario

The boiling waters of Alura gorge

Amazing root structure

Peller Estates Winery
As usual we cannot pass up wineries
This one in Niagara Ontario region

We visited Manitoulin Island on our trek across the top of Lake Huron. This is quite a boating and fishing area and might be an area we will return to someday

MICHIGAN

Parked at Ann and Craig's lake house

View of the lake

Craig hard at work at the Green Egg

WATERVALE INN

These pictures are from our drive through the Thousand Islands and Saint Lawrence Seaway area of upper New York state. It is a beautiful area and the highlight of our stay, at least according to Ken, was our visit to the Wooden Boat Museum in Clayton, New York.

Our drive after we left Essex Junction, VT took us through the islands of Lake Champlain including North and South Hero and Isle La Motte before crossing into New York just south of the Canadian border. We discovered the monument to Samuel de Champlain and the site of the old fort on Isle La Motte which is also home of Saint Anne's Shrine which dates back to the 1600's when the French settled the area.

I have to admit that I enjoyed our visit to the Wooden Boat Museum almost as much as Ken did. The old boats are beautiful and some of the things we saw were very interesting, like the first wave runner built in the 1920's and the ELCO yacht. "ELCO" is an acronym for Electric Boat company which also manufactured WW II PT boats and now manufactures submarines. The house barge was built for the Boldt family who owned hotels as well as an island in the Thousand Islands. The McNally family who bought it are of the Rand McNally name. Some people have way too much money.