Thousand Islands: Things to Do
Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor. In the lines below we give the floor to our friend and contributor Daniel. He is currently living in the USA and we have the pleasure to share with you some of his experiences in North America 🙂 His first article described the US airline sector. And now he is again here to tell us more about the American North-East and his short journey to the “The Thousand Islands” in particular. Along the nice photos, you will enjoy interesting love stories with a corporate twist at the end. We hope you will like it as much as we do!
Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, it’s me again, Daniel.
The lovely always-fit couple was so nice to give me another opportunity to share a story with You. Today I would like to take You far away from Your daily routine. We will travel together in space and time, riding an emotional roller coaster, passing through different stations in the 20-th century. Our destination today is the American North-East. People like to be close to water, especially when the weather is nice, warm and sunny. Sandy beaches, seafood and quality drinks improve the quality of experience further. We will visit a hidden jewel – an exclusive place that is unknown to many- the Thousand Islands. It is in fact a valuable alternative to the often-crowded tourist destinations.
More than Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands is an archipelago of 1865 islands, located in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River, on the border between Canada and the United States. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America (the other four are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior). There is a seaway that connects Lake Michigan (think Chicago), the other Great Lakes, and the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago of islands is on that seaway.
Probably one of the first questions that comes in mind is “What constitutes an island as such?”. The answer is easy – a surface that is higher than the water level and has one tree and one other plant – is called an island 🙂 The Thousand Islands are popular among the rich and famous – many of them have houses there (often one per island). Moreover, the governments of Canada and the US agreed that all islands will reside in one country only – either Canada or the USA. This makes the border line far from the straight line You are used to see on the globe. Alexandria Bay is the main resort on the US side where people go to when they visit the Thousand Islands.
Thousand Islands: Top Things to Do:
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Visit the main pier of the marina
Given that there are islands, some of which are connected with bridges, boat is your best transportation option. The area is open for sailing between April and November. The river and the lake freeze in winter. If You are an extreme sports fan, You should definitely visit the place in winter. The locals do ice fishing. They claim that when the ice becomes four inches (10cm) thick, you can walk on it. You need seven-inch thick (17.5cm) ice for riding a snowmobile on it. Once it is about a foot thick (33cm), they claim one can ride their car on the ice.
However, riding a car may be a risky and costly experience. If the ice breaks and the vehicle sinks, the owner has to wait until April to pull it out of the water. For each day that the vehicle spends on the river bottom, the owner has to pay a costly penalty fee. The costs for divers, ships, etc.… are on top of that. One alternative may be to make sure You don’t drive Your car there ☺
But back to sailing at Thousand Islands. Surprisingly, in the summer the marina is open for tourists and they are welcome to walk on the pier.
Once I finished the pier tour, it was just about time to have dinner. I would recommend going to Top Of The Bay (TOTB) tex-mex place. It has a great terrace that overlooks the marina and they offer great Margaritas with watermelon pieces.
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Take a boat tour
During day time, boat tours are a must-do. There is a single company that offers them – Uncle Sam Boat Tours. They offer 1-, 2- and 3-hour tours. The rule of thumb is that the longer the tour, the further it goes into Canada. The boats are on 2 and 3 floors and they have the distinctive “I Love NY” sticker painted on them.
One of the islands is the Deer Island. It is an ownership of the Russell Trust Association and accommodates the “Skull and Bones” society. “Skull and Bones” is an undergraduate senior (4-th, last, year in college) secret student society at Yale University. It is not confirmed but the rumor has it that new members are baptized on the island. Their first mission is to clean the island after the previous retreat. Three US presidents are members of the society – William Taft, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Moreover, in the 2004 Presidential election both candidates were alumni – George W. Bush and John Kerry.
A love story
The heart of the place is not Deer Island, though. Rather than that, it is an island owned by a great, but not-so-famous family. Buckle-up as the emotional roller coaster is taking off.
George Boldt was born at the end of the 19-th century in the (back then) Prussian town of Bergen auf Rügen. When he was 13, he left Germany and travelled to America. He was so poor, that he had to work as dishwasher on the ship in order to pay for his ticket. Once in America, George found a job in the Astoria hotel in Manhattan, in New York City. The Astor family comes from the city of Walldorf in Germany (the city, where SAP headquarter is).
Two deadly rivals of the Astor family built hotels sides by side – the Walldorf hotel and the Astoria hotel. Over time, George climbed the job latter and at one point in time he managed the Astoria hotel. Later on, he bought the two hotels and founded the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
The hotel hosted many celebrities – Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Tony Bennett, Katharine Hepburn, Muhammad Ali, Burt Reynolds and others. George married the daughter of the owner of Belleview hotel in Philadelphia – Louise Augusta Kehrer. The concept of clean sheets and fresh towels in hotel rooms is attributed to Louise. Many believe that George Boldt was the inventor of room service.
The sad part of the story
The successful family bought an island at the Thousand Islands and George had the idea to build a castle for the love of his life – Louise. They started the works in 1900 and the castle was expected to open for Valentine’s Day in 1905. Valentine’s Day was a very special day for George and his wife – it was her birthday and the day they got married. The works started with blasting part of the island in order to make it look like a heart from the air. The name of the island is Heart Island and hearts cover the whole place.
Unfortunately, around Christmas in 1904 Louise passed away and George sent a telegram to the workers to stop any works on the castle until further notice. He was totally devastated. And he decided that if the love of his life couldn’t see the castle completed, then nobody should see it completed. Moreover, nobody should sleep in it as Louise could not sleep in it. Nobody did any work on the island until 1974 when the company that runs the bridges on the Thousand Islands bought it from the kids of George and Louise – George Jr and Clover.
Towards the end of his life, George Boldt lived in a Swiss- style mansion in Santa Barbara, California. Ever since the castle changed ownership, it is going over massive restorations. This behemoth of a building in Châteauesque style can now host 25 families of 4 members.
The ground floor has library, kitchen, pantry, … There is a swimming pool in the basement. It turned into one of the main attractions. The entry ticket is 10USD and make sure that Your device is juiced-up as the audio guide comes as a phone application for iOS and Android.
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Visit the Thousand Islands Winery
Once You are done with the love story of George and Louise, take the boat back to Alex bay and You can head to the next great attraction. Naturally, love and wine go hand in hand. Another great place to visit is the Thousand Islands Winery. The winery is only several miles outside Alexandria Bay. The employees claim that all of the grapes come from the field around the winery, Wellesley Island and Long Island.
The winery offers tours as well as wine tasting. They have multiple options, but the most expensive one is 10USD only. That includes tasting of 10 different wines and getting a wine glass to take home.
I tried their whites, given the season. The sweet ones are not really my cup of tea, but the dry Chardonnay and the semi-sweet Riesling and Gewurztraminer are worth a try. Keep in mind that if you buy some bottles to take home, the state law of New York state does not mandate that the bottles should be placed in the trunk of the car – or at least this is what the lady at the store assured me ☺. The wine tasting really made me curious to see where the gapes come from. It didn’t take me much to convince my friends to head to the next destination.
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The Wellesley Island
Wellesley island is the biggest of all islands in the area. It is the island where George Boldt built his boathouse originally. Keep in mind that crossing the river on the bridge will cost You 6 USD for a regular sedan car and You pay on Your way to the island only – there is a toll booth and they accept cash only. The island is a great place for a walk and The Guzzle offers the best Italian Gelato in the region. You can swim in the river, but water is uncomfortably cold.
Moreover, a walk on the water front takes anything between 10 and 60 minutes. The promenade passes by some amazing houses and I highly recommend getting there at sunset. If You are regular visitor of this amazing corner on the Internet, namely the blog of Lili and Dimo, You are probably aware that Lili has a sweet spot for color blue. Thus, I couldn’t resist not to take a pic of a house that will fit the always-fit couple so well.
There are some more Easter-egg attractions in the region. Tibbetts Point Lighthouse is only 35 miles away from Alex Bay. The place is the closest one can get to Canada, without crossing the border. It is a yet operational lighthouse, but it acts as a radio navigation point too.
When You get there, do not miss the opportunity to stop by at the souvenir shop and talk to the guy, who works there. He is simply the best! He is a man in his early sixties and the respiratory issues that made him dependent on a bottle of oxygen cannot crush his passion about the place. This is where I learned why there are no windmills for electricity on the US side, unlike the Canadian side. Apparently, the government in Canada mandated the installation of some windmills for renewable energy along the river coast. And so, they did.
Not the same in the US
The local authorities in the small town of Cape Vincent, NY decided that that was a great idea and some local city council members bought land and signed contracts with companies that install and maintain such renewable energy infrastructure. This did not go under the radar of the locals, who started protesting because they had a number of concerns – noise, the migrating birds and incidents, whereby strong wind may make the mills to tip over and fall down.
The case went to the federal government that set a moratorium on installing any windmills in the region and appointed a committee that studied the effects and the risks raised by windmills. After 18 months or so of studies, the committee turned in their final report and the legislators acted upon it. The newly introduced legislation sets the minimum distance of any windmills from the river coast, as well as from other buildings.
The major concern was peoples’ safety. The legislation made the installation economically non-viable and, thus, today You cannot see even a single windmill on the US coast. Before wishing a great rest of the day to our host, we asked him for hints where we should go for lunch. He highly recommended Sackets Harbor – a small village on Lake Ontario. The road there was described as “very picturesque”. I tend to disagree with this claim, but merely 30 minutes later we reached the place.
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Have a meal at the waterfront
I’d recommend having lunch on the waterfront terrace of The Sackets Boathouse. I ordered mussels and I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, the weather got really gloomy and it started raining while we were waiting for our food:
Once lunch was over, we headed to Chrissy Beanz Bakery for coffee. Do not miss their deserts – they are simply amazing!
Next stop on our itinerary was a very special town – Rochester. From Alex Bay follow highway I-81 South to Syracuse and then take I-90 West to Rochester. It does not take more than two hours to get there. Make sure that You have cash or EZ-pass device as these are the only two payment options to pay the toll taxes.
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Visit Rochester (or the corporate twist of our story 🙂
Rochester is a very interesting city. A lot of the glamour and success reflected from the facades of the skyscrapers in Manhattan, NYC into the city or Rochester. At least two notoriously famous companies come from Rochester – namely KODAK and XEROX.
The Kodak story
George Eastman was one of the kids of George Washington and Maria Eastman. The young George had an interest in photography and he found the cameras available at the end of the 19th century very difficult to use. Moreover, George had an obsession with the letter K. These two passions of him led him to founding the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester in 1888. KODAK does not mean anything in particular, but it had the letter “K” twice and sounded the same way in all languages around the world. In 1884 George Eastman patented the first film in roll.
The company proved to be successful and at the beginning of the twentieth century KODAK started offering a “cheap” camera. It costed only 25USD and once You are done shooting, You were supposed to send it to the company. They processed the film and printed pictures. They returned to the customer the film, the pictures and the camera, loaded with a new film. The company kept growing, George Eastman founded dentistry and medicine schools in Rochester. In 1975 KODAK was the first company that produced a digital camera. The management of the company decided that the digital camera will jeopardize the main business of KODAK and berried the idea for digital photography. I believe the story of KODAK further is known – they missed the opportunity to be the first ones to offer digital cameras to retail customers.
Behind the trend
They eventually started producing and selling such cameras later in the nineteens, but they were losing 6USD for every unit sold. The company eventually went into bankruptcy. It went through major reorganizations only to get stronger out of this. Today KODAK’s focus is on medical imagery. They have 5000 employees and they are (almost) profitable. Unfortunately, during the restructuring they had to give up the rights for the famous KODAK Theater in Los Angeles – the same venue on Hollywood blvd in LA, where they hold the Oscars ceremony every year (the building is called Dolby Theatre today).
KODAK wouldn’t exist without George Eastman. Unfortunately, towards the end of his life he suffered from an disorder that affected his spine. He was constantly in pain and his mobility turned into a slow shuffle. The pain caused depression and on March 14 1932 George committed suicide – he shot himself in the heart. His suicide note read, “To my friends, my work is done – Why wait? GE.
One of the business partners of George Eastman was John Charles Woodbury. He built a fortune from KODAK. His daughter Margaret Woodbury Strong was obsessed with toys. She collected dolls and other toys since she was a kid. She was never married and her will was to build a museum of toys. The museum found place in Rochester Downtown. Its name is The National Museum of Play. I would recommend a visit for both young and adults. It displays the toys of Margaret as well as it shows the development of toys in the twentieth century, including the arcade games that many kids of the 80s loved.
The Xerox Story
The other company whose roots can be traced back to Rochester is XEROX – the same one that made the copy machines so popular. Founded on April 18, 1906 by Joseph Wilson, for many years the company had its headquarter in Rochester, but recently it moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. Originally known as The Haloid Photographic Company, the success of the company came with their business model to rent copy machines.
The tallest building in the skyline of Rochester was the headquarter of XEROX for a very long time. Built in 1967, the XEROX Tower is 135 meters tall, which was a significant scale for this period. In 2008 the company sold the tower and other buildings in Xerox Square in Rochester and leased the office space back. The building costed 36 mln USD to build back in the sixties. It was sold for 40 mln USD. XEROX signed a contract to lease the space for 8 years with an option to extend it further.
After so many interesting facts and all the emotions that erupted learning the stories of George Eastman, KODAK, Margaret Strong and XEROX, I was exhausted, the sun went down long time ago and it was definitely time to have dinner. I highly recommend Schooners Riverside Pub.
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Visit Canada (Montreal)
The dinner concluded the exciting part of my trip. I will tell you more about my experience at the hotel at the airport some other time. But the feeling that an A320 is taking off from your room is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Unfortunately, I forgot my passport at home thus I didn’t have an opportunity to visit Montreal, but it is on my list.
I think that that’s it! Thank You for visiting the Thousand Islands with me!
Any comments / remarks / notes / recommendations are welcome!
We have more long-haul trip recommendations for you- don’t miss them.
P.S. Other articles from the same author:
Oman: What to Do
