A business trip gave us the opportunity to travel to Brockville, Ontario. It’s a 650 mile trip straight north on I-81 all the way to Canada. It was easy driving except for all the semi’s.
Once the business meetings were out of the way, we explored the area. Brockville is located on the St. Lawrence River south of Ottawa by an hours drive. I would not call it a resort town but a town that Canadian go to relax and enjoy the surroundings. It’s a town that the local parents freely let their kids ride their bikes down main street to get an ice cream. It’s a town where actual church bells ring on the hour. It’s a town that just about all the stores are mom and pop’s. It’s a town where commercialism is not the theme but the local culture is. It’s a town where the history is alive and rich.
One of he unique aspects are the buildings. They are all made from different colors of granite; red, white and gray. The architect style is of highly skilled which makes for a very nice appearance. They weathered well. Most building are dated from the late 1800’s.
Brockville is also known as the Canadian gateway to the 1000 Islands. Between Lake Ontario and Brockville, there is roughly 1000 small islands within the mile or so wide river. They are about evenly split between USA and Canada. The islands are formed from granite which is some of the oldest in the world according to our tour boat guide. On the Canadian side, most of the islands are public land which can be used for camping or day use with permit. The islands that are privately own are modest to high end.
In the morning we took a drive on the 1000 Island Parkway. It’s a 70km/hr (44mph) drive along the seaway. It had a matching bike route that followed along the road. We stopped at St. Lawrence Island National Park toured the welcome center and had picnic lunch. Not much going on. It’s Friday and the end of the season. Next on our agenda was a 1000 Island educational boat tour that left at 1pm. I didn’t bring any jacket with me. Of course, Denise suggested before we left home that I should bring something, “it’s August” I said. Last night, I bought a sweatshirt. I’m glad I did. The river breeze was a little chilly.
Tomorrow, we are off to Ottawa for a fun filled day.
Looks like u are having fun. Lisa and I were just talking today about whether you were going to update your blog. We stopped by the house today and everything looked fine. We brought your mail into the house.
Thanks and say hi to everyone,
We have no cell service and our email is not working. The msn server is not recognized in Canada. We can actually say we are off the grid! The exchange rate is much better than the last time we were in Canada, it is currently 1 US$ for 1.3 CA$. It was the reverse on our last trip.