1000 Islands and Singer Castle

Our goal when we left western Washington was the little town of Medway Maine, and it took us 56 days, 3,984 miles and we stopped at 26 locations.  Had the pleasure of visiting friends and family as we traveled across our great Country.

But before we share some of Maine's fall colors we need to finish up a few places we visited before we arrived here. So lets go back to up-state New York where we hiked into salmon falls and wished that it was about 2 weeks later so the leaves could have had more time to turn.  But you get what we saw.

Only 120' of falling water but sure was a great place to visit.  We hiked to the top of the falls and got some pictures shooting down from the side of the hill.  CC got to go with us on this one, and seemed to have a good time.

Another day we drove to Alexandra Bay and took a tour boat for a 3 hour trip to tour the Singer Castle.  It turned out to be a foggy day so it was hard to get some good clear shots.  This is the 1000 Island part of New York and we sailed by lots of  islands, both small and large.  This one looked like a battleship to us.

This was 3 islands that they put in a walkway between them to form one complete island with a lighthouse.  One of the islands we saw was so small that the small house (not pictured) that was built on it cantilevered over the water on two sides.  When you own an island we guess you can do with it what you want.

But the surprise an hour out was our destination, the Singer Castle.  A part of American history and local folklore meet at Singer Castle on Dark Island, located on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Singer Castle is the only castle on  the river to be completed, fully furnished and resided in during the heyday of the 'great builders' and industrialists in New York. The Castle remained in the possession of the original Bourne family from its construction in 1905 until the mid 1960's.  The castle was built as a hunting lodge by the 5th President of Singer Sewing Machine Co.  It is not currently occupied, but one can rent the guest suite for $700/night which includes a catered dinner and breakfast.  Any takers?

This castle was on another island.  We could have got off the boat and toured this one (self-guided), but opted not to.  (next time)  It is currently being completed.  (Construction ended in the 1930's when the owner's wife died unexpectedly.)

Although it was a foggy day, we thoroughly enjoyed the boat trip and the history lessons.
On the way back to our home (motor home) we had to turn around after driving by this so Dick could stop and take this picture to share.  We like to close our blog with something a little fun so hope you enjoy this shot.

To be continued...