September 5, 2017. Boldt Castle.

It was rather a rough night last night with the 50 knot winds howling over us and the unrelenting rain. This morning it was overcast, but at least the rain had quit.  We walked over to the Gananoque Boat Line docks and got tickets for the 5 hour cruise to Boldt Castle, including a 2 hour stop at the castle. We all agreed that just doing a cruise around Heart Island without stopping was not what we wanted. Heart Island is in New York, so we had to show our passports before boarding.

The cruise was enjoyable--the narrative included history of the St. Lawrence River, the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway to make the Great Lakes accessible to ocean going ships, and some history of the Thousand Islands and the whole area's return to ecological health after nearly being ruined by pesticides and dumping in the mid 1900s.

We saw many more of the small islands, and learned that the ones that are not part of the National Park have been passed down for many generations.  We entered the shipping channel and passed beneath one of the 5 sections of the International Bridge.

This section of New York, near Alexandria Bay, was known as Millionaire's Row because of the mansions built by New York City high society families in the early part of the 20th century.  The biggest and best of them all was Boldt Castle. It was commissioned by George Boldt, owner of the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. It was meant to be a Valentine's day 1904 gift to his beloved wife Louise, but she died before he could present it to her. When Louise died, George telegraphed the builders and had all work stopped. The castle was never completed and George Boldt never set foot on Heart Island again.

The castle and its grounds fell into disrepair and remained vacant and uncompleted for 73 years. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority bought the island in 1977 and set about completing and restoring all the buildings, including Boldt Castle.

Alster Tower (above) was built as a playhouse, not just for the children, but for adults too. It became living quarters for the Boldt family during construction of the castle.

The tour boat ahead of us (the one that does not stop at Heart Island) is seen passing the power house.

Many of the rooms in the castle have been restored, but it is still a work in progress. When we went to the areas not yet restored we could see the destruction done by weather and vandals over the years.

There is quite a contrast between the areas not yet restored and those that have been painstakingly completed.

Alster Tower's exterior is well restored, but the interior is still a work in progress. It has a pool room, a stage, and a bowling alley.

The freighter is passing the Power House; this is unlike any power house we've ever seen!

Below is the Yacht House that belongs to Boldt Castle. The Boldts kept 60 boats there, including 2 America's Cup boats. Next time we come here we are going to tour the Yacht House too!

The narrative continued on our way back to Gananoque. There are hundreds of shipwrecks in this area of the St. Lawrence River, and the smallest international bridge, seen above. Local lore says that the larger island is in Canada and the smaller one in the US. The border does indeed zigzag all over the place here.

When we got back to our boat after dinner my fitness tracker told me that we walked 9.2 miles today and climbed 9 flights of stairs. It will be more than ten miles once I walk back up to the washrooms one more time.