Adventure #1 - Maple Syrup on Wolfe Island

Kingston is located on the North Eastern portion of Lake Ontario where the St Lawrence River branches off to head through the Thousand Islands (yep where the salad dressing comes from) on its way past Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean. The largest of the Thousand Islands is Wolfe Island which is 20 minutes away on a free Ferry from Kingston. We drove our Chevrolet Cruze on to the Wolfe Islander III for the short trip across the lake and managed to get some great shots from up on the top of the Ferry.

The Wolfe Islander III

Although it was only minus 7 in Kingston the wind was quite fierce and would have dropped the temperature considerably further. When departing Kingston Harbour I noticed the Ice on the water and wondered how we might survive this Titanic if it went down?

The Titanic Like Ice Floe....

Despite this we had a great view looking back towards the Kingston Town Hall.......

Kingston Town Hall

Royal Military College......

Royal Military College

Fort Henry........

Fort Henry

And then we could start to see the Wind Turbine farm which is a large part of Wolfe Island, with 86 massive turbines producing power, and to be honest really the main attraction of the island.

Distant View of Wolfe Island.

Strangely, you don't quite get to understand how cold it is until you get out of the hotel and have a good look around. The edge of Lake Ontario / St Lawrence River was frozen, although I wouldn't say solid because I wasn't game to touch it! 

Frozen Solid (Maybe!)

We made it to the Wind Facility and threatened to leave the boys there, as they have been capable of assisting in the production of power of late......

We then got out and as you do in minus 20 weather, had a good sticky beak around the place. Snow can be deceptively deep......

Deep Snow

.....and bloody cold!

Very Cold!

More Snow!

A bit of Snow.

A massive Turbine.

Wind Turbine.

Off for a wander in minus 20....pretty cold!

After we were done defrosting and trying not to bog the Cruze, we headed into town (Marysville) for a nice lunch at the Wolfe Island Pub and Pizzeria.

Wolfe Island Pub and Pizzeria - good Chilli!

I tried the Steam Whistle Pilsener with my sharp bowl of Chilli (Wolfe Island has an annual Chilli cook off in February which I plan on attending), no one else was very adventurous just eating what they normally would at home.....well that's probably what I would have ate at home too, but Wolfe Island is famous for its Chilli....anywho, we then had a bit of a drive around checked out the local Mick Church (not sure why, probably the only big building on the island), then cruised back to Kingston, not getting out of the car this time as it got a bit too cold and waves started breaking over the front of the ferry. So the car stayed on, along with the heater.

The Mick Church.

White Xmas with Maple Syrup

Christmas commenced as always, with 3 maniacs stampeding around the place looking for their Santa Sacks, which he manages to hide in a different spot every year. This year he deposited them in the en-suite bath and I still don't know how he managed to get them all here....he must have had 9 suitcases or something!!

Regardless, the only difference this year was that there was a severe dusting on the ground. Our very first White Xmas and also our very first with Maple Syrup glazed Ham, mmmmmmmm!

Anyhow the maniacs were very happy with what Santa got them and for a brief moment there was some brotherly love.

A moment of Brotherly Love.

After a period of present opening we decided to get out into the Snow, for our first real big snowfall here. And the Brotherly rivalry won out again....

Out into the Snow.

A bit of snow throwing.

Too much love, now need to start a fight!

Linda Johnson will be happy to see that the boots got a run!

After the Snow fight was broken up we continued on a morning walk through the town to see what we could see.

Off for a walk.

Kingston Harbour starting to freeze over.

Royal Military College.

Some dudes and dudettes out in the cold.

Some Australian dudes out in the cold.

Kingston Train Station.

The walk was relatively uneventful but enjoyable all the same and a good opportunity for the boys to blow off some steam. Likewise the Kingston Train Station is currently rebuilding an original Steam Engine which the boys wanted to jump on but couldn't, the miniature having to do for the time being.

Ultimately the end of the day was lunch - lets face it nothing happens after lunch really! I managed to bash out a Roast Pork and a Roast Turkey Breast whilst Jac knocked out the accompanying vegetables. With a bottle of Red from the Niagara Falls Region and one from Australia, we settled in for the afternoon. 

Heading towards the Maple Syrup

We commenced the day with 2 full cars of suitcases for the short trip from the apartment to Melbourne Airport. Thanks to John and Julie we managed to get 9 suitcases plus a load of miscellaneous hand luggage to the airport on time for our flight to Sydney.

Our Significant Luggage

We then had a short wait for our flight to Sydney where the kids were treated to their first taste of business class. Qantas managed to put us on their internal bus for the trip to the international side of Sydney airport and then we had a painless transition through customs. We headed up to the Air New Zealand lounge to wait for our Air Canada flight. I changed some money at the Travelex and found them to be the biggest rip off merchants on this earth. Exchange rate was around $1AUD = $1.02CAD; Travelex was offering the princely sum of $0.85CAD for each Aussie Dollar. I told them to politely stick it in their pipe and they countered with $0.95; I relented and changed some there knowing that I could get $1.01 in Kingston. 

We jumped onto the massive Air Canada Boeing 777 and again we were treated to business class. There was plenty of room to swing a cat but also plenty of room for the boys to be a little mischievous. 

Our Seats on the Air Canada Boeing 777

After 14 hours or so we landed in Vancouver to clear customs and to recheck our baggage to fly on to Toronto. We landed at around 0730 local on the same day we departed; quickly cleared immigration gaining authority to stay for the 3 years; then collected our not so insignificant luggage to transit though this massive airport and recheck in. We arrived at the gate just as the final call was being made and jumped back into the same seats for the next leg. 

The next leg was more of the same (another 5 hours across the country) above a cloud layer which spelt trouble for our final leg into Kingston later that evening. We arrived in Toronto at around 1600 feeling fairly average and knowing that we still had a late flight into Kingston to go. With a 4 hour layover we sat ourselves down in the Maple Leaf lounge which was overflowing due to multiple flight cancellations due to the poor weather.  

The Toronto Maple Leaf Lounge

Nevertheless we managed to board on time and after an extremely long taxi we took off on our last flight, or so we thought! We circled overhead Kingston a short while later and the pilot informed us that we would not be able to land due to Freezing Rain and Ice Pellets, so back to Toronto we went. To make a long story short we spent a fair amount of time waiting at the Air Canada customer service counter and got to a hotel at around 0130 after once again collecting our luggage, hauling it onto a bus then moving it in 3 loads to the two rooms we were given. We set the alarm for 0800 after rebooking our flights for 1230 that day. 

After an Air Canada sponsored breakfast we departed again, on time and this time landed on time! Although it was well below freezing with a stiff wind and snow falling, we were very relieved to have arrived at our final  destination. After a short cab ride (in two cabs - yep, 1 for the luggage) we were in our apartment overlooking Lake Ontario, a place that will be our home until we move into our house around 20 Jan. 

The Residence Inn Marriott - Kingston