Mañana on the Loop: OSWEGO CANAL TO CLAYTON (THOUSAND ISLANDS)

June 24-26-We left Oswego this morning at 8:30 am locking through our last lock on the canal and headed out into Lake Ontario. The gods were with us this morning as the lake is calm and we have 55 miles to travel on it today. We are heading for Clayton, New York in the Thousand Islands. We arrived at Clayton Municipal Marina, tied up and went exploring. Clayton is a lovely little town with wonderful shops, art galleries, restaurants and a antique boat museum. We are planning to stay for a couple of days so that we might visit the boat museum and Boldt Castle.in The boat museum was fantastic in the way it was laid out. There were five buildings to wander through and we also got to tour the house boat once owned by the Boldt family. You could spend as much time as you like wondering about the buildings. Dave's back began to bother him after a couple of hours so we headed back to the boat. The next day Syd and Evelyn and ourselves loaded into our dingy (Bill and Bobbi go into theirs) and we headed 10 miles up the St. Lawrence to Boldt Castle. We made a couple of stops at other marinas along the way scouting out a possible stop in the next day or so. We finally arrived at Boldt Castle dock, got our tickets and personal guided recorders and proceeded through the castle. It was built by Mr. Boldt for his wife and when she died suddenly he just abandoned the castle. It was bought by a family who thought it should be finished and the public allowed to view it. Each year it is restored room by room a little more by the proceeds generated by the public visiting the castle.