Gananoque, Ontario

We had a short cruise on Thursday, July 26 heading for Gananoque, Ontario.  The first thing we had to do was to go through customs.  We had been staying on the New York side of the 1000 Islands for five days and now we planned to spend a couple of days on the Canadian side. We headed over to Rockport, a little hamlet where we thought we could sign in quickly.  As we approached the customs dock, the local dockmaster told us we could just call in and give them our number.  But our phone service was very spotty at the time cutting back and forth between our U.S. and Canadian carriers so we pulled up to the dock.  We finally reached customs by phone.  The customs agent, as always, asked about our ship’s store.  When Jonny listed our rather extensive inventory of wine, beer and liquor he admonished us for having too much but let it go because we were on the loop! This is the second time we were excused for being in Canada for an extended period of time!

We walked around Rockport, a cute little bend-in-the-road kind of place.  There were some old time stores and charming vintage signage.

The predominant activity was the array of tour boats that drew buses and cars requiring extensive parking lots throughout the tiny hamlet.  We imagined it must have been a lot prettier before they “paved paradise and put up the parking lots”!  Even though it was still morning, we indulged ourselves by sharing an ice cream cone before returning to Zendo.

Resuming our cruise, we went by some minuscule islets and some homes on larger islands that were quite attractive.  Many of these 1000 Islands homes (of all sizes) seem to be summer homes. 

A few hours later we arrived in Gananoque by 1 p.m. This larger town of 5200 was recommended particularly because it has an excellent community  theatre and one of David and Mary Ann’s favorite restaurants.  The theatre is located on the waterfront and has docks available for patrons to attend the shows there.

It makes sense since so many  people, especially the summer residents, get around these islands by boat since most of the islands are not accessible by car.  We had purchased tickets for the show that night and planned to staying overnight so they charged us a fee of $30 for the privilege.  We tied up at the outside dock space assigned to us but we were a little concerned because it was very rolly.  But we figured the river traffic would settle down as the day wore on and so it did. 

We had early dinner reservations before the show so we had a light lunch on board before venturing into town.  Gananoque is quite a nice community.  We walked up the hill and over a bridge and stopped at the visitor’s center to get a lay of the land.  The downtown area was appealing with attractive architecture and a nice variety of shops.

Lynn wanted to see the sculpture garden in a nearby park.  In trying to find it we passed the local brew pub three times until Jonny couldn’t stand it any more and decided to stop for a beer while Lynn found the garden.  The sculptures were scattered through a park that overlooked a scenic waterfall.  

After returning to Zendo to change our clothes, we walked back into town for dinner.  Riva was in a beautifully restored historic inn and we had a delicious dinner there.

We walked back to the theatre and saw Harvest.  It was an excellent two person production of a story written by a Canadian about a retirement aged couple who unknowingly rented their farmhouse to pot growers and encountered all kinds of problems as a result. The actors were terrific and the show was both touching and funny.  Apparently this theatre has productions six nights a week all through the summer.  No wonder it was so highly recommended!

All we had to do was walk outside the theatre to return to Zendo.  We went right to bed as we were planning to leave for our last cruise in the 1000 Islands early the next morning.