Friday July 5, 2013
Today we head out later than usual because...of my hair. You see, my hair is like having a second child, and not the favorite! It’s quite a challenge to keep it looking “normal”...if there is such a term for my hair in this warm and humid weather. I make sure there is ample product in it to keep it from looking like I have my hand on a Van De Graaff generator (like the ones you see at science centers), however there are some days...I could go on and on but won’t.
Belleville, Ontario is a major center - Trenton has an Air Force base and Belleville has Proctor and Gamble, so it’s a hub for neighboring towns for shopping. We leave this busy town and head for the Prince Edward County, a holiday area for the millions of people who live in Toronto who are looking for that “weekend retreat” away from the city.
It has beaches, small towns, lots of art, music, antiques and galleries. Lovely area in the middle of nowhere. It reminds me of Fort Langley, although twice as crowded, and as we drive out, there is a long string of unending traffic coming in.
Kingston is just north east and along the 401 which pretty much follows the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Kingston is pretty much where Lake Ontario ends and is busy busy busy - I am guessing another hot bed for weekend getaways.
Bellevue house is an Italian designed villa/house (over 4000 sq feet) in the city of Kingston, and was home to John A. MacDonald for over a year. We do the self guided tour to see where the first Prime Minister of Canada spent some time. It’ has lovely wood panelling, thick walls and decorated in Victorian stye. It’s pretty much like a 4 level split, but has 7 levels, although not all levels are a full floor print. The only things original to J.A. MacDonald in the house was his cradle, his French to Latin dictionary and a law book, everything else was just decorating and a delight to see.
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| Bellevue House |
Kingston is going to be busy for the weekend and we quickly find out that there are events going on and the place is virtually sold out. We did get a room for 1 night, however I think we will need to move on tomorrow as there is “no room in the inns”.
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| A boot/slipper bath 1840's - apparently this style helps keep the water warmer |
Apparently the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament is next weekend, however looks like everyone came this weekend, along with the thousands of other tourists. We see license plates from Massachusetts, California, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and New York.
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| Any rooms in the inn?? |
The one room we get is in the First Canada Inns...which I would not recommend to anyone. This one is not terribly clean, pets are welcome-people are not. The hide-a-bed had sheets and mattress cover that were too gross to describe. I requested all new bedding and mattress cover after I “peeled” it from the mattress. The front desk clerk told me she couldn’t get me everything because she was not house keeping and would help when she wasn’t busy. She seemed to be the only one here, so I understand not being able to leave the desk.
I know she doesn’t actually clean the rooms however it really astounds me -hotels make their money by clean bathrooms and towels, clean rooms and sheets and generally travelers expect reasonable and friendly welcome and service. Hotels don’t do taxes on the side, nor are they doing tailoring or cutting lawns on the side. Hotels just provide the basics that travelers need - a clean space to spend the night. It’s like restaurants with really terrible food, if you are in the business of making and selling food, it should at least be good and tasty. If you can’t bother, then don’t bother at all.
The front desk clerk did not leave us with a good 1st, 2nd or 3rd impression, and that is how many times we had to go back to her for something. She was the stereo-typical biker goth girl, lots of tats, red hair, heavy black eye makeup, vacant look in her eyes, expressionless, and she couldn’t care less if we were there or not...unless we were a pit bull of course. This may sound harsh, but she lived up to the stereotype.
We’ve traveled most of southern Ontario and have seen countless towns and cities with boarded up building after building - sitting empty and for lease or for sale, we hear conversations and small town folk tell us that the jobs just aren’t there anymore and kids need to go to the cities for work, so you would think, those that did have jobs would just try a little...again, I could go on and on, but won’t.
I remember today I start with a ‘bad hair” day, so I guess maybe nothing will be or go right today. Phil suggests we go downtown, have an appy and walk around, and this was the best suggestion ever! We had a beautiful evening.
We went to a great italian restaurant on King St. and had a light supper, sip some wine, walk along the lakeshore, which is where everyone is, and to the town square by the City Hall. Such a lovely area and full of families and young couples and old people and tons of young teenaged girls with their parents or chaperones (maybe here for the tourney??) enjoying just hanging around the waterfront area and the warm evening.
There is a free jazz concert at the amphitheater next to City Hall, we catch the last 2 songs. We watch a beautiful little girl in a pretty summer dress dance freely to the jazz music, unaware that there were probably 200 people captivated by her, the beauty, the innocence and life of that little girl and the evening. Ahhh, t’was wonderful.
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| little girl dancing is on the stairs (far right) |
One of the funniest things we saw on the water front was a sign at a cross walk ...
What we didn’t see was panhandlers, drunks, or anyone high, or drug dealers on bikes...anywhere. Which, if we were in Kelowna at city park we would have seen all of the above, it’s unfortunate, but true.
I can’t help thinking that this type of environment -a large town square with great restaurants nearby and music in the evening for families and people young and old to enjoy would be so wonderful in Kelowna. It was a wonderful way to finish the evening.
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