Labor Day 2012

 This Labor Day was very different for me. Usually I always travel solo on my jaunts (or with Jess) but this time I decided to have a nostalgic weekend with my brothers. When we were little, my parents always took us up to Alex Bay in the 1,000 Islands for a week in the summer. Therefore this trip required little to no planning as we all knew exactly what we wanted to do. 

Don, Amber and I headed up Friday night to get settled while Kyle and Devin came up Saturday morning. They met us at the diner where we filled up before heading down to the docks for our boat tour. 

 We had been on Uncle Sam tours several times but the new tour to Singer Castle has only been offered since 2005. It’s eleven miles up the St. Lawrence River and while it’s not as scenic as other Uncle Sam tours, our tour guide more than made up for it. He was hysterical! Half the time he was just telling personal stories that had nothing to do with the islands. 

 We arrived at the castle and I was in awe of how gorgeous it was. I had no idea that another castle besides Boldt was in the river. Singer Castle was built by Frederick Gilbert Bourne who was president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. What I really loved about this castle was that the Castle remained in the possession of the original Bourne family from its construction in 1905 until the mid 1960's so it’s very authentic (unlike Boldt which was completely rebuilt).

Dining room

Sitting room

Sunroom

Library

Another sunroom

Medieval room

Servants room-the steps are because servants must be on a lower level

I loved how the tour covers most of the castle (except the secret passageways). The secret passageways and spy holes were used by servants so they could observe the guests and see what they needed without them having to ask. 

Secret passageway

It’s a gorgeous castle and I was excited to discover a new part of the 1,000 Islands. On the way back the boat stopped at Boldt Castle.

Boldt Castle

Boldt Castle

We didn’t want to pay the extra $8 so we headed back to the mainland. In the afternoon we relaxed around the pool at the state park we stayed at. Then we got ready and headed out for a night on the town. For dinner we got our traditional garlic pizza. We digested by walking the docks and admiring the lavish boats. We also got to see a freighter! 

 

After wandering the streets and shopping, we decided to partake in the numerous bars, now that we were finally all of drinking age. There was a blues festival in the Bay that weekend so the bars were kind of empty as most of the people were down in the tent but after the bands shut down, it got much livelier. Finally, there was a fight that resulted in a broken chair and cops being called so we decided to call it a night as it was getting a little too rowdy.