From Niagara, we skirted the west side of Lake Ontario and headed for Toronto.
We went to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. Here is a shoe that belonged to a medieval knight. Notice the length of the toe compared to Elli's fingers.
On our way out of Toronto, we stopped at an international mart to get food for lunch. This lady was from Bosnia and cooked some Slavic sausages for us. She told us "Thank you" when we took her picture.
This is the park where we ate our lunch...and took some attempts at family photos. It's always exciting to do the 10-second delay and have someone running to get in place before the shutter snaps!
These are the Kingston Mill Locks, part of the canal that connects the Ottawa River to Lake Ontario. Built in the 1830's, these locks are all hand-cranked! This picture shows three locks that are all connected--one of us kids is standing by each one (can you find us?).
Our next stop was at the 1000 Islands--the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. Actually, there are over 1800 islands in this part of the river; they counted all the islands that were above water year-round and had at least two kinds of vegetation (the smallest island is about 10 feet square).
During the late 1800s, the 1000 Islands became the favorite retreat of NY multi-millionaires, including George Boldt, manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in NYC. This picture shows the castle he built on one of his islands in the St. Lawrence. We got to tour the inside; some of the rooms were sumptuously restored, but others were covered with 100 years of graffiti.
Life on vacation--with a borrowed computer ;).
This lighthouse is the only one on Lake Ontario with a working Fresnel lens (that's the funny glass shape that magnifies the light coming out of the lighthouse).
Next time, on "Keeping Up With the Joneses," you'll get to hear about travels through upstate New York.
