Our Trip To Gananoque And Kingston

Recently Neal and I took a long weekend trip to Gananoque & Kingston, Ontario for his sister's wedding.  We were so lucky to have some amazing weather while we were there.  I would have never thought that it would be in the 70's in late October.  I had originally planned to bring a winter jacket and boots with us in the car.  Thankfully, we were able to wear a light jacket and a T-shirt.

 Our first stop along the way was to a roadside place called The Big Apple.  What it is, is a big apple that you can go inside of and climb to the top for a great view.  They also have a souvenir shop, a bake shop with some of the best apple pies and apple crumble pies ever.  They also sell other apple products as well.  I had some apple cider that was excellent.  They have a small petting zoo, a mini-golf course, a small train and ping pong tables.  It was a great place to stop and stretch your legs.

Our next stop along the way was to Gananoque which is in the 1000 Islands area.  It's absolutely beautiful this time of year.  The leaves have just started to change colour (a little late this year due to the warm weather).

If you ever want a really nice, reasonably priced hotel in the area, check out the Holiday Inn Gananoque.  It has a great pool and lots of free parking as well as a free breakfast in the morning.

 On the way home after the wedding, we stopped for a few hours in Kingston, Ontario.  Here we picked up a trolley tour of the city that was excellent.  You really got to see a lot of parts of the city in a very short amount of time.

 Here we visited Kingston Penitentiary.  You might ask why would someone want to visit a jail voluntarily.  Well, this jail is very steeped in history as it was built in the 1800's and only closed in the 2000's.  The prisoners helped to build the jail.

We walked around the jail with our tour group learning about the goings on over the years and seeing what life was like there as a prisoner.  The cells were tiny compared to today's standards.    This tiny cell that I was looking out of normally housed two inmates.

 They showed us the infirmary, the protection cells, the kitchen, the yard and lots of other places.  If you do want to do this tour, here are some words of advice:

1.  Book far ahead.  Spaces fill up quickly and many tours are all sold out already.

2.  Wear comfortable shoes.  There is a lot of walking involved.  There are places to sit along the way.

3.  If you are planning to do this tour, do it sooner than later because the city of Kingston plans to tear down the jail and build condos.  I know, it's a stupid idea.

This is a famous old hotel that is located right down by the harbour.  There are so many historic buildings to explore if you are into that sort of thing.  There are many restaurants and shops to visit as well.