June 27-July1, Kingston, ON

Linda's eye infection has gotten worse overnight. Both eyes are now almost closed. We tuck her in bed and head for Kingston.

We leave Morton's Bay early (about 8 am) in the fog (not too thick) heading for Kingston. The scenery is really spectacular this morning and we think Morton's Bay may be as pretty as anywhere we have seen. The Rideau coming out of Ottawa is flat country with some slightly rolling hills. This part of the Rideau is granite boulders, some as big as large office buildings, coming right out of the water with beautiful trees all around. Reminds us of the pretty parts of Maine.

Morton's Bay early in the morning

Underway in Morton's Bay

Granite shore

Fog coming over the hill

These trees are thirty feet tall.

Beautiful

Narrow entrance channel into Morton's Bay. We go between the marker in the center and the shore on the right. We go VERY slowly. Thinking of all the small places we go in and out of in the Bahamas. We miss GOOMBAY!

Really pretty area of the Rideau with the granite islands and the fog.

Some granite islands are very close to the channel.

Canada Parks employees opening and closing this single lane automobile bridge by using human power.

Most of the locks on the Rideau are still operated by hand cranking.

We transit six more locks as we end up back at the level of Lake Ontario. Kingston, Ontario, is located at the northeast corner of Lake Ontario so we are back in the Great Lakes again. We are only a few miles from the 1000 Island area of the St Lawrence Seaway.

Confederation Basin is our marina in downtown Kingston, Ontario.

We are in the Confederation Basin Marina in Kingston and are at the foot of the very nice downtown area. We plan to be here through Canada Day, which is July 1, Canada's Independence Day

We have arranged an appointment for Linda at the Hotel Dieu Hospital (eye hospital) emergency eye clinic in Kingston, through the Confederation Marina staff. We arrive in Kingston about 1 pm, and we are getting the eye checked by 2 pm. We are finally back to the boat about 6 pm. Long day for Linda. She is very uncomfortable overnight Friday, taking eye drops every 30 minutes to clear the infection. We go back to the eye clinic on Saturday and the Doctor confirms it is a bacteria causing the infection and that the treatment they are prescribing is the right one. He is encouraging that the infection seems less severe now. Linda continues the 30 minute drops all Saturday. Rains all day. Bummer.

Ken and Debbie leave us Saturday to return to Detroit by train. It has been great to have them.

Sunday and Monday are clear and Linda continues to see her Canadian Doctors and use her antibiotic drops in both eyes every 2 hours. We will continue this treatment until the infection is cleared. Her Doctors think this will take several weeks or more to completely clear and then probably require other treatment from the expected scarring of the cornea from the infection. We decide to put the boat in storage and return to Stuart.

Tuesday is Canada Day and we make plans and arrangements to return home while enjoying the celebration.

Craft Fair at Confederation Marina: These are glass bird feeders to attach to your window so you can watch the birds come and go. Inside are special baffles make it impossible for the squirrels to steal the seed. This vendor has movies of his product that are fun to watch (squirrels get pretty upset) and Ken and Debbie cannot resist. They both take one home.

Kingston City Hall

Kingston street

Canadian Pacific Locomotive in front of old train station (now information center) downtown.

Canada Day at the Confederation Marina

Boat Parade

Very noisy (straight exhaust) very pretty (brand new, with glowing florescent dash lights, beautifully finished interior) and very fast (he was talking over 100 mph) catamaran with celebration underway, pulls into the dock behind us on Canada Day.

Tuesday is Canada Day (celebrating Canadian Confederation) and we make arrangements wind up the trip for now. The plan is to leave Kingston Wednesday morning and go across Lake Ontario (50 miles) to Oswego, NY and then take the boat Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, NY, where we left the boat last winter, and fly home Saturday out of Syracuse.

Tuesday night we watch the fireworks show just offshore the Confederation Harbor Marina. Linda is in very good spirits and can see some out of the left eye and almost nothing out of the right. We know we have our priorities right.