Tues Sept 13: Kingston Expedition

Kingston, Ontario was named the first capital of a united Canada in 1841 (clearly this is Rick speaking), but due to the menace of the neighbors to the south (yes the Americans), Queen Victoria moved the capital first to Montreal, then to Toronto and finally to Ottawa where it remains today.  The original European settlers arrived in the mid- 1600’s and the settlement was formalized in 1673 with the construction of a French trading post called Fort Cataraqui. The settlement continued to grow and after the American Revolution and the British loss, British loyalists started moving to the area in 1780.  The area was renamed Kingston. 

Melanie puts the “I” in Kingston

Kingston grew as a center of trade for ships coming up the St. Lawrence river.  Cargo from ocean going vessels was off-loaded and parceled out on smaller ships for delivery around the Great Lakes.  When the railroads were built Kingston became a terminus and goods went in and out of the thriving ports.  Today Kingston is home to Queens University with around 28,000 students, as well as government offices and lots of restaurants.  We heard a couple of times that Kingston has the most restaurants per capita of any city in Canada.

The weather forecast was for a rainy day but we got lucky and the rain held off until the afternoon.  Yvonne and Michael (from Yankee Zulu) had recommended Pan Chancho for a meal, so we started our expedition off with breakfast there.

Pan Chancho!

Then we took the 11am trolley tour of the city in order to get a good overview.   It is a beautiful city with many historic stone buildings.   The city originally contained mostly wooden buildings, but in the 1800’s a ship unloading in the harbor caught fire which spread to burn down almost all of the downtown.  After the fire the local government passed a law that all buildings within the 16 acre downtown must be constructed of stone or brick.  No more wood.

On the trolley for our tour!

On the tour we visited many small old neighborhoods with cottages and larger homes.

Original Prince George Hotel from 1809. Today it houses shops below and condominiums above.

Public Art?

We enjoyed our Trinidadian dinner last night so we went back for round two tonight….it was, perhaps, a bit of a mistake the second time.  We ate too much and Rick ended up with an upset stomach. Maybe this is why they invented Alka-Seltzer. It was another misadventure - but not as bad as the prop one!

Moon in rigging, we will call this one!