Trip #3 - Cleveland, OH - Brewerton, NY

Length of Trip: 14 days

Nautical Miles Traveled: 435

Hours of Cruising: 23

Longest Driving Day: 67 NM: Erie, PA - Port Colburne, ON

Pleasant Surprise: The Oswego Canal & River, NY

Biggest Disappointment: Erie, PA

Favorite Destination: Niagara on the Lake, ON

Favorite Meal Carriage House, Stone Road Grille, Niagara on the Lake, ON

We had to get up early as we were to fly home before dawn Sunday and had to get the boat all squared away by Saturday afternoon. The weather report was 100% rain and thunder and I was a teeny bit concerned that it would be an uncomfortable day we didn’t have any proper rain gear. We had several locks to navigate and that meant I would have to be outside handling the lock line and we didn’t have any proper rain gear. As it turned out, we were super lucky and the rain held off.

The locks were the most fun yet and along the prettiest stretch of river. It was narrow and interspersed with little communities along the banks and lined with thousands of trees with the leaves beginning to change. The colors stood out against the sky and green river. It was quite an experience and perfect for our last day as it made us happily anticipate our return next spring.

We arrived at Winter Harbor and tied up just as the first drops of rain began to fall. There were several large 60 and 70’ yachts there, some on an asphalt lot and some tied at the dock, all waiting for their turn to be hoisted out of the water and rolled into the giant heated ‘boat barns’. We started a load of onboard laundry for towels which gave us about two hours to pack and ready the boat for winter. By the time our taxi arrived, it was raining hard so our bags got wet as we (chivalrous John actually) splashed through the puddles and rolled a few duffles out to make our way to our ‘fine’ Best Western Motel at the Syracuse airport.

And so we bid Adieu to the lovely Latitude Adjustment until next summer!

Once again the morning consisted of catching up on email and business matters followed by a short walk to the downtown to get a few supplies and see the town in the daylight. Following lunch at Captain Jack’s, it was then time to cruise to our next destination of Oswego, NY to ready for our next big lock experience tomorrow. Oswego is a surprisingly cool town. The entrance to the Oswego river is flanked by factory type buildings, but just past that is a cute harbor. We were met by our neighbor, the Captain of the Queen Bee, a well kept 64’ Hatteras that the couple had custom built in 2003 and have spent their summers on since. We learned that they were wintering their boat at Winter Harbor Marina too. We asked some questions about the upcoming locks then walked to the lock building in the middle of town to see about buying our ticket for the next day of lock fun. It was closed for the day, but we were able to scope it out and make a game plan.

We perused the downtown where there seemed to be plenty of good restaurants to choose from. The town was quite lively with young people out and about enjoying the evening.

We chose to eat at the Red Sun Restaurant and sat at the bar for a change of pace. They had some unique draft handles from local beer makers (I assume) although we didn’t try one! We ordered a hot stretched bread with beer reduction and cheddar cheese dip. It was like a grown up’s donut in that it wasn’t fried or drenched in sweetness, but was hot and soft and flavorful with the beer reduction slightly sweet… very unusual and delicious. After a very nice dinner we walked to the boat and hit the hay.

After another leisurely morning, I popped back into to the restaurant – this time the lure was the butter tarts the waitress had said people drive for hours to buy. Even though this has been a fattening trip and I am trying to get serious about omitting breads and sweets (at least cutting back), how could I resist checking out that claim? I didn’t and while It was good, my life was not any better for having tried one! It was probably just ‘the gods’ testing my resolve and I did not pass the test. Luckily, my wise friend Kelly once told me years ago when I was frustrated with myself over something, “Just get up and try again tomorrow.” It’s a simple yet excellent piece of advice that I put into action often.

We walked a couple of miles to town to check it out, pick up a few things and have a little lunch, then it was time to go back to the U.S. with another pleasant cruise across Lake Ontario to Sodus Bay, NY. We pulled into the harbor where we were welcomed by the guy on the boat in the slip next to us. He lived on his boat all summer with his wife and two little dogs. He and the harbormaster recommended we try the town’s martini bar for dinner as there were 106 martinis to choose from. When we headed out for said Martini bar, there were three round-ish men sitting on the dock in beach chairs, drinking beers, watching the full moon come up. Their wives were in the salon of their boat. They all chatted with us and were very friendly. It was cute and John said it reminded him of some cartoon I’ve never seen called King of the Hill.

The food at the martini place was good, but the martinis, holy smokes were they sweet! I ordered one that sounded so unsweet – with cucumber and soda water involved and John ordered a ‘Key West’ which came with a crisp shredded coconut debris floating atop an orange syrupy liquid and on top of that a maraschino cherry and pineapple. Both were rimmed with festive two-tone colored sugar. I grazed a couple bites of the coconut from the top of John’s drink with a spoon and he ate the pineapple, then we ordered a coors light and a glass of cabernet which made us much happier.

We walked back to the boat under the full moon and the beach chair trio welcomed us back to the boat and wished us a goodnight smile when we returned a few hours later.

Cities are okay, but we decided we like the smaller lake towns a bit better. All these small towns we have been visiting have flowers everywhere, they are not as overwhelming as the big cities and the harbors are charming.

When we were tying up last night I heard a big splash and when I turned in the direction it came from the rings on the water in addition to the sound of the splash seemed as though someone had thrown an old fashioned TV off the dock. I looked around to see who could have thrown it, but no one was there. The mystery was solved In the morning. I popped out for a jog and on my way up the dock, in the exact same place, a gigantic fish flung itself out of the water like a breeching whale, the morning sun glistened across it’s massive brown body, lighting the edges of his fins as he came up into the air, hovered for a microsecond, then made a big plunking splash (like a television). He looked like he was four feet long and just massively chunky. The Harbormaster later told me that there were lots of huge carp in the lake, but that they don’t jump. Oh. Hmmmm. I did however ask him about the angry bees as they were after us as he was fueling up the boat, and he said that they were mud wasps! That’s why they were so mean!!! Not innocent little honey bees at all.

While I ran, John worked on email and photos and boat projects. Then we went for a walk and to lunch (the outdoor patio was closed due the the 'bee' problem), cleaned the boat and prepared to head for Brighton. Just after we arrived last evening when I was changing to go out to dinner, a swan floated serenely by the bedroom window, and as I was battening the hatches in the bedroom for departure today, the swan again floated by the bedroom window. It felt like he had greeted us with a ‘float by’ upon arrival, then wished us a Bon Voyage (Canadian swans are French speakers you know) before we left.

A cute older couple welcomed us to the Brighton, On. They are the owners, chefs, and managers of the tiny harbor and restaurant. We did a quick clean up of the boat and then hurried to dinner as they closed at 8.:00. The sunset was orange and pink and gorgeous in the west over the glassy water while the moon was rising full and bright in the eastern sky. The older lady was cooking in the kitchen and the food was unique, homemade and fantastic.

We went for a fabulous walk down the uncrowded (as it was Monday) boardwalk at Balmy Beach, then stopped at a beach café for a latte/diet coke. We tried to sit outside while we waited for a cab, but the bees were after us so we waited inside; then they dive bombed us as we jumped into the cab.

Our cab driver had moved to Toronto from Bangladesh three years ago, and I asked him if he liked it here. For the next half an hour he railed on how unfair Canada is and that he couldn’t get a management job even though he had an MBA and was a military officer in Bangladesh and he was upset that the Canadian economy couldn’t have more manufacturing jobs to provide opportunity for the 40 million in Toronto as Bangladesh is able to have all kinds of jobs for it's teeming population of 130 million. We tried to explain to him that all first world countries have that issue now as the labor and tax expense is so much lower in developing countries, so with the global opportunities, companies have all moved to those countries. I said “That must be frustrating for you…. “ He said, “Oh no, not at all.” (Methinks he does not know the meaning of the word). Just last night John had wondered what drove the economy of the city and we had decided to look that up (we haven’t had time yet!). Although sad, it was thought provoking.

The cab driver dropped us at the Art Gallery of Ontario and we popped across the street to lunch at The Village Idiot Pub … We sat next to the giant windows open to the city streets, but had insistent bees that just would not stay away. I jumped up and was shooing them with my sun visor and I’m sure everyone around us was thinking ‘What an idiot’ (luckily we were in the pub for idiots so I was not kicked out) as they sat and nonchalantly waved a hand whenever a bee buzzed around them. I usually don’t get worried about bees as my life experience has shown them to be gentle little souls. But not in Toronto! Those unfriendly Canadians mentioned in the title? It’s the bees! After having just been stung a few days ago, I no longer had that peaceful trust. We decided to move away from the window. John tried the Cornish Pasty, which he thought was not quite as good as a Shepherds Pie, then we went to the gallery.

We focused on the European art as we were short on time and it was lovely. The museum was founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens, members of the Ontario Society of Artists. The current location of the AGO dates to 1910, when Goldwin Smith bequeathed his historic 1817 Georgian manor, the Grange, to the gallery upon his death. In 1920, the museum also allowed the Ontario College of Art to construct a building on the grounds.

We hurried back to the boat and left the harbor at 3:00, had a pleasant and pretty cruise in fine weather to Cobourg, ON tied up, and walked downtown to the Oasis Restaurant recommended by the Harbormaster for dinner.

Today we planned on going to the Toronto Art Gallery but unfortunately, it is closed on Mondays! So I worked on the blog and John worked with a repairman in the Tiger Pit as the generator wouldn’t start when we tried to use it a couple of days ago. John discovered 4 liters of water had found its way into the engine and mixed with the oil. According to the knowledgeable serviceman, this was due to Cruisers incorrectly piping the generator exhaust out the boat. John is working with the dealer and Cruisers on the issue as this is really the first major issue we have experienced since our cruising began. Fortunately, we rarely need the generator as we always have power at the dock and don’t need AC when cruising, so the repair (likely replacement of the generator) can wait for the winter layup.

John had some catch up work to do and I went to a yoga class across the street from the harbor, then we headed up to Yorkville to the Windsor Arms to have tea. It was a beautiful sunny day and after tea, we walked and shopped in the big city and generally just dwelled. We had dinner at the CN Tower, a beautiful concrete communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto. It is the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, a signature icon of Toronto's skyline, and a symbol of Canada attracting more than two million international visitors annually. Its name "CN" originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The city lights below were a great sight and we had a nice dinner while the restaurant slowly turned to give us an ever changing view of the city.

I went for a morning run through the pretty town while John installed an AppleTV for the Salon TV so we can watch movies downloaded to our iPads when we have a free WiFi connection. We cruised a little way up the Niagara River to recalibrate the navigation system then crossed Lake Ontario to Toronto.

We were welcomed to the harbor with a regatta of Laser type two person sail boats. John carefully maneuvered us around them and even more carefully into the tight harbor. We had an excellent dock assignment where we could just step off onto the promenade in the lakeside of downtown. We walked uptown to Kensington Market, an unusual few blocks of funky storefronts, hippie shops, music and lots of vegetarian food. We had lunch on the patio of Kensington Cornerstone. The architecture in the city is an eclectic mix of old Victorian brick and 1970’s style modern.

We hailed a cab to Casa Loma, a gothic revival castle/mansion in the middle of the city. It was originally a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. and was constructed over a three-year period from 1911–1914. Pellat founded the Toronto Electric Light Company in 1883, the same year that Thomas Edison developed steam-generated electricity. By 1901 Henry Pellatt was chairman of 21 major companies with interests in mining, insurance, real estate and electricity. As a single person he directly controlled 25% of Canada’s economy. His entrepreneurial spirit continued and together with some business partners he built the first hydro-generating plant at Niagara Falls in 1902. Henry Pellatt was knighted in 1905 by King Edward V for his service to the Queen and his efforts in bringing electricity to the people of Canada. However, he didn’t get to enjoy the castle for more than a few years. Not long after building Casa Loma, with the creation of Canada’s Ontario Hydro Electric Commission, power generation was transferred into the public sector. As a result, Sir Henry Pellatt and his business partners were expropriated without any compensation whatsoever. One of his other businesses, an aircraft manufacturing company, was also taken over by the government, again without compensation, as part of the war effort in WWI.

In his later years he was almost destitute and ended up living with his former chauffeur in a modest bungalow.

We took a cab to the Harbour Center and walked along the construction heavy promenade back to the boat. John worked on getting the TV set up so we could watch the 49er game and since it was cold and dark and rainy, we ordered Chinese food for delivery which amazing found its way to us on the boat.

Today we took a walk in the morning and enjoyed the quiet streets in the adorable town of Niagara on the Lake. The restaurants and shops lining the little streets are charming with myriads of gorgeous flowers carefully planted like garden bouquets in every possible location. The horse drawn carriages hadn’t yet come out for the day.

We returned to the boat and John stayed to clean the boat exterior while I walked back to town for a little shopping. On the way, a bee flew up my shirt sleeve and got stuck and stung me while I tried to figure out it I wanted to rip my shirt buttons or take the time to unbutton. I did the latter and my bicep was hot swollen and itchy for at least four days! We met for lunch in town then headed to Niagara Falls. I wasn’t sure we should go as I thought how great can it be, I’ve seen the films and photos of it. But before I left my dad told me to be sure to go, and John pushed for it as well. I was so glad they did! We went on the Maid of the Mist with our little plastic slickers on and headed out into the swirling turquoise water. The power and exquisite beauty of the falls was extraordinary. I could have floated staring up at them for hours. The color, graceful massiveness and impending energy of the water as it tips over the edge is indescribable. No photos or film can capture it. The churning and mist creates an electric energy similar to the feeling of nearly touching a hot wire or standing under electric towers only in a positive, expansive, good way. Just incredible.

Once off the Maid of the Mist, we walked on the promenade of the Canadian side of the falls on level with the top of the falls to stand next to where the river turns and hurls itself largely over the edge and there were rainbows rising from the mist. I noticed that the gulls were particularly cute and different from ours in California. From the decktop looking down you could see their little webbed feet paddling behind them in the clear water. I pointed out how cute that looked to John and tried to convince him that it was but he would not have any of it. I later checked the gull situation of Niagara Falls and turns out bird watchers regularly come to try to get a sight of the less ordinary gulls that come through. Just as I was sitting on the deck writing this, John walked past me grumbling about how some seagull had pooped a giant mess on his very clean boat and that he hated seagulls

We walked on the promenade of the Canadian side of the falls to stand next to where the river turns and hurls itself largely over the edge and there were rainbows in the mist.

That evening we walked to the famous Prince of Wales hotel for a ‘fine dining’ experience. The hotel is a historic Victorian hotel built in 1864. The three story 110 room hotel was re-named after famous guests the Duke of York (Prince of Wales). Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the hotel during her visit to the area in 1973.

We were up before dawn to be sure to get our position in the cue for the Welland Canal lock systems. The Welland Canal runs the same general direction as the Niagara river bypassing the famous falls through a system of eight locks which gently lower you 326’ along its 27 mile length. Originally constructed in 1829, the canal system we used today dates back to 1932. Several of the locks drop (or raise) the vessels by nearly 50’ - quite a sight as you look up a 80’ high steel gates holding back millions of gallons of water. It also generates energy for the area for electricity and manufacturing.

It was a cool and blustery day with lots of clouds. We tied up at the dock by the canal bridge waiting for the other 198’ yacht Blue Moon (owned by Dick Duchossois, part owner of Arlington Race Track and Churchill Downs. In the meantime, I walked in to town for coffee and came across a little farmers market in the bank parking lot where I got some fruit and banana bread.

Back on the boat, it was time to begin our navigation of our first locks. We had to float around in a somewhat narrow channel with the 198’ Blue Moon who would be in each lock with us. Before we actually jumped in to our first lock experience, we picked up Roger to help us. Roger is a retired lock worker recommended by Captain Tim who freelances helping rookies or boats with boaters who are either unable or unwilling to do it themselves. You need a boat driver and two deck hands, one at the stern and one at the bow. Then a lock worker throws down a 50’ line to the bow and stern from the cement ‘dock’ above, and we lightly loop them through cleats on deck. As the locks gates close and the water level begins to sink, we are to slowly feed the line through the kleat until the we get to the level for the lock to open, usually 35-50 feet, then we let go and the lock worker pulls the line up and we can move on.

We really didn’t (at least I didn’t) have a clue how it would all go down. If I had known, I would have geared up better with a beanie and gloves and a down vest. Just before we began our descent of the first lock, John at the controls, me at the bow, I pulled my coat sleeves down as best I could over my hands as the rope was rough and the day was cold. A few minutes later, a lock worker threw a pair of gloves down to me, telling me I would need them. I was so grateful for that as we spent the next six hours going down lock after lock. I don’t know how I would have done it without them. By the last lock the cold started to get to me and I began to shiver a bit, but it was a very cool experience and it went by very quickly.

We dropped Roger dockside then before we knew it, we were in Lake Ontario, and it was pretty rough. We had been protected in the canal so it was a bit of a surprise. We quickly adjusted as the waves while big and rocking, were smooth and rideable. Fortunately it was a short hop to Niagara on the Lake, ON. It was windy and cold as we arrived but fortunately the cab was able to drive right to the boat to take us to the excellent and highly recommended Stone Road Grille for a most lovely dinner.

Actually it will be 27 miles on the Welland Canal, but close enough.

The morning began with a walkto Starbucks downtown Erie while John worked on the boat. We had to leave the harbor early as another storm was coming in and we had to make it across Lake Erie to get to Port Colborne, ON in order to be in line for our Erie canal journey. The water was choppy but not scary and we had a pleasant cruise to Port Colborne.

At Port Colborne we walked downtown to get some lunch at a canal side restaurant. John looked in to paying for the lock system trip tomorrow while I poked my head into a couple of little shops. On our mile walk back to the harbor we noticed a wall of giant black clouds working their way towards us, and sure enough, within minutes the rain came down. When it rains in the east, it does not mess around… it dumps. Each raindrop seemed to be an eighth of a cup of water. We had one tiny umbrella in our tiny purple daypack and we held it between us as we ran-walked toward the harbor. In just a few more minutes, the streets and sidewalks were rippling with giant puddles and rivers that we had to march through. It was very exciting! We made it to the boat and turned on the heat. Unfortunately, I forgot that my phone was in the backpack and when I unzipped the pouch it was dead in a little puddle of water.

That evening we stayed close to the boat and ate Don Cherry’s Sports Bar in the Marina.

We spent the morning cleaning the boat (John) and doing yoga on the deck (Timi), then decided it was time to head out to ‘sea’ for a lovely cruise to Erie, PA. John started the engines and began the departure ‘check’. And much to our surprise, while the Raymarine navigation system would boot up but then the master display kept inexplicably restarting itself every sixty seconds. So, it was lucky that we had planned to leave early-ish, as John had to spend the next two hours taking with Raymarine tech support. The software was never updated on one of the displays due to bad card reader and wasn’t as toleratant of errors in weather feed causing it to restart every 30 seconds. BEcause the GPS was connected to this display it caused the chart plotter on the other display to stop functioning.

Two hours later after swapping positions of the displays and with a card reader on order we made our way to the Erie, PA harbor. Upon arrival at the mouth of the harbor, we came upon two clipper ships. They were old fashioned, pirate-y, long, sleek, and majestic with their hoisted sails. As we came up to them, they actually began shooting canons at each other! We assumed it was some sort of entertaining reenactment in the harbor rather than a real skirmish so all we had to do was figure out how to get past them into the harbor without disrupting their display. Captain John slowed the boat down and we made our way peacefully by on the starboard side. After docking, we took a cab into Erie to get groceries and supplies. Then went to a nice dinner at The Pufferbelly, a firestation reinvented into a restaurant with floor to (tall) ceiling glass windows where the roll up doors used to be, brick walls, and old fashioned firefighting paraphernalia as décor. Built in 1908, it operated as a firehouse until 1979 and opened as the Pufferbelly Restaurant in 1984. The restaurant borrowed its name from the nickname given to steam pumpers and fire engines in the late 1800s.

We returned to the boat and began to settle in for the night. Suddenly, the bow began moving in and away from the dock, back and forth. We could see that the harbor flags were completely flat and rectangular against the sky – the wind was blowing hard. We added an extra bow line and tightened everything up and hoped for the best. There was a lot of thunder and lightning and big rain and wind, but luckily, we were we weren’t underway when it hit, and all was fine in the harbor.

We woke up late …. I mean, I woke up late the next morning and John was already humming away happily customizing and fixing things on the boat.

We took a pleasant two hour cruise to Geneva on the Lake, OH and tied up in a nice tree lined, quiet harbor.

We procured some cruiser bikes from the Harbormaster and took an impromptu 10 mile bike ride to sight see, hunt for little fix-it items at the hardware store and gather supplies at the grocery store. Although it was humid, it was a non-hilly cruise (I think Ohio is one of those states known for it’s flatness) on quiet streets lined with tall old trees blocking the hot sun.

We rode to the town of Geneva, which according to Wikipedia, was first settled in 1805 by a handful of settlers from Charlotte, New York. One hundred and sixty one years later in 1966 the townspeople wrote themselves a deed to the moon and announced a "Declaration of Lunar Ownership". The city also held the right to rent or lease its moon holdings via a two-thirds vote of the city's entire population, and provided for the sale of 100 deeds for 100 acres of land, each acre priced at $100.

A couple miles from the moon-owners of Geneva is Ohio’s first lakeside resort called Geneva On The Lake. It is a colorful lake side town with streets lined with movie set weird carnival type wooden shanty’s and big signs advertising beer, ice cream, pizza, arcade games, hot dogs, donuts and of course banners stating ‘Bikers Welcome’ as the previous weekend was the ‘Thunder on the Strip’ Biker’s Rally. In past years, Thunder on the Strip events included: Globe of Death, tattoo contest, motorcycle circus, Harley Davidson Contraband stunt team, Thunder on the Strip bar hop, bike show and a “Meet The Locals Poker Run” featuring the Hell’s Angels Lake East. We rode through the peaceful non-thunderous empty streets to the little grocery store, then back to the boat.

We then enjoyed a moonlit walk to dinner at the lovely Geneva Lodge Resort - by far the nicest place in either town. Best of all the moonlight was free!

We postponed our trip in order to attend the first official 49ers game of the season against Green Bay with Matt and Rich. This was an excellent idea as it was an amazing game. We were on the field during the 2nd quarter and got to see a fumble recovery twenty feet in front of us and a subsequent 49er touchdown. Then of course, they won!

We were up early for our flight and we arrived in Cleveland Monday night after an uneventful flight. We arrived in Cleveland Monday night after an uneventful flight. We had the unexpected surprise of a long line and 20 plus minute wait for a cab at the airport to take us to the harbor. We had the driver wait while we quickly dropped our bags on the boat, admired how shiny and sparkly it looked (it had been waxed while we were away) and headed out for dinner. We went to E. 4th Street in downtown Cleveland which is a two block brick walk street with festive string lights streaming above chic restaurants and patios for dining. It brought back happy memories of our trip here with the Travises a year ago on the Trip Across America.

We perused the menus and were lured into the Mexican restaurant by the promise of a Pomegranate Margarita. This was unfortunate for two reasons: 1) There are very few places in the U.S. (or probably anywhere) that have Mexican cuisine on par with California’s and 2) Drinking tequila and only eating a few bites of a quesadilla is known to lead to trouble. Luckily, John isn’t a tequila fan like me, so he listened to me chat away and all was well.