What We Did. What I Did. What She Didn't.

We're home from our little holiday, Ms J. Did you miss me? Colleen and I left last Friday to drive east toward the St. Lawrence River. We hoped to do a little adventuring, a little exploring, and to discover more about the country we call home. We had a brilliant time, but it all began rather badly.

I woke Friday morning in a foul mood. My eye was sore. It felt like pink eye … AGAIN! We’d hoped to get away by 10:00 but instead, I spent more than two hours in the local walk-in clinic waiting to see a doctor. Thankfully, I don’t have pink eye. It’s just a sty, infected and red on my left eye. I got some salve to put on it. We were finally on the road at 1:00 where we fought bumper-to-bumper traffic for nearly two hours to reach the outer fringes of this ... city! I abhor summertime construction, Ms J. I hate it. I guess we all do. Two bloody hours to travel forty miles! Believe me, Ms J, this did nothing to improve my mood.

At some point along the way, we began to discuss my absent son (I haven’t seen Dan or heard from him in months) and suddenly, I completely lost my temper and began ranting like a madman and demanding Colleen exit the highway and find an alternate route.

“THIS IS COMPLETELY, TOTALLY, UNACCEPTABLE!” I shouted. “GET OFF THIS FUCKING PARKING LOT, COLLEEN, AND FIND A ROAD WE CAN DRIVE ON!”

Or something to that effect. It was dreadful. Poor Colleen! She had no choice but to endure my anger. She bore it well, though, and remained silent. To her credit, Colleen simply allowed me to feel my feelings and to work through them on my own. My darling ex-wife Kelly would have seized the opportunity to add fuel to my fire until things were completely out of control. Colleen must have thought my behaviour childish, but she said nothing.

I apologized later, but I must try harder to deal with Life’s little annoyances. Clearly, I am disturbed that my son seems to have turned away from me. Kelly is the only possible explanation I can conceive of at the moment. Dan’s been spending time with his son and his manipulative mother. I believe Kelly is upset that Meagan has left her and holds me responsible for it. Stupid woman. Disturbed boy. Confused dad.

But I digress ...

Our trip was fun. We saw lots of pretty sights and I`m confident that Colleen photographed every one of them. Many of them more than once. But what the heck .. That`s the beauty of digital cameras, Ms J. You can take as many pictures as you want. Would you like to see some of them? OK. I thought you'd never ask.



Eventually, we did find some open road and Colleen took advantage of it.

Along the way, we stopped and fished a while at the mouth of the Moira River in Belleville, Ontario. It seems to have become my habit over the years only to fish when it's raining. Dad says fish get more aggressive during a rain storm, claiming they don't like to get wet. We fished but caught nothing.





The storm was short-lived, thankfully, and we ventured further off the beaten path. Soon we found ourselves in lovely Prince Edward County where we spent the night in the picturesque little town of Picton.





On Saturday, we journeyed on through Kingston to the town of Gananoque. That's Ganan-NOCK-way, Ms J. It's pronounced just the way it's spelled. Ha! Kingston is an interesting place. I've been there a dozen times or more by train. Colleen and I went there in June for a little holiday. It's quite pretty, actually, and was for a short time the capital city of Canada. It was decided soon after that it was too close to our bellicose American neighbours and so Ottawa became our new (and permanent) capital.



The photo above is the distinctive dome of Kingston City Hall. And the one below? Believe it or not, this is Collins Bay Penitentiary, home to some of Canada's most infamous criminals. No, Ms Journal, not all of Canada's prisons are built to resemble fairytale castles. Many contain former politicians ... or should.



Gananoque is a tourist town perched on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River, just east of Kingston. I'm not sure what lies on the south side, but I hear it's a foreign land, with a massive military and not to be taken lightly. Or at all. We stayed away from there.

What we did instead, was take a tour of the Thousand Islands that dot this important waterway. The guide told us there are actually 1897 islands, Ms J, but I lost count at 1266.






On Sunday afternoon, we left all that peace and tranquility behind us and followed the herd on Highway 401 back to The Big Smoke. Neither of us was happy to do so, Ms J, but real Life beckoned. We didn't much fancy returning to the responsibility of work and parenthood, but return we must. Real Life is rarely as much fun as the fantasy world of holidays.

I've got to get ready for work now, but I'll leave you with one last photo. This is the world's shortest international bridge, linking a Canadian island with an American one in the St. Lawrence River. It's in the Guinness Book, it is. I looked it up.



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