Thanks to those of you who sent me birthday greetings today, but I’m not sure getting older is a cause for celebration at my point in life.
This morning Uncle Ernie and I continued our discussion about all the things that are messed-up in this world, and then we were told by Aunt Louise to eat breakfast before we headed-off to the antique Boat museum in Clayton, NY. Uncle Ernie showed me the automatic still in his garage that he uses to distill the well water here. He said he gets about a cup of iron and sulfur solids when he cleans it at the end of each summer.
The antique boat museum has been renovated since the last time I was here a decade ago and the boats, engines, canoes and other memorabilia are truly works of mahogany art. The pieces here are mostly donated from late members of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club, such as the founder of the Waldorff-Astoria Hotel, the inventors of Life Savers candy, Singer sewing machines and the Rand McNally map company. We started with a tour of a houseboat owned by several of the millionaires. It weighs 300 tons, has 10 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 fireplaces, a huge ballroom, kitchens, servants’ quarters and a custom made Steinway piano. In 1906 you could rent it out for $100 per day, including a captain, but you had to bring your own provisions and servants. The ceilings are adorned with gold leaf patterns and the floors and hull are made of solid mahogany. There are dozens of gorgeous mahogany speed boats and engines on display. After WWII, boat-makers bought-up surplus military aircraft engines and converted them to marine engines for their boats. The engines are all huge supercharged works of art in their own right. Imagine having a 16 foot boat with a 1,500 horsepower engine in the 1940’s. One guy had a standing offer that if you could beat his “Sea Snail” in a race, he would give you $1,000.
We stopped on the way home and washed my clothes at the local Laundromat and then came back to the river house and resumed talking about family and politics. My cousin Gail and her husband Tom had arrived from Syracuse to join us for dinner. Louise and I got a rare treat of watching loons in the river, while Ernie and Gail went to mass and Tom took a 23-mile bike ride.
We all enjoyed a lovely meal at the Clipper Inn and Ernie recounted a story of when some young relatives came to visit for the summer and worked at the restaurant. One morning Ernie and Louise awoke to find the carved wooden skipper from the Clipper Inn sitting in their living room. The boys were soundly scolded and told to take him back to the restaurant and to apologize for stealing him.
After we got home, we watched the Yankees drub the Orioles and lamented about all the stuff that’s wrong with the current human condition. When everyone went to bed, I started tapping-out today’s blog post. Tomorrow, I’m planning to cross into Canada again and ride up to Montreal. I have fond memories of visiting the old town there, with its French architecture, cobblestone roads and great restaurants.
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