When we awoke the next morning, we looked out our hotel and saw that the weather had not improved. Not wanting to spend another day being cold and wet, the Giantman suggested that we head out earlier than we had planned, and make our way to the 1000 Island area. Jill agreed and we packed and checked out. From Niagara Falls, we drove through Buffalo to I-90 East, which would take us to the next turn off at Syracuse. As we were leaving the Buffalo area we stopped at a McDonalds to have an early lunch. We were surprised that this McDonalds still kept their soda fountain behind the counter. It seems like all of the McDonalds in Missouri have the soda fountains out where you can get your own refills.
Back on the road we enjoyed the rolling hills of upstate New York. It reminded us of the terrain of mid Missouri. At the junction at Syracuse we turned north on I-81 and headed towards Watertown, which is just southwest of Fort Drum, an active duty army base.
Watertown is also about 23 miles from the St. Lawrence Seaway and the U.S. and Canada border. We arrived at our destination of Alexandria Bay at about 2 pm and were pleasantly surprised to find there had been a break in the weather and it was sunny and mildly warm. The locals refer to their town as Alex Bay, so wanting to fit in Jill began referring to it that way. We made our way through town and found The Ledges Resort where we planned to spend the next couple of days.
The Ledges is situated right on the river, right across from Heart Island and the Boldt Castle. As we checked in we found our hosts to be most friendly and helpful. This was definitely a family run business. We were directed to our room which was floating in the marina. We actually had to walk down a dock to the glass slider door that opened up to our room. There was a king size bed and we had a separate living room with a loveseat sofabed and a small dining table with a couple of chairs. There was a TV in both rooms and a microwave and small fridge in a corner of the front room. All around the room were boats moored to the dock areas and we had a great view of the Boldt Castle.
