Quick trip to the islands

We went on a 12 hour special Historical Society bus trip and cruise organized by Dave Miller last Friday.

We left the Austin Park parking lot at 7 a.m. and returned at 7 p.m.

It was a long day and when the driver missed the Adams exit on Rte. 81, the whole bus-full voted to head for home and miss the coffee-and-snack stop.

The trip provided a very ample lunch at about 1 p.m. and no one was close to expiring from lack of victuals.

Our first stop was in Clayton, where we visited the Antique Boat Museum for approximately two hours for their guided tour.

Back on the bus, we headed to Alexandria Bay and the Uncle Sam boat line.

We had a good lunch on the boat and a very nice trip through the islands with some appropriate discussion about things observed. We were then dropped at Heart Island to see Boldt Castle, which is the large unfinished mansion there.

The mansion was built by George Boldt, the owner of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, as a present for his wife Louise.

Unfortunately, she died in 1904, shortly before their summer dream home was finished and he never returned to Heart Island.

For 73 years it was left uninhabited, but in 1977 the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired the property and has been rehabilitating and restoring the buildings to bring them back to their former glory.

The design has everything you could want in your island retreat, complete with three floors of ballrooms, dining rooms, library, and many sleeping apartments.

Some years ago, Betsy and Mayo Snyder joined us for a trip through the Thousand Islands in the Samuel Clyde.

At that time, the castle showed the ravages of time and the plundering of the plumbing and heating systems which had been ripped out for cash and the WWII scrap drives.

It has now been about 75 percent restored to its original elegance. The elevator is working, which is good as the castle is three and in some places four stories tall. The ceilings are at least 12 to 16 feet high and the stairs have many steps.

It takes about two hours to drive to Alexandria Bay (and not surprisingly two hours back).

The Onondaga Coach ride was very smooth and comfortable and I’d recommend this as a good idea.

I do not think you could drive there any faster yourself and driving home after storming around the island and huge house all day would make driving late in the day with the sun full in your face no fun.

We expect that the Historical Society will schedule additional trips to points of interest next year.

I am sort of an old fogie myself, but we have many younger members who enjoy the programs and trips.

The membership dues are only $25 annually and it’s a very compatible group.

We really need a larger membership because we run the Creamery almost entirely through donations.

We are open every Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. and we are open on special weekends when other things are going on like the Antique Boat Show in July and the Dickens weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The museum houses a collection of artifacts that relate to Skaneateles in the early 1900s, including exhibits of the industry, agriculture, and transportation of the period.

In addition, we have a substantial collection of boats at the Creamery that were built here over the years.

There have been functioning boat builders in Skaneateles since the Civil War.

We also have programs on the last Tuesday evenings of the month.

The topics are announced in the Press or you can just call and find out what’s on this month. Our phone number is 685-1360. There is no charge for the programs, but we have a jug that accepts contributions to help with the budget. $25 a year for nine programs is a real deal.