Day 1: Home to Gananoque to Leek Island

By Patrick

Our trip to the Thousand Islands region started off with an early wakeup call at 5:40 a.m.  We left Rugby Road around 6 o’clock with an ETA of 12:30 p.m.  Not wanting to waste any of the six-and-a-half-hour drive, the five kids started the first movie of The Lord of the Rings at around 6:30 a.m. We would end up watching a little more than half of the second movie until we came rolling through customs.  There, a serious Canadian guy with a bullet-proof vest questioned Mom.  Fortunately, he failed to notice that in the back, Conor had his sunglasses on upside-down and had a pillow on top of his head while sticking his tongue at the officer’s face.  When the border guy asked “Do you have any animals on board?,” it took some self control for Mom to say “no.”  We crossed the border smoothly and were soon on our way.

As we pulled into Houseboat Holidays in Gananoque, we were all eagerly searching for our boat, and found it, with Pop already sitting on the deck reading a newspaper and drinking a beer. After unpacking the car, packing the houseboat, blowing up the raft, getting fishing and boating licenses, and getting a run-down of the houseboat and the Thousand Islands region from our man Buzz (a Houseboat Holiday employee), we were ready to go with our bathing suits on and shirts off already. With Buzz piloting the boat, the boys pushed off the dock and we headed out into the river.  Soon Buzz was departing and we were out of the marina while cruising to our first destination.

Once we got into the St. Lawrence River we realized – there are a lot of islands.  So it took us a while to figure out the chart and the distances between islands (in other words, we were lost until Dad pulled out his iPhone and used the GPS to figure out where we were).  We eventually found our destination – Leek Island – and then found a suitable spot to drop anchor. Once we were anchored, it was time for Matty and me to break out the pirate flag, and time for Grandpa to break out the gimlets.

Although we weren’t completely sheltered from the wind, our spot was perfect.  We could swim to shore and we could see the sunset. So, we swam, we jumped off the roof to catch the football, we used the raft to go ashore, and we relaxed in the water before we ate a dinner of brats and macaroni salad. We then went for another swim and watched the beautiful sunset. As the sun went down, the moon rose and was very bright. With Conor and Grandpa settling down in their sleeping bags outside, the rest of us went to our own beds and turned in for the day. It was a great day full of fun and thankfully, no unwanted adventures, at least, for now.