Restaurant – Adventures in the Dirt Yacht

September 12, 2021September 13, 2021

End of Summer in Thousand Islands 09/11/2021

Even though the summer season is winding down, Swan Bay Park is very busy. We noticed quite a few large Class A Motor Homes pulling in. After googling events in the area, I discovered there was an All-Inclusive Motorhome (AIM) Rally here next week. I had never heard of this club and even though I read that it is open to Class A, B or C type motorhomes, the majority appear to be high-dollar Entegra Class A’s. There are several million dollars worth of RV’s in the park!

As busy as the park has gotten, I guess it is good that we have started packing up to get the Dirt Yacht ready to head home for a few weeks. The weather forcast is for some rain next week so Randy decided to pull the boat yesterday and he loaded the golf cart today while the weather is still dry. Randy was busy today rolling up the carpet, puttiing away all but 2 of the chairs, removing the wheel covers and polishing the wheels. Tomorrow he wants to take down the weather station and the DISH. He will probably keep the DISH hooked up, but just place it on the rocks in the back where we can still get reception.

August 10, 2021August 10, 2021

Antique Boat Show & Auction and Weekend Fun! 08/05 – 08/08/2021

We started out the Antique Boat Show weekend wanting to watch the boats cruise on Thursday afternoon for the 2021 Boats on Parade. According to their website, the boats were supposed to leave Clayton about 3:00 and cruise around Grindstone Island. We planned to watch the beautiful wooden boats when they went through the Wellsley Island Narrows about 4:15. We arrived in plenty of time, but only saw one wooden boat: No parade of boats! I am not sure if they just did not go or if they went later in the day. After reviewing ABM’s website, I found multiple times for the Thursday cruise on different pages: the 3:00 start time, a 5:30 start time and a 6:30 start time. Needless to say, I was very disappointed that I did not get to see the parade of boats. I wanted to grab a few pictures as the boats navigated the Narrows. Before heading in, we headed to Clayton to look at the boats tied up at the docks.

August 1, 2021August 9, 2021

Antique Boat Museum’s Storage Facility 07/30/2021

It was another cool, damp morning at 58 degrees when we woke up. Fortunately it warmed up a little later in the day with the sun coming out, but the wind was too strong to use the boat. We are fortunate we are not getting the scorching heat wave that a lot of the country is getting, but I would love a few warm days. Since it was not a good boating day, we decided to visit the Antique Boat Museum’s Doebler Storage Museum a few miles away from the downtown museum.

July 27, 2021July 29, 2021

Randy’s Birthday: Dinner and Boat Ride to Dark Island 07/26/2021

We started celebrating Randy’s birthday early with dinner on Saturday night with Bill and Gail and ended it up with a boat ride to Dark Island on Monday. It was a little windy so the ride back was a little bumpy and a storm was building so we didn’t stop for a late lunch, but it was still a good day. Hopefully Randy enjoyed his birthday!

July 22, 2021July 22, 2021

Oswego; Lock No. O8 – 07/212021

Peter asked us if we wanted to meet him for an early dinner and look at the locks in Oswego. Sounded good to us! We met him at Lock No. O8 and then had dinner at Azteca Mexican Grill on E. Bridge Street in Oswego. Randy said they had the best margaritas and I said they had the best fajitas EVER. And I have had a lot of fajitas in various restaurants so these were really good!

July 18, 2021August 10, 2021

Antique Boat Museum, Clayton 07/17/2021

We enjoyed our day with Bill and Gail visiting the Antique Boat Museum in nearby Clayton. It was another cool, damp day with light showers, but it was still a lot of fun. Even thought we had been to the museum two years ago, it was still interesting to see the antique boats again. They have such a large inventory of boats, the exhibits are not all the same as our previous visit. I know Randy especially liked talking motors/engines with Bill.

July 11, 2021July 18, 2021

Clayton, Classic Cars, Coyote Moon Wine and Friends 7/11/2021

So far most of our days here in Alexandria Bay are cool with showers. Had a line of strong thunderstorms roll through Thursday night with cool weather and a few light showers on Friday. At least the thunderstorms waited until after we helped Peter and Paulla move cars so they will have their car here once they arrive by boat. We are still eating pie that they brought as part of Peter’s family tradition of bringing pies on their first trip to the Thousand Island area for the summer. I really don’t think we will have any left by the time they get back next week.

July 7, 2021July 24, 2021

Fourth of July Weekend 2021

In anticipation of the 4th of July holiday, the park started filling up on Thursday afternoon and by Friday night there were only a few spots left. We watched a solid line of RV’s line up at the office starting about 1:00 on Friday and the line did not end for at least 3 hours. We even got to meet our neighbors for the first time. We did not have any special plans for the weekend, other than friends visiting on Monday, so we had a relaxing few days. Most of our projects had been completed so we did not have any work to do which allowed us to spend some time by the water to watch the boats drive by.

June 1, 2020July 22, 2021

Keys to Reopen to Short-Term Vacationers on Monday, June 1 – 05/31/2020

Due to the COVID-19 virus, the Keys have been shut down since March 21, 2020. Only long-term residents (181 days), property owners, and workers such as first responders, healthcare workers and active military are allowed through the road blocks on US-1. We were very fortunate that we extended our lease early and our original lease was for 6 months plus one day so we had the option to stay and were not forced to leave like many of our friends.

Our lifestyle did not change very much after the road was closed and non-essential businesses were shut down, except that we were not going out to dinner when most everything was closed. Since the reopening plan that allowed limited access to restaurants, stores, etc. has been in place, we have been enjoying some of our favorite spots in the Keys. We finally were allowed to go to Nadine’s to see Susan to get our hair cut with a pedicure from Connie for me. That was a priority and i called the first morning to get appointments!

May 16, 2020July 13, 2021

Little Palm and Geiger Key 05/16/2020

Before Terry and Marcia head for home we took them out on “Sweet Thing” to spent some time on Little Palm, followed up with dinner at Geiger Key. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. We were one of the first boats to arrive, but because it was the weekend, several boats and jet skis soon joined us, It still was not as busy as it would normally have been on a Saturday afternoon, but more boats that what we have seen during a weekday. I know Isla enjoyed her time swimming in the shallow water!