Tuesday 27 August 2019

Anniversary trip Part 3 – the resort

It was a long day. We arrived at the resort for 1:30, had lunch [Happy anniversary to us!],  went for a drive [Ivy Lea], returned to try for our room. No luck.
It's huge: two pools, lots of rooms!


As well as a outdoor pool, there is an indoor one. 

We went walkies...


We walked around a bit more.


We kept trying to get into room. I'm wondering if they are simply refusing to let us in until 4 p.m., as it says on their website? I know that many places are having trouble finding staff. I don't know. We plunked ourselves down on the lawn.

I was ready for a cocktail on the deck, but the bar didn't open until 4 p.m., either. sigh.


Then we sat by the water. A bit of a surprise. My cell phone provider sent me a text warning me of roaming rates. Now, as far as I know, Gananoque is on the Canadian side of the border! I switched her up to airplane mode! Crikey, there is a learning curve for smart phones!

Back to the office, to see if our room was ready. Finally, yes. We'd been here since 1:30! It was only an hour's drive from home.





We were finally in just after 4 p.m.


Now, I am of average height for a woman. I'm 5' 4", last I checked. I have trouble with sinks. You try to lean over to wash your face, and it's tough to reach. I've now lost some weight, but that's a moot point.



A lovely view of the water.


First order of business, a swim in the outdoor pool. The kids were happy and jumping in. I was trying to avoid getting my hair wet! The pool was busy. There were a couple of clumps of long, blonde hair in the side of the pool. Ugh.

Pre-dinner drinks! JB was wearing the shirt he wore when we were married 17 years ago! (I outgrew my dress!) We had our drinks on the pub deck, and watched the boats go by. I was wearing the dress I wore for Jesse & Stacie's wedding.


Shipman's Dining Room

They named the dining room after the original owners of the property. The property consisted
of a grant of a mile of property. The Shipmans, a UEL family, created a farm out of forest.
By 1875, visitors on vacation from the US, 14.5 km across the river were coming for the fishing in the Thousand Islands. With development, the farms turned into vacation spots. Famous names owned the land: Seagrams, Wisers, Vanderbilts, Rubensteins, Bensons and Pullmans were regular summer visitors. (It freezes in winter!) The bootleggers, rum runners and cigarette boats reigned.
With the Great Depression, many properties were either neglected or demolished to avoid taxes.
The Seal family has been running the place since 1963. The original farmhouse was destroyed in a fire, but the rebuild is lovely.

Into the dining room for our dinner at 5:30. It was lovely and quiet.


Dinner was pretty good.


It was fun watching the people and boats. People come for dinner from all around.


There was a big family that arrived for dinner. They all arrived on a boat, with one dude coming on his own on the jetski. He took off early! (I love people watching!)


This family was having a blast fishing off of the dock!


This pair made me curious!
kayaks from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Anniversary trip

9 comments:

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Happy belated Anniversary ...great getaway to celebrate! The cell tower you connected to must have been on the other side of the border. weird, especially for people who live there! We had that happen to us when we were in Alaska (the opposite of course ...Tower would be in Canada). Looks like beautiful country and a nice resort!

David M. Gascoigne, said...

It has been my general experience in recent years that it is ever more difficult to get into a room early. I was advised at one place that it is because more and more people stay in their rooms right up until the time they have to leave (I assume 11:00 am) and they are late getting started with making up the rooms for the next guests. For me it is generally not a big issue if I can drop my bags off for storage until 4:00 pm.

Rain said...

Happy Anniversary! Such a lovely spot, but yeah, what's up with them making you wait like that???

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Once settled, fun had. Larger establishments probably don't quite have the flexibility of timings that could be attained from B&Bs or small guest houses. Sitting under the trees watching the water seems to me to be a pretty good 'fill-in'! YAM xx

RedPat said...

Congrats to you both!

Nancy J said...

Did the guy on the kayak have the rod, and she had the chilly bin for fish, or were they on a holiday trip? Pity you had to wait SO long, water views are always so good.Loved your dress,beautiful colours.

Lowcarb team member said...

It does seem that more places are being stricter on what time you can have your room. I guess if guests do not have to vacate their rooms until 11.00am the hotels do need enough change round time.

Loved seeing your photographs.

All the best Jan

Sue (this n that) said...

Happy Anniversary Jenn - it was a pity you had to wait so long for your room however it was good to see it didn't dent your celebrations too much. You both look very happy and many many more years to come xx

William Kendall said...

David's explanation makes sense.