Travel Tales

Canal cruising through the Fall foliage peak season

An hour's drive to a great New England canal cruise

Top row: Rounding the Kingston NY lighthouse on the Hudson River to visit FDR's Hyde Park and leaving that port with the vibrant foliage sun struck.
Bottom row: Tied up in Montreal with Habit from the '67 Expo in the background with the pilot house raised in normal position and on right pulled ashore with the pilot house lowered and the bow ramp out along the Erie Canal.

This year's foliage was the best, and seen from a riverboat

By Walter and Patricia Brooks

We stayed the night before at the Williams Grant Inn in beautiful Bristol, RI.

We ate at Quito's Restaurant with this sunset.

The foliage along the canals was spectacular - can you spot the giant Blue Heron in the reeds?

The Singer Castle in the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence Seaway was opulence beyond description.

Some canal bridges allowed one inch of clearance as seen from the pilot house with Capt. Mike at the helm..

And we could not count all the ships we passed, this one greeted by a flock of Canada Geese.

And every lockmaster took the time to chat with us.

I even managed to sit with President & Mrs. Roosevelt.

And Cruise Director Lisa Pontarelli, here with a local entertainer who came aboard, was masterful.

Every meal began with freshly, baked breads & muffins.

New England's record-breaking wet June was bad for business, but it was great for the region's Fall foliage.

And since we get almost none here on Cape Cod, we looked for a way to view it from a boat deck, and discovered the American Canadian Caribbean Line just beyond the Braga Bridge at Fall River in Warren RI.

Family operated for over 40 years American Canadian Caribbean Line of Warren, Rhode Island is the brainchild of shipbuilder, Capt. Luther H. Blount who died at the age of ninety in 2006.

In the 1950's, in order to experience a small ship cruise on the historic Northeastern waterways, you had to own your own yacht or have a friend who did.

Luther Blount owned such a yacht and invited many friends to join him and his young family. It evolved into a business as guests started to multiply, requesting to contribute to the cost and to bring friends of their own.

The Fall Foliage Cruise

The twelve night cruise we took started in Warren, RI, where we boarded a motor coach for a ride to Quebec City during the very height of the Fall foliage season two weeks ago.

The trip includes these stop-overs or visits: West Point on the Hudson River, Kingston, where we visited President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ancestral home at Hyde Park on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River, Troy, where we had a city tour, followed by these Erie Canal Stops, Oswego, Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Dark Island and Ogdensburg with the really wonderful Remington Art Museum, all in New York State.

The two French Canadian cities we spent a day or longer at were Montreal and Quebec City.

Food on board

The comments most passengers on cruises make about the food aboard is that it's plentiful. Few rave about the quality, however.

On this ACCL cruise it was both.

The small number of passengers here allows some very good chefs and bakers to prepare meals as you might find in a very good restaurant.

Coffee and teas were available around the clock along with munchies and biscotti, and breakfasts were marvelous.

Every lunch included a great soup and dinners included delights like Baked Stuffed Lobster and Prime Ribs.

There was freshly baked bread at each meal and cookies and desserts.

Entertainment aboard

Every evening aboard included some entertainment from talks about the next day's stops and tours to local musical groups and movies.

Onshore highlights

The tours were all commendable and well worth the time and cost.

Quebec City and Montreal was walkable without guides, and the ship even offer bikes if you wish to use the ample bike paths in both cities.

Most unusual tours

Dark Island: A part of American history and local folklore meet at Singer Castle on Dark Island which is located on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Singer Castle is the only castle on our river to be completed, fully furnished and resided in during the heyday of the 'great builders' and industrials in New York. The Castle remained in the possession of the original Bourne family from its construction in 1905 until the mid 1960's.

Remington Museum: Frederic Remington's unique American paintings and sculptures are a part of our history and even grace the Oval Office at the White House.

The Remington Art Museum is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving and interpreting the art and archives of this accomplished artist.

The depth and breadth of the museum's Remington holdings is unmatched. The great majority of items came directly from Eva Remington's 1918 estate. They include sketchbooks, endless pages of notes, photographs - even the cigars that were in his pocket before he died.

I had little regard for his work until this visit when I was deeply impressed with Remington's ability to capture an exciting period of our past.

Where to stay in Bristol

We wanted to be near the ship for the early morning departure, so Pat researched and found a gem on High Street, the Williams Grant Inn.

The house is classic and the breakfast mind-boggling: fresh fruit, homemade muffins, pancakes, bacon, etc. We weren't hungry again until Canada.

Where to eat in Bristol

Quito's Restaurant and Fish Market's reputation is worldwide after 55 years hanging over the edge of Narragansett Bay at the north end of town.

Owner-chef Albert has owned restaurants from Maine and back and while his seafood entrees are magnificent, the three chowders are spectacular: New England (creamy and thick), Manhattan (yes, with tomato and great), and Rhode Island style (like chowder was before tourism).

6,000 vs. 66

The trip was a delight from start to finish, which included the sunset shown below. If you get lost on those giant super liners with up to six thousand noisy passengers, try the American, Canadian, Caribbean Cruise Line next voyage and relax.

There were about 66 fellow passenger on this trip, and they were all gentlemen and women.

Our last Hudson River sunset found this happy crew toasting the good ship Grand Caribe.
From left: Sara, Little D, Becky, Rick, Connie, Pat and Margaret.