(Wellesley Island, New York, U.S.A.)
I flew from Geneva, Switzerland, to Toronto (via Dublin) on March 8, 2020. And despite flying thousands of miles on a couple of occasions in 2022, I hadn’t left Canada since that pivotal day in 2020. Until now.
On April 23, 2023, we dusted off our passports and drove through the heart of the 1000 Islands to the United States border…and beyond!
Since the trip was very much a last-minute decision, it was kind of a strange way to end the long international travel drought. But I had done a little bit of research in advance that would prove very helpful.
Our first stop in New York was Wellesley Island State Park. I had driven through Wellesley Island countless times over the years, but this was the very first time I had ever turned off Interstate 81 to visit the park. And because it was not yet the summer tourist season, admission was free.
We began with a brief orientation at the Minna Anthony Common Nature Centre . We confirmed our understanding of the trail system, and embarked on an extremely enjoyable hike along Eel Bay. We were walking for well over an hour…and didn’t see anybody else after the first minute.
We had great views of the St. Lawrence River and the American portion of the 1000 Islands. Wellesley Island is home to deer, wild turkeys, snakes, and huge birds of prey…and today we saw all of them.
We were also surprised by the rough terrain. Maybe not quite as rugged as Italy’s Cinque Terre, but reminiscent of at least the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland.
After leaving Wellesley Island State Park, we visited the “Private Community” of 1000 Islands Park. It looks like an exclusive cottage enclave from the 1920s that has been frozen in time ever since. And since it was only April, virtually all of the houses were empty. It was eerily quiet.
We then crossed to the “mainland” of New York State. We briefly stopped in Clayton but, like most villages on the water around here, it was virtually deserted. It will come to life again once Victoria Day weekend arrives, along with the first substantial groups of tourists and cottagers.
We had worked up quite an appetite, so we continued on to Watertown for dinner. Watertown is the largest community in this part of New York state but it still has only about 24,500 people. Yet we still managed to find an interesting place to eat: B-Hat’s Curry House, featuring Indian and Nepali cuisine. And we had both!
We started with some momos for our appetizer, followed by a main course of chicken korma and chicken vindaloo. The sauces were very rich and the korma had a pleasing cashew accent. The vindaloo packed a lot of punch, so I was glad to have ordered a lassi drink to neutralize the burn.
After dinner, we took some local highways through communities like…Philadelphia! The New York version is only a small village, but it’s not the only “alternate” version around here. If we had kept going, we would have made it to Antwerp. And there are communities named Copenhagen, Mexico, Turin, and Rome around here. too.
We returned to Canada as the sun was setting over the 1000 Islands. It was a lot of fun to be an international traveler again, even if it was only for one day. I can’t wait to get the passport out again soon!
