September 8th 2018 Weekend - Kingston Trip
- Kaylin M
- Oct 14, 2018
- 7 min read
I want to start off by apologizing to myself, and anybody that happens to read this, for not keeping up with my writing over the summer. Work has been crazy busy and I am officially full time now, so I don't have as much time to put towards writing. Also, over the summer I struggled with work burnout (I know it seems ridiculous at such a young age, but if you knew the whole story you'd understand); as well as mental health issues. It was a tough time for me, but I had a great support team that got me through it...for now...Seasonal Affective Disorder is right around the corner. Anyways, I'll tackle that bridge when I get to it, for now let's get back to what I've been up to lately.
I love Kingston. As a kid, we used to vacation at a cottage on Wolfe Island in Kingston and I have very fond memories of those times. It is an area filled with history and beauty. We rarely get the chance to go to Kingston, so when Blake arranged to meet up with some of his gaming friends in Kingston, I had to go along. I invited one of our couple friends (Josh and Michelle) so that, while Blake was with his friends, I could third wheel on some fun activities in Kingston. Michelle and Josh came up the night before so that we could head out first thing in the morning. On our way to Kingston, we stopped off at The Big Apple to pick up some of their delicious apple bread! Yummy! The first thing I wanted to do when we got to Kingston was to visit my cousins (Chris and Jenn) and goddaughter (Elisabeth). I, unfortunately, don't get to see them very often because my goddaughter, Elisabeth, doesn't travel well. I'll write a VIP post about her at a later date, but she has a lot of medical needs so in order for them to travel with her, it takes a lot of pre-planning.
I had told Jenn that I was coming for the weekend, but she didn't pass the message along to Chris because he was very surprised when I arrived; he was still in his pajamas. I stayed for a couple of hours and the visit was perfect. Once Jenn came home from running errands, we drank tea and watched The Great British Baking Show. I got to tour their new house and have a great visit with Elisabeth. I can't usually help out too much, but I do what I can when I'm around. Elisabeth just got a g-tube (which has now been replaced with a low maintenance port), so she's able to gain more nutrition, quicker. I was assigned the task of body support and vomit bucket grabber; sometimes her little stomach can't handle the quick food intake. The whole time I was there, she was all smiles and full of giggles. I loved every minute. I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so, at about 3:30 p.m. I left and met back up with Josh and Michelle at the hotel.
Once back at the hotel, Josh and Michelle took a nap before we got dressed up for our night out. We had booked a dinner cruise with 1000 Islands Cruises. I had gotten the time of departure wrong and was on the phone with my dad when I realized. I accidentally and abruptly hung up the phone with him (Sorry Dad) and woke up Michelle and Josh, so we could rush over. It ended up that we didn't need to rush because we were one of the first ones in line. The moment I got on the boat I was surprised that I was feeling nausea. Luckily for me, my mother taught me to always be prepared, so I had Gravol in my purse. I popped a Gravol and then I was good to go for the 3 hour tour ... a 3 hour tour (did you sing that part? #GilligansIsland). The cruise included a tour around some of the famous 1000 Islands, as well as a 4 course meal. It started off with an amuse bouche which was a refreshing spoonful, followed by a delicious summer salad. As well, Michelle ordered a shrimp cocktail and the shrimps were plump and tasty.
On the cruise, they had entertainment. I had heard mixed reviews about the entertainment, but I actually enjoyed him. He told stories and sang and, although his show was kind of gimmicky; as long as you didn't watch the show and just listened, it wasn't so bad. We got to choose our entrees from a few options. I chose the filet mignon which included mashed potatoes. The steak was overdone...and slightly cold, but overall good enough to eat. Food is food after all.
The cruise was full so by the time we got each course, it took up the whole cruise. We were one of the last sections to get each course, which worked perfectly because by the time we got to eat the next meal, we had digested our food to have enough space for the next course. We enjoyed taking time to go outside and breathe in the fresh air between eating. I took a break before dessert to go outside to watch the sunset. When I returned to the table, the lights inside the boat had been turned on to illuminate the dining area since it was starting to get dark outside. Shortly after, our desserts arrived. Michelle and I had the strawberry shortcake and Josh, who paid extra for his dessert, had the white chocolate lava cake. Our dessert had mostly likely come in a large box from Metro, but Josh's lava cake was delightfully delicious. It was an interesting experience being on a glass boat in complete darkness. It was actually kind of romantic; too bad Blake wasn't there and I was third-wheeling. Oh well! Once we arrived back at the dock, we got in the car and headed home. We picked up Blake on the way back to the hotel and I was exhausted! We tried to stay up and play Red Flags, which is a new card game that Blake and I just bought, but I passed out shortly after we started.
The next day, I woke up early. I stayed in bed for a bit before my hunger got the better of me and I woke up Blake so that we could head downstairs for the continental breakfast. We took our breakfast back to the room and attempted to wake up Josh and Michelle. It took a couple of tries. My mind was in a rush because I had booked us a tour at the infamous Kingston Penitentiary (KP) at 9:30am and I knew that we would still need to drop Blake off. It wasn't surprising when we were almost late AGAIN after some people had taken, what felt like, an eternity to get ready in the morning. Yes, I'm a tad bitter about it. We check out in a rush and later, on the way home, realized that we had forgotten our apple bread and my (very expensive) favourite eye mask. We didn't have time to stop at The Big Apple on the way home, so we couldn't buy more apple bread, but I whined about my eye mask for a week before Blake gave in and bought me a new one for my upcoming birthday. I have the best boyfriend ever. Anyways, when we arrived at KP, our tour was just heading out. So, we quickly signed our waivers, grabbed our yellow tour bracelets and raced into the adjoining room to catch up with our tour. The tour was an hour and a half and it was fascinating. The prison has been closed for a couple of years now, but it holds so much history. I won't spoil too much for those that end up going to on the tour, but we got to hear stories, some even firsthand, about the 1970's KP riot, prison escape stories, and inmate encounters. A lot of the individuals working on the tour were previous KP employees. KP was a maximum security prison, but we were taken into the more "minimum security" areas of the maximum security prison. If you go on this tour hoping to discover that the inmates had to share cells, were kept isolated, and treated as they deserved (depending on the crime) ... then you will be disappointed. At the end of KP's functioning life, the inmates were treated as humans, with restrictions of course. After the tour, we ventured across the street to the old warden's house that has been converted into a museum. There you can see how inmates were historically treated at KP, those individuals were not treated as humans, but rather people that did horrible crimes. The things they used to do for punishment are horrible to even think about. Anyhow, the tour was fascinating and I 100% recommend it if you are ever in the Kingston area.
The day was cold and gloomy, but we still had one more stop to make before we retrieved Blake and headed home. It just happened that RibFest was happening in Kingston that weekend and, since I had missed the Peterborough one, I really wanted to go. We tried two different types of ribs, Josh and Michelle's choice of ribs were better. We sat in the frigid cold, eating our ribs and listening to music while we waited for Blake to join us. While we waited, I had my first ever BeaverTail. I know! A Canadian that has never had a BeaverTail, sacrilege. It was good. Finally, Blake joined us and we could head home...except now Josh wanted to make a stop. He wanted to pick up the new Spiderman video game so that he could play it THAT night. He didn't want to wait. So, off in search of a Walmart we went. While we were there, Josh got his game and Michelle and I got sweaters. We should have went there when we first arrived because those sweaters were much needed for this weekend. Now that we were all happy and warm, we could FINALLY head home. It was a great weekend that I will truly never forget.
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