Uncle Sam Boat Tours: Thousand Islands
Alexandria Bay, New York
Since 1926, five generations of boat captains have steered an ample cargo of appreciative guests up and down 22 miles of the St. Lawrence River through the Thousand Islands with Uncle Sam Boat Tours.
Today the company’s fleet employs a number of sizable vessels, including three paddle-style boats running on modern diesel engines that can carry hundreds of passengers setting sail from a convenient dock.
“We’re right in the heart of the Thousand Islands; we don’t have to go 20 miles an hour to get anywhere,” said sales manager Fred Dobbins. “We’re right here, and that’s why we can take our time and our tours are very leisurely.”
Uncle Sam Boat Tours offers a number of different cruises, though the most popular, according to Dobbins, is the two-and-a-half-hour Two Nation Tour, which meanders into Canadian waters — no passport required — and past opulent Millionaire’s Row, a series of islands fitted in the 19th and early 20th century with waterside mansions. The most popular attraction along the way is Boldt Castle, which has been restored to its intended luster after sitting dormant for more than 70 years.
Portland Head Light
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Of the hundreds of lighthouses that dot the coastlines of North America, the most photographed is the Portland Head Light on the Gulf of Maine. And rightly so.
“It’s a beautiful, picturesque spot,” said Jeanne Gross, the director of the adjacent Portland Head Light Museum. “It seems to many visitors to be the image they have of Maine before they arrive. We’ve got the rocky coastline, we have islands, we have the ocean.”
The museum, located in the old keeper’s house, features a number of exhibits, including a history of the lighthouse, which was originally lit with 16 whale oil lamps in early 1791, making it the oldest lighthouse in Maine. The tower still sits on its original base, from which it ascends 72 feet. The museum also has on display a timeline of the history of Cape Elizabeth, which became the steward of the property in 1990, although the Coast Guard still maintains the light and the fog signal.
An iron spiral staircase with 89 steps leads to the lantern room, which is open to the public only one day each year: Maine Open Lighthouse Day.
Billings Farm and Museum
Woodstock, Vermont
Bucolic Billings Farm is still being used for its intended purpose when it was founded in 1871 by native Vermonter and ardent conservationist Frederick Billings.
“Frederick Billings actually started the farm as a showcase farm. He wanted to show a better way of living and a better way of farming,” said Susan Plump, public relations and events coordinator at Billings Farm and Museum. “He brought the Jersey cows over from the Isle of Jersey and the Southdown sheep from England.
“The farm manager’s house was completed in 1890, and it’s really a showcase house for that time period; it had running water, gas lighting, flush toilets and a bathtub inside.”
Billings is still an operational dairy farm, and visitors can see a variety of daily agricultural demonstrations, like cattle milking. The museum pays homage to Vermont’s rural past with a number of exhibits that illuminate the features of farm life back in the 19th century, among them an annual quilt show furnished with pieces created by residents of surrounding Windsor County during the last two years.
