Sliding back in time again, the story of Kingston began about 350 years ago.
Situated mid way between Montreal and Toronto, the French established a trading post in 1673 at the mouth of the Cataraqui river. Over the next 100 years French settlers moved in and established Fort Fontenac at the site. Then. In 1759 the British captured and destroyed Fort Fontenac during the 7 Years War. By 1780 British loyalists began moving into the area renaming it Kings Town and refortifying it with Fort Henry on the heights overlooking the remains of old Fort Fontenac.
Kingston rose to become a center for confederation and in 1841 briefly became the capital of a newly united Canada. But, although Kingston was never attacked during the War of 1812, queen Victoria deemed it too close to a young and aggressive America to remain as a center of government.
Our brief stay at the municipal Confederation Marina has been a welcomed big city experience. For $25 U.S. we took a great tour of the city on the Hop-on-Hop-off double-deck bus. Queen's University, Canadian Naval Academy and Fort Henry are among the stops. We have even managed to stay up for some night life including the movie Mary Shelley at the Screening Room on Princess street. It is a must-see movie: Wife of the English romantic poet, Mary Shelley was the author of Frankenstein.
Polite, civilized and graffiti-free, our introduction to Canada at Kingston is a great experience. It is also the begining of our second canal adventure: the historic Rideau Canal that will take us north to Ottawa.
