Day 72 Kingston

After our marathon nap (that lasted all night), we decided that a trolley tour was the best way to see the city. By the way, forgot to include in yesterday's blog about customs. We were so anxious about it and heard all kinds of horror stories. Well, they did it over the phone, it took less than 5 minutes and they couldn't have been nicer. Whew! The tour covered all the highlights of the city. Kingston is known as the limestone city because of the abundance of structures made out of that material here. They have beautiful buildings and homes. The city hall is right at the entrance of the marina. - it is majestic. Rumor is that the forefathers built it to house parliament and keep Kingston as the capital of Canada - neither thing happened. Toured the Royal Military College which was patterned after West Point. It reminded us of a smaller Annapolis. Their museum was in a martello which is a round building that is really a mini fort with 3 cannons. The roof is detachable in 4 pieces and when the city needs defending - off it comes and out come the cannons. There are 4 in the city and they are credited with keeping Kingston safe from us Americans in the War of 1812. One is in our marina - John shot a picture that is quite dramatic with the front moving in. However, he is unable to send me any pictures right now. Hopefully, I can send them from the next marina. An extensive gun collection was in the museum - it took up the entire second floor and was donated to Canada by a Mexican dictator. One of the dorms has a sword on the roof. It was welded there as a practical joke many years ago by the senior class - it points to the girls college. We visited the maritime museum which focuses on the boat building in this area. It was quite interesting. At one point there were about 40 builders here, but now there is maybe a half dozen. Watching this front - not sure if we are going to get out of here tomorrow. Internet is sketchy in the marina so bear with me. (FYI - John's cell phone is turned off so that we don't incur charges. Text me on my phone if needed.)