Rain while riding is a fact of life; one stops, puts on rain gear, keeps going, and arrives relatively dry. Ah, there’s the rub–arrives where? When one has no destination, riding in the rain makes no sense.  So here we are in Watertown, NY, virtually on the banks of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in a Quality Inn with rain, rain, rain.  A real all-day soaker, a toad strangler, a gully washer, a pain in the pitute.

I have been known to teach creative problem solving.  Can you guess what we did?  Bingo. Rent a car for a day and enjoy ourselves on the shores of Lake Ontario at Sackets Harbor (sorry, no pix) and  at Boldt’s Castle on Heart Island in the St. Lawrence.  Yes we have pix.  George Boldt owned the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in NY City and many other properties; he was super rich in the Guilded Age at the turn of the 20th century.  He loved his wife, Louise, and wanted to give her a special gift for Valentines Day.  So, he began to build her a castle.  She died; he quit.  It sat for years in disrepair, but now is being restored according to the original design.  It is largely finished except for the 3rd and 4th floors

.  One starts at the Boldt Yacht House and takes a boat to Heart Island and the castle.  Enjoy the pix:

The boat ride was short:

Shuttle to the Island in the rain.

And the castle was spendid: