Queens, convicts and Lunatics

P is going to kill me for the title - but ....these are the highlights of Kingston, Ontario- my first venture into Canada. I was going in to help sissy "settle" in her new university. That's pretty much what I did so maybe this should not be on the travelogue blog. Oh, whatever.

So after a bit too many flight delays and "random" security checks, I reached the tiny one room airport at Kingston. Never thought an airport could be smaller than the one in Long beach but wait till you see the one at Kingston. Kingston is a strange place. Strange is actually not a good descriptive - it's Bizarre. To be fair, there are pockets which are really lively - the one near Princess and Ontario street, with cafes, restuarants and ofcourse the great confluence of the huge lake and river. If teh weather is good, there are the isalnd cruise and the dozen patio restaurants serving any cuisine you can think of ....

So what's the "BUT"? Well, the weather is rarely good. I guess coming from a person stuck in New england for 3 years that is a laugh! What annoyed me about the place was that it was NOTHING like the good old semi-socialist, multi-cultural Canada I had heard about. And to top that for whatever bizarre reason, the men there look even dumber than the ones here! Much of the time P and I spent in patios over plates full of yummy octopi, stuffed trout or fajitas was as judges of the Mr Dumbest contest. Much of the crowd made even the ulta baseball cap undergrads look like Einsteins. No, seriously.

Straight out of the horse's mouth (I mean a resident of Kingston), some more points on Bizarrre-villa: The chair of one department gets drunk in the afternoon trying to entertain new comers and convience them not to run away in one month, another chair sings in a punk band at night and collects money in his cap, hairdressers go down on their knees and insist on giving you a free pedicure altho you've gone for a haircut, and movie theatre people let you "check out" the movie for the first half hour and promise to return your money if you come out not liking it! WHATEVER YOU DO PLEASE DON'T GO AWAY! ok enough goofiness.

Well, since this is a travelogue, here are some pics of the prettier spots of that town ... more to follow. I want to go soak up the sun before it disappears!