Boating with Sunset Delight: TI: Sackets Harbor to Clayton NY

Thursday 7/26/2018
Depart: Sackets Harbor Navy Point Marina 8:35
Arrive: Clayton Municipal Marina 12:50
Distance: 37 nm

We timed our departure from Sackets Harbor to arrive at the Clayton Municipal Marina around 1:00 -their check-in time for the docks.

The route to Clayton took us back into Lake Ontario and then the St. Lawrence River.

Morning Sky in Sackets Harbor, NY

One last look at Navy Point

Large Windmill Farm on Lake Ontario

Entering St. Lawrence River

Approaching Clayton, NY

St. Lawrence River near Clayton, NY

With rainy weather predicted for tomorrow, Clark laid out our plans to walk around town today and visit the Antique Boat Museum, a mostly indoor activity, tomorrow. As soon as we got ourselves situated, we took off to explore the town.

The town offered many interesting sights to see. One of the many enjoyable aspects of this town are the amazing murals done by Kelly Murals

Panel 1 of 3
on Side of Building in Clayton, NY

Panel 2 of 3

Panel 3 of 3

The artist, Kelly, cleverly designed this mural
to hide the windows in this building.
This one also takes up the entire side of a building.

Another Kelly Mural in Clayton, NY

Unlike Sackets Harbor where almost every building appeared to have been built in the early 1800s, the architecture here consists of more of a mix of styles.

Thousand Island Inn -
Home of the Original Thousand Island's Dressing

Restaurant in Clayton, NY

With ghosts in the attic
(restaurant in prior picture)

A house that could use some renovating

Located on Mary Street, St. Mary's Catholic Church in Clayton is a most impressive structure just in size alone! The architecture and surrounding grounds are stunning. From pictures on the internet, I am pretty sure the inside is truly magnificent.

St. Mary's Catholic Church

Fountain on St. Mary's Church grounds

Besides interesting buildings, we passed a few historical sites on our tour of town.

Memorial Tower

Cannons facing St. Lawrence River

Some humor ...

We noticed several museums in town.

Carved woman outside Art Museum

While walking along the river, we got to see some large freighters going about their business.

Federal Rideau on St. Lawrence River

Algoma Discovery

We stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and got lots of travel brochures and a pleasant surprise. The town's Farmer's Market was still in progress just down the street. As part of our town tour, we picked up some homegrown, fresh vegetables. Besides fruits and vegetables, they had a variety of craft tables.

Loaded down with vegetables, we made our way back to the boat to unload and collect our bikes for a trip to the grocery store for other items we needed to replenish our stock. Coming back to the boat after buying groceries, we biked down a rather steep hill. I could hear clip clop clip clop behind me. When I got to the bottom of the hill and could get a good view behind me, I got a bit of a surprise.

Amish Horse and Buggy
Clark said, "They came flying down that hill!"

Perhaps this is the same couple I saw in the grocery store buying large amounts of baking supplies. Later, in the evening, I saw another Amish man, or perhaps the same one again, selling baskets in a parking lot in town. Either the basket vendor also bought massive amounts of baking supplies today (I saw them in his buggy), or it was the same person. I checked out his well-made baskets but did not have a need to buy one today.

When we visited the Chamber of Commerce, we learned that a free concert was available tonight (our lucky day) at Frink Park located very near the municipal marina where we are docked. After stowing our groceries and grabbing a very quick dinner of leftovers, we headed over to the park to hear the music.

Frink Park in Clayton, NY

Live Band for Free Concert

The concert went on from 6:00 until 8:00. When the band took a short break around 7:15 or so, we slipped away to walk along the riverside. Clark suggested we walk back through town towards the Boat Museum we plan to visit tomorrow. Along the way, we spied a 1939 Trumpy with folks on board socializing and eating.

1939 Trumpy

Washingtonian

At the far end of town, we found the boat museum.

Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY

About this time, I checked and found I had walked over 13,000 steps today and that count did not include my biking trip to the grocery store. My legs had about had it, and I still had several blocks to walk back to the boat.

Clark captured some sunset pictures as we walked. The ones he got early on, before the sun actually got close to the horizon, turned out best as later the clouds obscured the sunset.