Gananoque, Ontario

Gananoque, Ontario

June 2, 2012 – Gananoque sports a population of 5200 and is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River a few kilometers downstream from Kingston, Ontario. There are a number of reasons that one might want to visit Gananoque. One reason might be to visit the OLG 1,000 Islands Casino visible from the Hwy 401 intersection. As we were arriving at that intersection, we were directly behind a large white bus that acted as a shuttle bus bringing another busload of people to the Casino. We had no particular interest in following that bus into the casino parking lot since my success rate at slot machines is very low.

 

On this occasion, our interest was the Thousand Island Playhouse on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. The Thousand Islands Playhouse facilities are comprised of two theaters, the Springer Theatre and the Firehall Theatre. We have not attended any productions in the Firehouse facility so can’t comment on it. The Springer Theatre offers a view of the St. Lawrence River from either of its two full-length decks. The Playhouse is rather unique in design reflecting it’s early beginnings, over 100 years ago, as a boathouse for the Gananoque Canoe & Motor Boat Club. Sporting not one but two full length decks looking out over the river, the Playhouse provides plenty of space both inside and out to meet and mingle before performances and during the intermissions. In the 1920’s the boat club’s dance floor was the largest of any in Eastern Ontario and it is now this dance floor area that has been converted to serve as a theatre facility offering live theatre from May through to October.

The current production, which we enjoyed very much, was Dan Goggin’s Nunsense II, a fun musical, featuring five women in nun’s habit (no surprise there), lots of interaction with the audience – I won the Bingo but forgot to pick up my prize! – and plenty of jokes and antics to keep the audience guessing. The cast of Mary Kelly, Marlene Handrahan, Hilary Wilson, Kristen Galer and Ramona Gilmour-Darling provided strong well-paced performances and left no doubt about what a nun could do with the right mindset and the habit to match. Nonsense II – The Second Coming, is playing through to June 16th, 2012 (Thousand Islands Playhouse, Springer Theatre, Gananoque, Ontario – Box Office – 613-382-7070)

On previous visits to the 1,000 Islands, we had arranged our accommodation and tickets separately, but on this occasion we decided to choose one of the theatre packages offered by the Gananoque Inn & Spa and enjoyed a fine three course meal before walking the short distance from the inn to the theatre. After the show, the walk back to the Inn was a pleasant way to stretch one’s legs before retiring for the evening.

A side note – The theatre production finished before the end of the NHL Stanley Cup finals game between the Kings and the Devils. The Devils lost the game in overtime 2-1 but I doubt that the Nunsense crew had anything to do with that! :-))

June 3, 2010 – Before heading onward in our journey, I spent a bit of the morning walking around Gananoque with camera in hand. The skies were heavily overcast, humidity was high and rain sprinkled intermittently down on me as I made my rounds. Not the greatest conditions for photography but not bad enough for me to stop clicking that shutter.

 

Despite the ugly weather, there was a dry land kayak program underway and, since I own a couple of kayaks, I couldn’t resist photographing a kayak on the rocks :-).

For those who might like their water power to come from something other than human effort and a paddle, Gananoque has plenty of interesting water craft with a variety of power and purpose.

The Arthur Child Heritage Museum was closed when I passed by but right next door there was a Cruise day gathering featuring some pretty interesting looking vehicles.

As anyone who follows my blogs knows, I find it a bit tough to pass by any kind of fire hydrant without adding it to my image collection.  When that fire hydrant is smiling back at me it is even tougher to leave the area without photographing it first.

After chatting for a bit with the owner of the two-toned 1949 Chevy pick-up truck, I headed on my way wishing him the best of luck with trying to polish his truck with the light mist that was falling.

The architecture of Gananoque is very varied and many of the churches are themselves very impressive structures.

 

Grace United Church

St. John’s Roman Catholic Church

 

It might be somewhat difficult to do but the next time that you see a fire hydrant, remember to smile!!! You never know what those fire hydrants might be thinking :-).

 

It was beginning to drizzle some more so off I went to get to my car. It was going to be one of those windshield wiper types of day.

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