Ministers Island

The last couple days have been interesting, we have been waiting for the tropical storm Nicole to grace us with her appearance but she went north and yes we got some rain last night but nothing to worry about. It was a little eerie as the eastern side of the storm brought warm winds and we would wake up to mornings that were 21 degrees.

Yesterday we did get out however for a short drive around to see the golf course.

Today after being couped up two days I was ready to go so we were going to see Ministers Island.

We got there a little to early and because we have to drive across the ocean floor we passed some time by going to take a picture of the town's water tank, pretty isn't it.

Finally it was time we could cross, a gentleman greeted us on the other side to open the gate and give us instructions as to get to the main house.



Now Ministers Island is the summer home of Sir William Van Horne, yes the boss, the great railway baron of the CPR.

This is the road up to the house.

The summer home was built in the 1890's and was very beautiful but needs much repair.

Here Ron stands in the main entrance with a painting of the last spike.

The billiards room

Now the Van Horne's had 37 servants here at the summer cottage and he had them build him what he called his fresh tidal swimming pool, it was at one time 8 feet deep. When the tide came in it would fill the pool and he would wait for about 5 hours for it to warm up, have the servants get the seaweed and shellfish out and go for his swim.

While we were there I asked the guide where Hospital Island was as I knew it was close and she pointed it out, this was the area's Irish immigration area of quarantene. There were many bodies buried on this tiny island and it has been said that during storms the waves would cover much of the island unearthing the graves and bones would appear on the beaches on the mainland.

Here is the bathhouse and it is the only part that they have been able to fix up so far.

Now this is certainly my idea of a summer cottage, I think it is already bigger than the lot at Seymour Arm.

Now you might wonder why the island had the name of Ministers Island, well the first person to build a home was Parson Andrews, hence Ministers Island.

So that proved to be such an interesting tour but back into town, thought I would take a few pictures so you can see what it looks like.

This is the Fairmont Algonquin, for those that do not know, Fairmont hotels used to be called the Canadian Pacific Hotels.

This is just the road that leads to our park and yes the coach fit under te trees.

And a picture of our park with such a fantastic view out our front window, we actually look across the water to the US.

The town is very quaint and here are a couple of the murals on the sides of buildings.