Thousand Islands / August 2024 in Oswego
Driving from Potsdam to Oswego, NY | Thousand Islands Region of New York | Alexandria Bay, NY | Tibbetts Point Lighthouse | A Week in Oswego, NY | August 2024
This morning, we woke up in the parking lot in Potsdam, NY, and immediately took Charlotte on a walk around the park. I then made breakfast, which we all enjoyed under a nearby pavilion, before we packed up and started our day’s drive.
Our first stop was at the Northern terminus of the Red Sandstone Trail, a few miles South of Potsdam. Curtis had heard about this park because of a letterbox, and thought it would be a nice place for a walk. The trail runs along the Raquette River, but the real highlight was seeing the hydro electric pipeline that also ran parallel to the trail. The trail started off as a wide, well maintained path leading up to the dam, which we followed until it turned off into the woods and became much more overgrown, and we decided to skip that and instead returned to the van.
We then continued our drive North, taking state highways up to Waddington, NY on the St. Lawrence River. From there, we started driving Southwest on NY-37. Our plan for the next 2 days was to drive along the New York border, following the St. Lawrence and then Lake Ontario shoreline all the way to Oswego. This region is known as the Thousand Islands region of New York, and having never been here, we were glad to have a reason to check it out. But when it came to researching what we should do, we kind of came up short on ideas. There were several state parks along the river, but none really interested us enough to want to pay the fee or be around other people. Sure, the St. Lawrence river is cool, but we had seen a lot of it this summer in some much cooler locations! Naturally, the Canadian side of the river looked more interesting, but we’ll have to save that for another day. Instead, we just decided to drive and enjoy a lazier day, since Curtis would be working for most of this week.
We ended up finding a rest area to stop at and enjoy a picnic lunch, a nap in the lawn for Charlotte, and reading time for Curtis and I. Overnight parking spots were sort of slim on our route, but the rest areas along the way are actually quite pleasant — long so cars can spread out, and far enough from the highway so that we weren’t right next to the road and it wasn’t too loud. They had plenty of green space, picnic tables, and views of the river and some of the islands, and we felt quite comfortable here. We spent a good portion of the afternoon at one rest area, then moved to another one a few miles down the road for dinner and to sleep.
We were the only ones at our chosen rest area for a while, and we enjoyed dinner and hanging outside while watching a thunderstorm pass over the Canadian side of the river. That evening, one other RV arrived to spend the night…and they chose to park RIGHT it front of our van, even though the rest area was huge with plenty of room to spread out. I get that some people feel the ‘safety in numbers’ thing when overnight parking, but nothing about this area was giving unfriendly or legally questionable vibes. Then they started running their generator, so I shamelessly jumped in the front seat and moved our van to the other side of the area for some peace and quiet. Besides that, we had a lovely evening and enjoyed watching the sunset across the river.
The next morning unfortunately started out with rainy weather, which made each of our stops shortened. We first stopped in Alexandria Bay, which seems to be the main, sort of touristy town in the Thousand Islands area. We made our way to Scenic View Park where we were able to stand under the shelter of a pavilion and look out over several islands in the river. Some of the main highlights of the Thousand Islands are the castles built on the islands, and we were able to view a couple from where we stood. The area was the ‘playground for the rich’ back during the turn of the century, and everyone wanted to build their own personal island retreat. The Singer Castle is probably the most famous one, and the one we could see today. It would have been fun to do the river walk, or even better, to get out on the water and see it by boat, but not today!
Next, we continued driving all the way out to Tibbetts Point lighthouse, which is at the start (end?) of Lake Ontario. The rain was really coming down now, so this turned into another drive by spot, and then we finally finished our drive to Oswego. Our 6 ½ week “summer vacation” had now officially come to an end, and Curtis’ fall season was now officially started — though thankfully it won’t be as heavy/back-to-back like his spring schedule was this year!
We were happy to return to Oswego — last year, it was Curtis’ second ever assignment, and his favorite of that year. We were especially excited to see it in a completely different season! When we arrived, we checked into the same hotel as last year, the Home2 Suites by Hilton. And just like last year, they quickly named Charlotte the ‘pet of the week’ and awarded her with treats, toys, and affection. Because this was a pre-outage visit, Curtis didn’t have to work 12 hour days, so we were able to get out and enjoy our time here a bit. We returned to our favorite park from before — Breitbeck Park on the river — and also returned to Fort Oswego to walk the grounds.
Last time we were here, we weren’t quite as familiar with the company’s stance on food budget, so we had mostly shopped at the nearby Aldi and made our own meals. This time, however, we were more used to eating out, and we were dining with Curtis’ coworkers who have a tendency to go and stretch the boundary, so we ended up visiting some nicer restaurants in town. On our first evening, we just got Chinese takeout because all we wanted was to relax in the hotel room after spending over a month traveling. The second night, we went to Bistro 197 with friends and split a shrimp pasta dish, several appetizers, and a delicious creamy pie. Next, we dined at Azteca Mexican Grill, and enjoyed tacos and a rumchata. On our final night, we went to the Red Sun Fire Roasting Co., which comes highly recommended by everyone who visits this job site. Curtis and I each got a sandwich from here, and the servings were big enough to save for leftovers — which was convenient as we were getting ready to move back into the van for a week!
Our time here went by quickly, and before we knew it we were moving back into the van for the next leg of our journey, which we referred to as the ‘yo-yo’ trip, because what goes South must return North…and we would be coming back here in less than a month!
