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magazine / jf08
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January/February 2008 issue |
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Night at the museum ship (page 3)
I awake to bird chatter and soft
light streaming in and soon head to the
officers’ mess for breakfast. I have yet to
meet any fellow guests, though I had heard
that the Alexander Henry is a popular
spot among divers, who enjoy exploring
the many wrecks in the waters of the
St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario.
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Storied stays
Want to spend the night in a living
piece of Canadian history? These quirky
accommodations offer unique ways to
experience Canada’s past from the
comfort of your bed.
Skycastle lookout Wake up to a soaring
panorama of British Columbia’s Slocan
Valley in a recently restored fire tower.
Constructed in 1948, the former B.C.
Forest Service tower was abandoned in
the late 1970s and suffered 28 years of
vandalism and neglect. These days, it
sleeps six guests and houses a museum.
www.skycastlelookout.com
Ottawa Jail Hostel Get locked up for
the night in one of Canada’s most
haunted buildings. Opened in 1862,
the Carleton County Gaol operated for
more than 100 years and bore witness
to illegal executions, torturous punishment
and the public hanging of Patrick
Whelan, who was convicted of assassinating
Thomas D’Arcy McGee, one of
the fathers of Confederation. Guests can
take their pick of former jail cells, the
prison hospital or the governor’s quarters.
www.hostelz.com
The Convent Country Inn Built in the
tiny southwest Saskatchewan village of
Val Marie in 1939, this former Roman
Catholic convent was run as a residential
high school by the Sisters of the
Assumption until its doors closed in the
mid-1960s. A retired businessman saved
it from demolition in 1996 and converted
the building into a fully restored
nine-bedroom hotel. www.convent.ca
Lennox Inn Stay in what is said to be
the oldest inn in Canada, a 217-year-old
Georgian house in historic Lunenburg,
N.S. The building underwent seven years
of restoration beginning in 1991 and
now offers four large rooms that provide
a glimpse into 18th-century living.
www.lennoxinn.com
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Heather Black and Dan Chapman
of Ottawa join me for cereal and yogourt.
They were invited to a wedding in
Kingston, and by the time Dan got
around to booking accommodation, all the hotel rooms were taken, no doubt
by Poker Run junkies.
"So I figured I would see if there were
any B&B rooms available, and I found
this one," he says. "It was described as a
B&B by the lake. I’m a cottager, so this
sounded great. I told my friend here in
Kingston the address, and he said, 'You
fool, you’re staying on an old ship!’"
Bob and Andrew Ekins, a father and
teenage son from Woodstock, Ont.,
knew exactly what they were booking.
Over the past three weeks, Andrew has
been attending a sea cadet program at
the Royal Military College (RMC) in
Kingston, and his dad has come to take him home. "I thought this would be a
good way to end his stay here," says Bob.
Andrew fills me in on the RMC experience,
and we talk about what it must
have been like on the Alexander Henry
when it was commissioned. We speculate
on how often the helicopter pad was
actually used.
"Oh, they went out on search and
rescue missions all right," says a woman
sitting opposite me, who introduces
herself as Carole Quinn from Belleville,
Ont. "I was a nurse in Thunder Bay in
the early ’60s, and I knew a few of the
guys working on the ship. I went up in
the helicopter once. Holy Christmas,
it was noisy."
Carole is participating in a Canadian
Olympic training regatta. She booked
into the Alexander Henry, but only when
she boarded the ship and started walking
around did she realize that this was the
same Coast Guard icebreaker from her
days in Thunder Bay. Kismet works in
mysterious ways.
Much as I want to stay and chat, my
night at the museum is drawing to a
close. Heather and Dan and the Ekinses
are heading home, and Carole is going
sailing. Besides, it is getting close to
10 a.m., the time when the B&B turns
back into a museum artifact.
Alan Morantz is a contributing editor
of Canadian Geographic. He lives in
Kingston.
David Barbour is an award-winning
photographer based in Ottawa.
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