Day 3 started with asking Yaz if we could detour to check out another lighthouse and his reply that we could detour to however many lighthouses I'd like.

Readers must be scared for Yaz at this point, picturing this life sentence of detouring to yet another obscure lighthouse, but there had to be an assumption that he meant a reasonable number of lighthouses. I guess he did want to get to Potsdam by 5pm after all.

This morning we tackled the drive out to Presqu'ile Point to grab the Presqu'ile Point Lighthouse for my 14th light in Ontario.

This one has been on my radar during several trips along the nearby stretch of Highway 401, but I always thought the drive out to the peninsula's tip would take forever. Thankfully it didn't take long at all with scant traffic on this quiet February day.

Presqu'ile Point Light was completed in 1841, meaning it's one of the older standing lighthouses on the Great Lakes. Michigan's oldest was built in 1829, Ohio's Marblehead Lighthouse was built in 1821, and the oldest is Gibraltar Point Light in Toronto, built in 1808.

Presqu'ile almost didn't make it. The original designer Nichol Hugh Baird ordered for the specific use of Kingston limestone and quarried sand to build the octagonal tower. Instead, the workers cut corners and used local limestone and beach sand. The lower-grade limestone quickly cracked, while the rounded beach sand wore away from the mortar.

By 1893, the lighthouse needed iron bands wrapped around it, a timber girdle constructed, and the girdle covered with plywood and cedar shakes to keep the weather away.

The Presqu'ile Point Lighthouse would become even more muted in 1965, when the lantern room was removed and the replaced with a simple beacon.

Heading back to the 401 and picking our way through the small town of Brighton, Yaz pointed out how we sure have heard a lot of Bryan Adams in the 18 hours over here in the Great White North, lol.

Welcome to Canada, eh.

Crossing back from Hill Island in Canada to Wellesley Island in the States right in the heart of the Thousand Islands, Yaz asked if I'd like to check out a cool vacation village of old Victorian cottages.

Why yes, yes I would.

This is the village of Thousand Island Park, which started out as a Methodist summer camp/resort community in 1875. In recent years, they've done an amazing job of preservation, as I couldn't believe how well maintained these elaborate cottages were.

Only 31 people live here year round, but there is a total of 323 cottages and houses.

Anyway, we were limited by the icy unpaved side roads, but this was still a great stop and especially with it being February and so deserted.

There were other Ontario lighthouses in nearby Prince Edward County and Prescott, but I figured it was much more likely I'd find myself driving the 401 with time to spare, versus the isolated town of Cape Vincent New York, about a half-hour from Watertown⁰.

This was also a half hour totally in the wrong direction of Potsdam, so I was again thankful that Yaz was up for additional driving. There was enjoyment too, from proposing a town where Yaz the intrepid New York State explorer hadn't been before.

0 - I've since been back to Prince Edward County for some
of those lighthouses. Check our your boy Navstradamous over here.

Cape Vincent is located close to where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River, making it a prominent observer of the shipping industry for centuries. As early as the 1850s, a protective breakwall was requested offshore of Cape Vincent, but it wasn't until 1901 that they finally built one.

Each end of the breakwall was marked with a red light atop a pole, until the Cape Vincent Breakwall East and West Lighthouses were built in 1904. John LaRock was the first lightkeeper, but instead of their being a lightkeeper's cottage on the breakwall, LaRock lived in a boathouse and would row out to the breakwall to maintain the lights. After a few years, they even managed to install a thick steel cable on the breakwall, so LaRock could hold on or clip in during inclement weather.

Another fun fact is that they didn't build the original breakwall to the requested length, but eventually added on extra breakwall in later years. With each addition, both the east and west lighthouses were moved further down the breakwall to the new end points.

By 1951, the Coast Guard was looking to replace these lights and have them removed from the breakwall. One of the lighthouses was purchased by a local family man who moved it to his property so his kids could use it as a playhouse, where it eventually became more and more rundown until it was demolished.

The other lighthouse was preserved by the Town of Cape Vincent and relocated to a grassy knoll beside the roadway coming from Watertown, out front of the local highway department building. Where before it would greet ships to Cape Vincent, it now greets drivers.

Lastly, we're unable to call this the East (or West) Cape Vincent Breakwall Lighthouse, because the lighthouses were identical and information on which lighthouse went to who isn't readily available.

Across the street I liked this old neon sign for the Hilltop Court, a motor court that had long ago been converted into individual homes.

Leaving the Cape Vincent Breakwall Lighthouse, we drove for 10 minutes along a narrow county road with the St. Lawrence right there to our right, and a eclectic mix of cottages, historic homes, and new-age fancy getaway houses to our left.

Things quieted as we neared Tibbetts Point though, as even on this fantastic February day only Yaz and I were out here for a stroll.

Where Cape Vincent is the first village you encounter when going from Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River, Tibbetts Point is the actual point of land which marks the entry from the Great Lake to the mighty river.

Captain John Tibbetts donated three of his 600 acres here to the Federal Government in order to erect a lighthouse. A stone structure was built in 1827 and the first lightkeeper, Judah Williams, was posted soon after. Judah mustn't have been provided with everything he needed though, as a 1838 visit by Charles T. Platt of the U.S. Navy reported that the tower needed $100 in work (to fix leaks and coat with Roman cement), the dwelling needed $15 for a new roof, and $8 worth of painting was estimated for the dwelling interior and the lantern room. All said, a grand total of one hundred and twenty-three dollars worth of work.

Maybe we can't blame this all on ol' Zab Judah, as one Nelson B. Williams had taken over by 1831. It would have been all for naught anyway, as the original lighthouse was replaced in 1854 with the structure you see today.

Tibbetts Point had been on my radar for years because once the Coast Guard left in the early 80s, a hostel opened up on the grounds by 1984. This made me think back to the cheap and spectacular hostel-like options on Anticosti Island, but obviously in a much more easy to reach place.

Sadly, the hostel ceased to exist in 2018. You can still visit Tibbetts Point in the summer and go in the oil house and visitors center, but the lighthouse is closed to climbing.

Driving back through Cape Vincent, I told Yaz to pull it in at this fisheries station building, impressed with the 1856 structure that was originally another grist mill. Decoration was added to the building when it was taken over by the state in 1895.

Following some terrible lunch at a hole-in-the-wall that I thought would be fantastic - Yaz properly called that it wouldn't be good - we then took down the two hour drive back to Potsdam, where in addition to SUNY-Potsdam, there's also hockey on offer at Clarkson University!

It was funny to be back at the same obscure Scottish Inns Motel in Potsdam. They gave us a crappier room this time though, where it looked like they only just managed to squeeze two beds into the room by angling one of them. So our heads were an adequate distance apart, but the foot of our beds was only about about six inches apart, haha.

Tonight we were going to see Division-I college hockey. And even though this was an arena built in 1991 and the exterior looked like a justice center which replaced an old county courthouse, this was still Clarkson versus Harvard. People were quickly filling the arena and it was obvious this was going to happen too, as the parking outside was a logjam for this hot ticket.

There was a total of twelve NHL-drafted players on both clubs, and even though the highest was only Jack Drury picked at #42 by the Carolina Hurricanes, this seemed like it was going to be up there with a QMJHL game.

Heck, there's plenty of QMJHL games I go to where no one is picked as high as 42nd overall.

Clarkson started their men's ice hockey program in 1921, just 25 years after forming as a university. By 1961, they were one of the 28 original teams to form the ECAC conference.

The 1960s brought Clarkson their best results, going all the way to the final matchup of the NCAA Frozen Four multiple times, but ultimately losing to Michigan Tech (1962), Michigan State (1966), and Cornell (1970).

Clarkson has managed to win six ECAC conference tournaments though, with the most recent being just the year prior to Yaz and I visiting.

As for alumni, the only name you need to know is legendary Boston Bruin (four goals in 27 games) Jarmo Kekäläinen.

(Kekäläinen is better known today as the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.)

If you're wondering, yes it was a bit weird to go to an arena emblazoned in the last name of one of my better friends. I actually sent Clarkson one of the above photos and he said that people have got him Clarkson University gifts before, which I don't think was him dropping a hint.

The level of excitement, the physicality/speed/skill of the hockey, and the cost of everything made me think that this could be the next thing to do after I eventually get to Halifax and Val d'Or to check off the entire QMJHL.

Tickets were only $14 for reserved seats ($10 for general admission) and beer was either $3 for a Bud Light or $4 for an IPA! The only thing is you couldn't drink at your seat because of America's drinking age, but an attached conference room was made up like it would be for a wedding reception, with a couple people working a bar and the entire room just jam-packed at intermission.

I got an IPA and everywhere I looked, everyone else was drinking Bud Light, haha.

As for the game, Clarkson's fun was spoiled like an idiot friend keeping you up with their snoring. The Harvard Crimson rolled to a 5-2 victory.

With the game starting at 7, we had plenty of time afterwards and I wondered if Yaz wanted to check out what looked like a promising bowling alley down in Potsdam.

Everything looked promising until I tried to get us beers.

I went over to the bar section and something you may not know, is that what we call Belgian Moon in Canada, is marketed as Blue Moon in the States. I use the two interchangeably and it's never been a problem.

So I go up and say that I'll take a Belgian Moon. This random woman at the bar goes, "a Belgian Moon? Belgian Moon? It's called a Blue Moon. Are you old enough to be in here?" I apologize and try to explain that's what it's called in Canada, but she interrupts and says we're not in Canada but that she's just joking. Okay, alright.

She immediately returned to being firm. Needed to see my ID. Okay. Needed me to go get Yaz's ID. Okay. Needed me to go get Yaz himself. Okay. She then went back to being the jokester, telling me I must be tired of all this and probably just want my beer. I tell her yes, it's getting to be a bit much. She flips again, going into this lengthy screed about what would happen if they served someone underage? Well they could lose their liquor license! Did I know that!?

Now I'm willing to eat a fairly big shit sandwich to avoid confrontation, but I had enough. I let her know that "I really wished I could just return the god damn beers". And now it was time for her defensive "who me?" mode, saying that she was just joking and that I need to relax and calm down.

Hoo boy.

Back in the alley, it was one of those times when you're competing with someone and you're trying to feel out how good the other person is in comparison to you. I told Yaz that I wasn't very good and that I'm probably a below average bowler.

So I come back with our two beers and I'm angry to the point that I could puke. Yaz has the game set up and we begin as I get a strike. Then a spare. But then, as someone whose highest bowling score ever is maybe 155 and has unsuccessfully tried to get a turkey many times, it was a strike, then another strike. Then my chance at that turkey? Steeee-rike!

Then another strike. Then another strike. It was almost time for me to let out a WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I AM!

I had never bowled like this in my life, completely otherworldly. Maybe the key to being better at sports is harnessing my anger? Ha!

Meanwhile, Yaz skeptically questioned my bowling skill claims, to which I had to insist that I'm not the type of person to slow roll someone and then be incredible.

Anyway, I forgot all about that silly owner lady within five frames. Slow-rolling Yaz and embarrassing him at bowling will do that :D

Continue to Part 4...