Boats & Castles

Another day on the road.

I promise my husband is more excited than he looks.

After all he was taking us to an antique boat museum.

It didn't sound interesting to me at all.

But it turned out to be better than I expected.

We started with a tour of La Duchesse, a houseboat the belonged to George Boldt.

I had never heard of Mr. Boldt before other than knowing we were going to his castle later in the day.  Turns out, he was the manager of New York's famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel.  Basically he had some money.

We walked onto the houseboat without any problems.  But during the hour or so we were on the boat, the water rose and getting off the boat was a little more interesting.

We got off with no problems but had to exit in a different spot than we landed.  We were in awe how quickly the water rose.

After the house boat tour we walked around the museum and saw some of the most beautiful boats I've ever seen.

There were definitely some impressive boats. 

But it was time to go check out Mr. Boldt's castle.

Again I knew nothing about the guy before this trip but going to a castle seemed cool.

So here's what I learned.  He had this little island that he and his family enjoyed spending time on and he decided to build a playhouse for his kids on the island.

Yep.  That's a playhouse built just for his kids complete with a bowling alley and plans for a billard room, library, and cafe.


After building the playhouse he decided he should probably build a little something for his wife on the island.  He wanted to show her how much he loved her.

Hence...

Boltd Castle

He designed a special crest that included a heart and a B to show his love for his wife.

(I thought we had a picture of it but can't find it)

You can see the heart in the above picture.

The parts of the house that were finished were astounding.

The majority of the house was either unfinished or destroyed because it sat unoccupied for so long.

In the middle of construction, his wife died suddenly.  His heart was broken and not only did he never finished the castle but he never returned to the island.

What we see now are his intentions that never came to be.

It was a beautiful afternoon on the island.

Then we were back on the road in the RV. 

Since our trip Andrew and I have talked about how much time we spend driving on these trips.  We see and do a lot of things when we vacation, but we also spend A LOT of time in the car, or in this case the RV.

We made it to Burlington, Vermont where we would be calling it a day.

We got in late but wanted to check out the cute little town so we summoned an uber to take us to dinner.

Weirdest uber ride of my life.

The little street was adorable.  I wish we had more time there.

We ended the night laughing after what had not been our best day.

Even on amazing vacations like this one, we are still human and we still argue a bit.

But at the end of the day we're together.