Clayton NY & Alexandria Bay

Time to visit America again. There are many small and wonderful towns along the river. Clayton is one of them. It is a summer resort town with a population of only 2000 or so people. It is also home to the Antique Boat Museum. Many old wooden boats can be seen in the waters in this area as there are restoration places here that do some of the finest work. And as luck would have it, they have a yacht club too.

10 nm miles further up river from Clayton sits Alexandria Bay. While there are only 1200 permanent residents here, there are thousands more in the summer heat. Dock space with depth is extremely limited here. So needing a guaranteed 6 plus feet of water under us we actually ended up docking at a resort. I know it sounds crazy but the Riveredge Resort has 15-20 ft deep overnight slips and you get full use of the hotel and resort.
Boldt Castle is also on Alexandria Bay. At the turn-of-the-century, George C. Boldt, millionaire proprietor of the world famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, set out to build a full size rhineland castle in Alexandria Bay, on picturesque Heart Island.  The grandiose structure was to be a display of his love for his wife, Louise. However before they could ever live in the castle Louise died(1904). The castle was empty for over 75 yrs until money was raised to rebuild it.  For those interested click this link
http://www.boldtcastle.com/visitorinfo/index.php/about/