Life in the Early 1800's

Entering Fort Wellington

This morning we packed up our van and said good bye to our family in Stouffville.  Thanks so much for the wonderful hospitality.  We had such a great time!  It's hard saying good-bye, but at least as we know we are making our way home.


We left Stouffville around 10:00 am and drove to Prescott, which is on the other side of Kingston, Ontario.  There was a National Park Historic Site, Fort Wellington, that we thought would be a good thing to tour today.  The kids did not seem to mind being back in the van and travelling, although 20 minutes after being on the road David asked us how much longer were we travelling today?  We drove about 3 hours before we stopped, but we kept busy with activity books and searching the letters of the alphabet on road signs and vehicles.


We arrived in Prescott at 1:00 pm and located the National Park.  It was under construction and there was not much of an area for a picnic, but we made the best with what we had.  The kids were a little jittery with the bugs flying around, but they have been fine dining for the last week and not use to the bugs wanting to eat some of their lunch.

The cannon guards the fortress walls

There was not a lot of people around the Fort, but we proceeded in - again the Discovery Pass is great when visiting a lot of these historic sites - they are certainly worth the investment as we have used it in most of the provinces - all admission prices are free when you have the Discovery Pass.


We were greeted by a soldier at the front gate and then we took a self guided tour throughout the area.  We could walk the line around the fort walls, which I thought was really interesting.  I was curious how they built the fort - if they dug the soil out from the inside or if they built up the ground on the exterior portion of the fort walls?  Prescott overlooks the St. Lawrence River and was an important junction on the railway lines between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa - so maintaining the fort was very important in the mid 1800's.

Heading underground

The underground room

There was a tunnel dug into the ground leading toward the seaway.  Soldiers would protect the fortress by firing guns out at the enemy.  As we walked into the tunnel, Natalie commented that Auntie Marlene would definitely not be able to walk into the tunnel because there was no exit.  The interior room was quite impressive with the brick walls  - it is so interesting to think they made these with basically their hands and hard work.

The lavatories

There were a few interesting things at the fort.  The first one was the latrine - it was an open room where men, women and children would use the bathroom.  The toilets were certainly not one of comfort, but one large rectangle with squares for people to squat over.  We read that later the area was excavated and all the crap removed as they discovered "artifacts," which was stuff that people had dumped down the toilet (either intentionally or unintentionally).  I am glad I did not have to help with that work!

The kids sleep under the bed in the 1800s

Another interesting fact was the soldiers and their families lived on the top level of the quarters at the fort.  There were at least 10 families living in the area which would have been no more than 700 square feet.  Each family had one bed and their privacy was a blanket that acted as a curtain that they were only allowed to pull over after it was dark outside.  The soldier on duty told us the parents slept on top of the bed and the children slept underneath.  He said because food was eaten in the same room, the place was infested with rats and mice, so when the children would complain about holes in their clothes their parents would get them a cat.  I told Natalie she shouldn't complain about sharing a room with Andrea because at least she sleeps on a bed by herself!

Dressed in 1820 period clothing

As we were visiting the fort the heavens opened up and a huge thunderstorm hit - the rain was coming down in buckets! We didn't rush our visit at the fort because we really had nothing else planned for the day and was there a need to be stuck in the van longer than necessary?  The soldiers on duty taught the kids how to play Nine Man Morris - which looks somewhat like Chinese Checkers.  The soldiers also gave us clothes from the period of 1800's and we dressed up for a picture.  All these soldiers were students working for the summer and they were excellent with the kids.


We stayed as long as we could, but it didn't appear as if the rain was going to let up so we made the dash from the quarters to our van - we were soaking wet by the time we got into the vehicle.  We decided to make our way to Cornwall.  As we drove on the highway Francois yelled out, "Look at that vehicle's plates".  Most of us thought it would be another PEI license plate, but when we read it we discovered it was a Newfoundland and Labrador plate - the first one we have seen since we started our trip in June.  So now all we need is Nunavut's plate and we will have found all the license plates in Canada and United States - even Hawaii!


It kept raining on and off, which meant our plans for camping this evening needed to be cancelled.  We looked at the forecast for the evening and there were chances of thundershowers.  We found a library in Cornwall and Francois did some research on the different hotels in Cornwall and Montreal.  He discovered we could get a better hotel in Montreal - better hotel meaning a pool for the kids to unwind and use up some of their energy.  So we headed to Montreal - which was about another hour.  We munched on bagels and fruit in the van during our drive as the rain really didn't let up.  The kids were happy to swim in the pool for an hour, but not so ready to go to sleep - even though they had two late nights and somewhat early mornings.


Tomorrow we visit Francois' aunt Monique and then make our way to visit his uncle Rejean.  Slowly we are making our way back to the Maritime provinces.


Take Care
Tanya