Ojibway

Days on cruise: 113

Last night’s anchorage was quiet and beautiful, so we stayed another day.  The highlight of the day was a 4-mile dinghy excursion to Ojibway.  The original Ojibway people were a Native American (or First Nation, as Canadians refer to them) tribe, among the largest groups north of Mexico, and straddling the U.S.-Canada border.

The Ojibway Hotel, with stone stairs, weathered shingles, gracious veranda, expansive docks and white pines, was built on a 46-acre island by Hamilton Davis (a former railway agent from Rochester, NY) in 1906 as a summer resort. It operated as such for 60 years. When it closed, nearby property owners pooled their resources, bought it, and formed The Ojibway Club, as it continues today.

There is a casual restaurant, gift shop (a nice one, not full of cheap junk or outrageous, ostentatious stuff), well-stocked small grocery store, and gas (not diesel) is available at the dock.

The various facilities are staffed by students during the summer months, most of whom live in on-site cottages. Anyone can join the Club for an annual fee, but activities are also open to non-members, again, for a fee.

No dogs are allowed on the property, so we saw several dogs in boats awaiting their owners’ return (the sweet one below eventually crawled under the bow to get out of the sun).

The place was crawling with people eating lunch on the veranda, eating ice cream in the shade, shopping at the grocery store and gift shop, or just looking at all the photos and stories hanging on the walls, telling the history of this beautiful place. Hotel rooms are still upstairs.

The Club offers a huge list of activities for its’ members, adults, kids and families, including tennis lessons and matches, sailing lessons and races, movie nights, lobster dinner fund-raisers, regular dinners every Tuesday and Thursday, plays, kayaking and more.

Jim R: read the entire board below; does it make you want to join the Ojibway Club? We bet if you’d been here today you’d have certainly signed up to crew in the race, as offered!

When we returned to our anchorage it was hot out, so Cathryn went for another swim in the clear, refreshing (not warm, not cold) waters to cool off.

We read our books, took a short nap, puttered around doing boat chores, and caught up on email.  Life is good!