Oswego Harborfest spanned from Friday to Sunday, July 23-25. Above is a picture of the opposite side of the Oswego River from where we stayed at the Oswego Marina, 300,000 people and hundreds of boats partying. It was great to be tucked off the river in the marina's basin during the craziness.

Harborfest was a great experience for us and this was in a large part due to the friendliness of the local boaters at the Oswego Marina. They adopted us during our visit. Ann Marie and Joe Ellis from their Seafood Charters fishing boat two slips down invited us to join them and other boat owners for their annual Harborfest barbeque - a fun and friendly group of boaters.

On Saturday night Fireworks by Grucci put on the best display Carol and I have ever seen. This company also does the 4th of July fireworks at the Statue of Liberty for New York City.

Dennis Dorsey, owner of a classic 1967 vintage clinker built Lyman powerboat, has been interested in the Zimmerman 36 and enjoyed checking ours out. He then helped us make a grocery store run and invited us to his company's hospitality tent at the Ontario Fort to view the air show on the last day of the Harborfest. There are pictures in the Photo Gallery. We enjoyed talking boats.

Jean and Jim Driscoll, members of the Annapolis Yacht Club, pulled in on MOIRAE on Saturday after transiting the Erie Canal. They are on a six week cruise of Lake Ontario that will include Toronto before returning to the Chesapeake Bay. We had an enjoyable dinner with them at Herrings Restaurant and shared canal experiences.

This five day break in Oswego has been a reminder that just as important as beautiful scenery and interesting places we visit, it is always the people we have met along the way and their willingness to share that has made cruising so rewarding.

We will be on our way tomorrow morning for Sackets Harbor and then to Clayton, NY in the Thousand Islands on Tuesday. We will be crossing into Canadian waters at the end of next week and will loose our wireless connection until we return to U.S. water in Lake Champlain three weeks later. We will look for possible phone connections to the Internet but there may be no or few updates during this period. We are hoping that we will have wireless coverage in our last two U.S. stops but this is always uncertain.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.