On Sunday we drove upf Mount Defiance, where the British placed cannons that could lob cannonballs into Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Independence, precipitating the departure of the American forces there. From the mountain I was able to get a better idea of the layout of the forts, thanks to the labeled illustrations, as well as realizing how far eighteenthe century cannon could fire,
The photograph shows fort Ticonderoga from the top of Mount Defiance, Fort Independence is across the lake, off the lower right and Mount Hope is off the picture to the center left. Even if St. Clair had ten times as many men as he had it would have been impossible to hold the fort once the British began firing.
Monday and Tuesday were days to relax, catch up with friends in the area and plan what I need to see and explore in the Ticonderoga library. We visited Jim, a friend of Robert’s in Schenectady, who served us a delicious meal and introduced us to an inspiring evening worship service that his brother, a priest, started online during the pandemic and continues to do online. We also visited Pam, a fabric artist Robert has worked with, at her lake house very close to the hotel. The highlight was a paddleboat ride on the lake, a visit to the maple syrup shop right next door, and the fantastic homemade, local meal we prepared together..
On the way back Akalena listed the good things and the bad things about the day. The good things were that she got maple candy, a paddleboat ride, ate watermelon, made some new friends, saw baby ducks, looked at some good art, and went swimming. The bad things were that there were big snails in the water and she got fiberglass splinters in her foot. All in all the good significantly outweighed the bad.