On Saturday, Kathleen and I took a little trip to Kingston!

The last time we did, it was for a slightly-belated anniversary getaway in April 2024 (8 years!), and we took the Via to get there and back. But for the uneven weather, we had a lovely visit and promised to return.

This time, because Kathleen was looking for a bit of practice navigating, we decided that we would rent a car to get to the Limestone City.

Spoiler: She navigated with skill and aplomb. Even though I am usually the navigator, I did not have to say anything at all about directions or anything.

We had a lively little visit, with a delicious lunch of vegan pizzas at Atomica and shopping that – surprise-upon-surprise – had us purchase a few books at Novel Idea. We also browsed in several other shops, which were quite enjoyable.

In recent years, it also seems that Kingston has developed a thriving second-hand and vintage clothing thing in the downtown. Unfortunately, winter is not the season to be shopping for clothes, de-bundling and re-bundling ourselves, and so on. It’s just too much of a faff! The clothing would have to be really really cute to overcome that.

My only gripe, which is entirely up to me, is that whenever we visit, we spend much of our time on Princess Street, the sort of main downtown shopping street. While it’s lovely and has so many great shops and services, it has one problem: I don’t find it at all inspiring for making photos!

I find the photographic experiences a bit like Hintonburg. We visit and love it, but I never really come back with photos that I’m all that enamored with. There are other streets with much more visual interest (but fewer shops and attractions), but on such a short visit and less-than-anticipated weather, we weren’t about to trudge the back streets and alleyways for photo opportunities.

None of that matters though: the most important thing was that Kathleen navigated us to Kingston and back and built up some of that lovely and attractive confidence that I know she has!

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