Day 9 - Sea Day

At last a sea day!  After breakfast I did Zumba and Mary walked, and then visited the cruise close-out sale.  There was aTex-Mex buffet lunch that Melissa is interested in so we gave it a try today and enjoyed our meals.  

After lunch we read, and I participated in an Octoberfest contest - beer stein holding. I was hoping the winner could drink the beer in the steins, but that was not in the cards.  The contestants had to hold a pair of water-filled beer steins at arm's length!  I came in second and won a Princess lanyard. 

Dinner tonight was very good. We ate in the dining room and had a humorous waiter.  

We are now in the St Lawrence seaway and have land on both sides of us.  The water is also noticeably smoother so no need for the seasickness wrist-bands tonight.

On to Quebec!

Day 8 - Prince Edward Island

Can it be day 8 already?  8 is sounding way to close to 10....

We had a very enjoyable half-day excursion to visit Green Gables (of Anne in Green Gables fame) and a tour of the island.  We had a good bus guide who kept things interesting.  At Green Gables we watched a video then Mary toured the house.  Later we walked the grounds, including Lovers Lane and the Haunted Woods, both famous from the books.

After touring the Green Gables farm we headed for the coast which was very rugged and dramatic as you can see in this picture.  Apparently the northern coast of the island takes the brunt of the winter storms and has experienced some erosion.  

Tonight was the second formal night on the cruise, and the dinner was our favorite: lobster and king prawns!  It was delicious and to top it off the dessert was Floating Islands, another favorite!!  Definitely a meal to remember.

After dinner we went to a new Princess show - Broadway Ballroom.  The performers sang and danced to many Broadway tunes and even included 3 songs from Mama Mia!  Looking forward to a sea day tomorrow.

Day 7 - Cape Briton island

We docked in Sydney, Nova Scotia today and booked an all day excursion to view the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  It was a 2 hour bus ride to get to the Cabot Trail, then another hour long drive along the trail. The scenery (pictures below) was billed as spectacular - one of the top roads to drive in the world - but both Mary and I found it did not live up to its billing.  Maybe it was the overcast day, but having driven the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina, the Trail Ridge Road in Colorado and Big Sur in California, this was not up to those standards.  The most spectacular scenery was at a resort perched on this huge cliff (above right). 

After we got back we enjoyed Italian night dinner with Andy and Melissa then headed for our cabin to relax and get caught up on emails, etc. 

Day 6 - Halifax, Nova Scotia

I took a walk around town this morning, from the ship to the Citadel, a fort on the highest point of land overlooking the city. Here's a view of another landmark, the four sided clock, taken from the Citadel with the city n the background.  This gives you a good idea of how steep the road is from the harbor to the Citadel. (Yes, it was quite a climb!)

On my walk I went by this Canadian Corvette, an anti-submarine patrol craft.  Last year I made this post about my visit when I toured the ship and took lots of pictures since this is the same size ship my dad spent 2 years on the in the Pacific during WW II.  Seeing it made me wish I could share it with him again and hear his tales of life during his "2 year cruise".  

Princess had a local dance company come on board to entertain us by doing various Scottish Step Dances. They had a bagpiper accompany them on a few dances and a violin trio on some others.  

Today is our son, Andy's, birthday.  Princess decorated his door with a poster and balloons, and also gave him a special dessert at dinner.  It was so nice sharing this special day with him and Melissa.  

Day 5 - St John New Brunswick

Today we visited the Bay of Fundy and the famous reversing rapids. The St John river flows into the Bay of Fundy here, but when the tide rises, the sea water level is higher than the river so the flow of the river reverses!  We took an early excursion so we would be here at high tide. In this video you can see the water flowing left to right, away from the Bay of Fundy.  The excursion itself was on a trolley that took us around town with a narrated history of the town.

Yesterday afternoon we had quite the sight out our window - a double rainbow!  And the lower rainbow was complete as we could see both ends dipping into the water. 

[Bagpiper]We had a surprise when we were ready to leave port today - a bagpiper showed up on the dock! He played quite a few songs including many popular numbers.  He played for about 30 minutes.

After dinner with Andy and Melissa we went to the Captain's cocktail party for frequent cruisers, and then saw the production show in the Princess Theater.

Day 4 - Bar Harbor, Maine

We had an early excursion today to visit Arcadia National Park, followed by a lobster lunch.  The tour was interesting as we learned about the Bar Harbor area as well as the park.  It was "the place to be" in the summer in the late 1900's, the time of the Vanderbilts and J.P. Morgan.  Our guide said that in the summer the people here represented 88% of all the wealth in America!   We stopped at a place called Thunder Hole.  This is a special rock formation that compresses trapped air, making a loud thunder sound, but due to low tide all we could hear today was a gurgle. But the view of the rocky coat was spectacular. 

The lobster lunch was a bit of a challenge as neither Mary nor I knew how to open a whole lobster.  But a helpful man at our table taught us the tricks of cracking the shells and extracting the meat.  We also had a few mussels along with a pair of red potatoes and corn on the cob, and a Maine blueberry tart.  Overall it was quite an experience.

We don't have anything else planned for today. Just a nice surf 'n turf supper (petite filet and tiger prawns) YUM!

Day 3 - Boston

We arrived in Boston today for a clear, sunny day.  Here you can see the skyline of the city.   After breakfast Mary and I walked around the deck, I dd Zumba, and then played a golf chipping game where I won a new Princess pen!  

After lunch we went on an excursion to visit the John Adams estate (home of the 2nd and 6th presidents of the USA).  We found that a lot more interesting that we expected in part because of an excellent guide.  It was very impressive that the house is 100% original furnishings, including one set of furniture that John and Abigail Adams had when they were the first residents of the White House! What a neat sense of history.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but here is one of the outside of the house.

After that we headed to the John F Kennedy presidential museum. This contained a very good depiction of his election and presidency, with separate rooms for each of the major events like  the Cuban Missile Crisis, space events, Peace Corps, and many more.  Here is a picture of the recreated Oval office. We both found it quite interesting but, having just visited the newly remodeled Gerald Ford museum, agreed this one looks a bit dated. 

After returning to the ship we had dinner with Andy and Melissa, watched sail-away, and are taking it easy for the evening.   On to Bar Harbor!

Day 2 - Newport

Today was our visit to Newport, Rhode Island, famous as being the home of the America's Cup races  for nearly 100 years.  It is a very elegant resort town.

The ship cannot dock here so we had to tender in to the town.  Mary did some shopping while I did an America's Cup excursion. I did a similar excursion at Cozumel where we raced two boats so I expected this to be similar. But instead this turned out to be a nice sailboat ride around Newport Bay.  The amazing thing that happened today was that as Mary was taking her tender to shore she happened to sit by an open window, looked out her widow, and spotted me on my sailboat! She took this picture of my boat, and you can see me better in the closeup.

After we both got back to the ship we had a nice lunch with Andy and Melissa and are relaxing on board as sail away is at 4:00 pm.  

We ordered hors d'oeuvres in our cabin and enjoyed that appetizer before supper: caviar, prosciutto, and shrimp. 

First day on the Caribbean Princess

Our day got off to a good start when we decided to go and see where Good Morning America is broadcast.  We joined the small crowd outside but got some very good pictures of the stars.  Robin Roberts even waved to us as we stood outside!

We had an uneventful ride to the ship, and after meeting up with Andy and Melissa (our son and his wife) we enjoyed our lunch in the buffet.  I had a small lunch but definitely enjoyed dessert, as you can see... rice pudding with vanilla sauce, blueberry roulade, and more. 

As fellow cruisers know, there there is a mandatory safety drill for all passengers before the ship can leave port.  Here's Andy and I after donning our life jackets.  

We had a great view from our room and enjoyed sitting on our balcony this afternoon, with a view of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan.  

We always like the Pina Colada chilled soup which was served this evening along with a fine entree.  We headed out on deck to watch the ship leave New York, sailing under the Verrazano Narrows bridge, and ended our first day at the Welcome Aboard show in the theater.

A New York City Day

What a great day we had today!  It started with a walk toTimes Square for some shopping followed by a hot corned beef lunch at a New York deli. Here's a picture of where they drop the ball each New Year's Eve. We even got to see New York's Finest in action as there was a bomb scare at 42nd at Broadway. After lunch we headed for the subway and on to the World Trade Center.

Since we had extra time before our scheduled visit to the World Trade Center Observatory, we headed to the Memorial Pools.  One photo cannot capture the immensity of these pools so here is a short video panning the North pool.  These are are same size as the footprint of the fallen buildings, and the names of those lost in the attack are enscribed around the pools..

After that we headed up to the top of the World Trade Center.  The trip up is quite intriguing since they show what the surrounding area looked like starting in 1624 to the present, as you rise over 1000' to the 102nd floor. It is quite a view from up there!

The memorial museum was very somber. This is a photo of one of the crushed fire trucks from a company that was climbing the North Tower when it collapsed.  After we left the building, some NY Fire Department bagpipers came out and started playing. It was nice ending to our visit.

We came back to our hotel to rest our feet (my Android tells me I walked over 11,000 steps so far today!) and will soon head out for supper then to see the musical Aladdin.  Here's Mary at the theater when we bought tickets this morning.
Quite the New York City Day...

Phantom of the Opera

Phantom of the Opera is one of our favorite musicals, and it's quite amazing to see even a familiar show on Broadway, even if you've seen it on stage in other cities.  The quality of the performers this evening really stood out, and Mary and I were both enthralled with the performance.  It was fun to see the city so alive and active fairly late in the evening (at least for us midwesterners!)

After the show we headed back to our hotel, but not without a stop for cannoli at Carlo's (of Cake Boss fame) Times Square store.   The cannoli was good, but we've been spoiled by the excellent ones we get from the Dearborn Italian Bakery. 

Arrived in New York City

Our vacation has started!

Our travel went quite smooth, but we were surprised at how we exited our plane at Laguardia! The only other time I recall walking across the tarmac for a plane was in Rome several years ago.
This evening we are heading out for dinner, and then on to the Majestic Theater to see The Phantom of the Opera (we had hoped to see Beautiful but it was sold out).  Phantom is one of our favorite musicals and it will be special to see it on Broadway.
Tomorrow we have free time in the morning, and then we're visiting the 911 memorial  and museum, and the new World Trade Center Observation deck.