Lukas J

Our newest grandchild was born on October 27 and weighed in at a whopping 9 lb. 1 oz. and was 21 inches long.
His name is Lukas J, but will be called Luke.

Big sister thought he was pretty nice too. I stayed for a couple of days to help, but had to get back to work because we were short-handed at the office. Work sure gets in the way of what I really want to be doing, makes me even more anxious for retirement. Mom and baby are doing great.

New York on hold

I'm sure all my loyal readers are waiting with baited breath for my final vacation posting. All that remains is New York City and I do have some great pictures. However, grandchild #12 is going to be born tomorrow, so I am off to stay with Caelen and help Colette with the new baby for a few days. Stay tuned for pictures of the new little guy. The picture was taken in Central Park, the entire park was so pretty and huge!

Newport

Newport would have been my favorite stop except for the hordes of people there. Not only were there two large ships in port, Octoberfest was going on and the town was packed. We (I) love to visit old homes and mansions when we travel and I was hoping to see 2 or 3 here, but because of the number of people we only saw the Breakers. The view above is of the sea from the upper Loggia of the Breakers.

This is the Trinity Church which was modeled after the old North Church in Boston. It was almost identical except for the stained glass windows.


Saint Mary's church is where JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy were married. It was an absolutely beautiful church and so well kept. The wood was polished to a high sheen and everything was immaculate. It was quite dark in there so my pictures don't show its true beauty.

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I'm standing on the Cliff Walk which runs between the ocean and the mansions for about 3 1/2 miles. We only walked part way because we were running out of time but what a gorgeous walkway.

This is the Breakers, the summer home to the Cornelius Vanderbilt II family. It was built in 1893 at a cost of 8 million dollars and they only lived here for 2 months of the year.

This is the upper loggia of the home. Can you imagine sitting here and having your morning cup of coffee?What a view. (the view is kind of washed out in this picture) but believe me it was fantastic.

Formal dining room. All of the public rooms were very ornate. It was interesting to me that the family's bedrooms were quite plain in comparison.

Cheers

I forgot to include my Cheers pictures. Thanks Empress Bee for mentioning it. We didn't get to the one downtown, but this was at Quincy Market and shows the Indian outside the door. The bar inside looked just like the bar on the show and had the restaurant in the basement. The bloody mary's were pretty good too, but the spinach and artichoke dip was delicioso.

BOSTON

Boston was our shortest day in port and the most jam-packed as far as sight-seeing goes. We walked the 2 1/2 mile Freedom Trail, taking in all the historical markers along the way, and then we walked back the same trail to Quincy Market. I don't think we got real good pictures in Boston. The buildings were so close together and the old was mixed in with the new, didn't make for good photo ops.

This is the old North Church where the lanterns were hung signaling to Paul Revere that the British had landed.

Some of the most famous figures of the Revolutionary War are buried here, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and the first victims of the Boston Massacre.

We crossed the Charlestown River to see the U.S.S. Constitution and had a great view of the newest bridge in Boston. I can't remember the name but it is really beautiful.

Paul Revere's home. We didn't have time to take a tour. The house was built in 1680 and is the oldest building in downtown Boston.

The U.S.S. Constitution. The navy offers free tours of the battle ship. It was really interesting to see Old Ironsides, as she is commonly known.

Inside the ship, this picture is dark but it shows some of the cannons and a barrel similar to what would have been used to store their drinking water.

The Freedom Trail ended at the Bunker Hill Monument. This is where Ken tried to kill me. We climbed to the top of the monument ALL 296 STEPS! I was ready to quit after 75, but the circular stairway was so narrow and there other people climbing up so I couldn't turn around. When we reached the top there were four little windows to look out at the city, but seriously, I was so winded I didn't even look.

This day was exhausting, but so interesting. I would love to go back there and spend more time. Boston was pretty, friendly, and full of fun places to see.

Lobster Time

You have to eat Maine lobster when you're in Maine. I have to say I was a little disappointed. It was hard to eat and we didn't get much meat off of it. The clam chowder and blueberry pie we had with our meal was delicious though.

I forgot to post this picture and it is one of my favorites. This small building was along the wharf in Bar Harbor. I liked all the colors of the lobster pots against the weathered wood.

I'm working on my post for Boston, but blogger is too slow tonight to load all the pictures so I'll have it tomorrow night.

Bar Harbor, Maine

The only disappointment I had on this trip is that we were a little early for the fall colors. We saw more color in Bar Harbor than in the other ports. When we arrived it was lightly raining and a little chilly.



I spotted this scene down an alley while we were strolling through the shops and because it was the most colorful we had seen I had to get a picture.







Bar Harbor was one of my favorite ports. It was the smallest and didn't seem as crowded as the others. The people in the shops weren't real friendly, but we had a lobster lunch in a restaurant with a very friendly staff.



This is one of my favorite pictures, I plan on using it as the cover on my photo book.

We had booked a tour on Lulu's Lobster boat with Captain John and because of the stormy weather in the morning we were afraid it was going to be cancelled. After a delay of only 15 minutes the captain decided we would be able to go. Captain John is a real lobsterman, but I think he probably makes more money doing the tours. He only had a couple of lobsters in the pots he checked.



As you can see, the trees were just starting to turn. Guess we'll just have to make another trip someday. : )













By the time we finished on the lobster boat, the sun had come out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. The picture with the sailboat was taken late morning and in a couple of hours when I took the picture with our ship in the background, the sun was out, the sky was blue and we didn't need our jackets.
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I noticed this beautiful building while we were walking along the harbor. It was in the business district, but there were no signs around it so I think it may have been a home. It was so colorful and pretty.

Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick was our second port and we didn't have anything planned so we just started walking around the city. We visited the old City Market, which was actually an indoors farmers market. In each port we discovered old cemeteries and beautiful churches. On our walk we came across an interesting museum. It was a house built by a British Loyalist in 1817. The house was occupied by six generations of the same family for over 150 years.

These flowers were in the city gardens which also contained a cemetery. I was fascinated with the old headstones, so many of them were for such young people.

St. John's or the Stone church was built in 1825. It was an early Gothic revival church.


Dulse is an edible algae that they eat as a snack in parts of Canada. We didn't sample it, but heard that it tastes terrible. Many people were buying it at the market so it must be an acquired taste. The market had almost every kind of seafoofd you could imagine, including the octopus Ken is eyeing in the picture below.

This buffet is an example of the fine antiques in the Loyalist house. The small chest on top of the buffet is an old tea chest in pristine condition. It was featured on an Antique Roadshow several years ago and valued at between $20,000 and $30,000. The old fellow giving us the tour casually picked it up and showed us the lead lined interior, which probably slowly poisoned those drinking tea from the leaves stored in the chest.

The piece pictured below was just one of the intersting commodes in the house. Each bedroom had it's own unique chamberpot.

More of Halifax

While in Halifax we toured the Citadel, a fort completed by the British in 1865. It was the fourth fort built on this site. The name Nova Scotia means "New Scotland" and the Scottish influence remains strong in the city.

This clock was built for the city by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent who live in the city until 1800. He had the clock erected to help the citizens of the city resolve their problem of tardiness. The clock is four-sided and is located atop the hill leading to the Citadel.

Cruise - Halifax

Thanks to my daughter Kim and no thanks to Dell Computers, I am back on-line. I am severely addicted to the computer and am so thankful to have a tekkie in the family. Kim, you're awesome!

Now I can finally share our cruise to Canada and New England. For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with New England and the Atlantic coast. This trip fullfilled a long time yearning to see that part of the country and I was not disappointed.

We flew to NYC and spent our pre-cruise night in Chinatown in Flushing, NY. After exploring the city we had dinner at a popular Chinese restaurant. The dinner was delicious. but being the dessert lovers we are, we had a craving for something sweet. We found a Chinese Bakery and picked a few things that we thought looked good. Yuk! what were we thinking, the Chinese aren't exactly known for their baking skills. We would have to wait till we got onboard the ship to satisfy that sweet tooth.

The next morning we hired a car to take us to the cruise terminal in Brooklyn. The driver didn't have a clue how to get there. We began to worry when he handed me his GPS system to help with directions. Yeah right, I was a big help. Finally, after directions from a local on the street and from a Brooklyn cop we found our way to the ship. Our excitement was dimmed when we weren't allowed to board for another two hours. We were never given an explanation as to why there was such a long delay, but our frustrations ended when we boarded the ship and stood on the top deck and glimpsed our first sight of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Island.


Our first day was spent at sea and because we knew the next seven days were going to be extremely busy, we spent the day relaxing. The ship was beautiful, but looked a lot like the Emerald Princess we were on in January so we didn't spend a lot of time exploring it.




We arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Tuesday and after spending the morning exploring the city, we took a tour to a small fishing village about 30 miles from Halifax. Peggy's Cove was just how I imagined a coastal town would look. It was really cold, the wind whipped right through our bones, but I loved it there.