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.
.
















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.

Don't give up on me!

My computer is really, really sick and I probably won't get it fixed until next week. Meanwhile I will try to get to Kim's and post a few pictures from her computer. I have a lot to show and tell you about, so don't give up on me. I'll just post this picture as a teaser!

Home Sweet Home

We're home! With sore tired feet and about 600 pictures that I can't download (or is that upload?) because my computer has died. I turned it on last night and all I got was a black screen with an ominous message on it, so until I get it fixed I will still be on hiatus. We did have a great time and I'm anxious to see how the pictures turned out. I'll try to get over to Kim's tonight and maybe post a few pictures.