Saturday, August 7, 2010

Day 91

Wow! Talk about a quick week. It has gone by so fast it is a bit hard to believe it actually happened.

On Friday, July 30 at 6:20 pm vacation officially started. Hubby picked me up from work and we headed out. Spent the night in Jacksonville and made our flight from there to New York the next morning. Lovely flight to New York's LaGuardia Airport where we meet friends for lunch. Unfortunately, after you come out of the terminal into the baggage claim area (where our friends met us due to security) there is only a FEW places to eat. Believe me when I say a FEW. We finally found a Subway, but they only had one or two sandwiches to select from and so we took what we could get.

After we ate and said goodbye to our friends, we made our way to our transfer to the Carnival Glory for the cruise to Canada. The transfer was fun. We had to make our way thru downtown New York (42nd street, etc) and head to the docks. Our driver was great. He kept up a running commentary on the city traffic and pointed out some of the highlights of the route.

Once we made it to the Docks, we collected our luggage and headed into the cruise terminal. Since this was our first cruise as VIP's we didn't know what to expect. But it was GREAT! They had a special check in lane for us and we were immediately ushered to the gangway and entered the ship ahead of a LOT of other cruisers. By this time it was a little after noon so we knew we could not get into our stateroom until a bit later so we made our way to the Lido deck in search of food. Hubby wanted a Hot Dog. He always starts the cruise with one and this was no exception. Shortly after his hot dog disappeared we went on up to the rail to look out at the harbor. It was awesome. So much action all around us. The skyline was interesting and the Hudson River is HUGH!! We were very near the place where the plane landed in the river.

The ship was to leave port at 5pm so as soon as we were able to get into our stateroom, we took our carry ons and put them away, grabbed our cameras and hit the rails again. Sailing out of New York Harbor you have to pass right by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. She was magnificent and the Brooklyn Bridge was framing the ocean as we passed under it.

Our dinner was set for 6pm so we made our way to the dining room and enjoyed a wonderful meal and great service. During the week we ate such entrees as Lobster, Chateaubriand, Veal Parmesan, Escarole, Maui Maui, to name a few. The desserts were also great. I am so glad that we had been on a diet. I gained four pounds this week. But since dinner was at the wrong time to watch the ship leave land behind we didn't get to check for sea life.

Later in the cruise we did spot Harbor Seals, and Dolphin. I saw whale spray, but Hubby actually saw a whale breach the water. (I was inside out of the wind). This was our first cruise that was not heading south and we expected it to be a lot cooler than the others weather-wise. But I didn't expect it to be AS COOL as it was and had not taken a jacket. So our first stop in Canada was shopping time to purchase long sleeves.

That stop was in St. John, New Brunswick on Monday August 2. As we debarked the ship we were met by friendly natives who greeted the children with Canadian flags and the women with long stemmed roses. My rose was yellow to match the pants I was wearing that day. Our excursion guide was dressed in Loyalist Costume and she led us to the air conditioned bus aand we headed to St. Martin to visit the Reversing Falls. This is where the river meets the sea and where the highest tides in the world are found. I think they said that there is a 40 foot difference between low tide and high tide. It was impressive. We started out at Low Tide and the rapids of the river were visible. After stopping there we boarded the bus for a drive to Fundy Bay. Lunch at a lovely seafood place with marvelous chowder. Then we took a walk out on the ocean floor. Since it was low tide a lot of ocean floor was exposed. We saw sea caves that were underwater at high tide. They have these wonderful round rocks all over the beach. There are like the rocks that you find in the mountain streams where the edges have all been tumbled away and only round smooth rocks can be found. Very little of anything that can be called sand can be seen. Many of the rocks have veins of quartz or other minerals in them that look like rings running around the rock. When you find one of these, according to local legend you should make a wish and take the rock with you. When your wish comes true, you pass the rock on to someone else for them to make a wish. We found our wish rocks and made our wishes. They don't like for you to take more than one since there are Soooo many people visiting there each year. And they also said that you could make your wish and just toss the rock back, it would work as well. So Hubby did that, I however, chose to bring my rock home. I have this collection of rocks and shells from all the trips we have taken and wanted to add my wish rock to it.

After we finished at this location, we traveled back to the first stop to see the middle tide effects. I was quit different from the earlier morning visit although high tide was still hours away. Our ship was scheduled to sail around high tide so we would not be able to see it. From there we were taken back to the dock area where we had a little time to shop. Here is where I found my sweatshirt that saved me from freezing the rest of the trip.

The next day we were in Haliax Nova Scotia. I'll tell you all about that later. Got to run, meeting friends for dinner in town.

Enjoy!

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