October 4, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

*As I noted previously, my "new" computer is not feeling well.  It won't be feeling better for at least a week, so in the meantime, I am using my faithful older computer. All my pictures are on the newer computer so I thought I would have to wait before I could post pictures.  Then I remembered that fortunately I uploaded most of my pictures to Picasa before it got infected so I will be able to get to pictures!  It took me a couple of days to figure this out and another couple of days to figure out I can edit photos in Picasa!

Let the journey continue!

The ship arrive very early and passengers were able to get off as early as 7a.m.  We were not among the first to get off! lol 

We didn't really have any plans for St. John except to see the Reversing Falls.   We (Charlene, Lori and I) jumped in a cab to get to the falls.  The driver was great and informative.   In my picture, the water is flowing from left to right.  The river is up and to the right, the Bay of Fundy is to the left (although not visible from where we were).  The water is flowing "uphill" so to speak.  Click on "Reversing Falls" above to read the details of why this happens (and to see some awesome pictures).

This boat load of people came by while we were at the Reversing Falls.  Their driver was crazy and it looked like they were having a blast!!!

I loved this church, with just a hint of color in the trees.  Such a "classic" quintessential church!

After visiting the Falls we headed back towards the ship and then just wandered the streets of St John for a bit.  We were looking for an antique store but it had moved.  We thought about searching it out in its new locations, but were distracted by other things and never made.  We did find some awesome old buildings though.

Great sweatshirts girls!

This is my kind of sign!

We also wandered into Market Square.  They have a wide variety of "shops"!

They have a library.  We didn't go in but the outside is definitely FUN!

 

They had a museum!  We didn't go in there either, but this guy was their greeter!  Love the strong silent type, don't you? lol!

and of course they had some shops.  We did go in a few of those but didn't take any pictures!  And in this age of cell phones, I love seeing a phone booth, and this one is great!!  It really worked, well I assume it worked as the woman in black was in the "box" with the door closed and the handset to her ear!

Then we headed back to the ship as we had an early departure and more importantly we had "Tim Time".  Instead of a class it was an hour of  Q & A time with Tim!   

One of our indulgences of the day!  The ship had a self-serve "ice cream" stand.    I just had vanilla and it was yummy!

That is about it for the day. . . if I had my journal I could fill you in on more details but it is in a safe place, so I can't consult it at the moment.   More about the "safe place" in the next cruise post!  Hope you are having a fabulous week! 

Take care,
Linda

October 3

October 3 - the day started early for me only because I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep!  I was up early enough to catch sunrise!  I am not sure if the first couple of pictures are of Bar Harbor or another nearby town.

I wandered around the mostly quiet ship for a bit, exploring parts of it I had not visited previously. I stopped at the Café on the Promenade Deck and had a cup of hot chocolate before heading back to our cabin to get ready for our adventures in Bar Harbor.

We met Lori in the Windjammer for breakfast then set off to explore Bar Harbor! Bar Harbor was a fun little town with LOTS of little shops. I had been there as a teenager, but I didn’t really remember the town.  

My memory of Bar Harbor revolves around a conversation my parents had with a local teenager/20 something person. We had a pick-up and trailer and were looking for a campground that we couldn’t seem to find. I remember being at a stop sign on a slight hill. The “kid” was nearby on his bike and my parents asked for directions. He gave directions which my parents apparently understood and off we drove. After we pulled away, I asked my parents what language had he been speaking. To my great surprise they said English! I don’t recall understanding anything he had said, except “ba’- ha’ber” ! Lol

As the day progressed, I found I had no trouble understanding anyone! Although Charlene said “everyone sounded. . .” well I leave that for her to post on her blog if she wants! Lol

We had booked the Lobster Bake and Acadia National Park excursion for the afternoon. We had a bit of down time between shopping and hopping on the bus, so a few calls were made and

a few (dozen) pictures were taken.

Once on the road, we drove by some "cottages"

The lobster bake was not what I was expecting. Well the food part was what I expected but the venue was not. I was expecting being served in a big tent or perhaps a “rustic” shelter of some sort on or near the beach, open air with time to roam a bit. I was NOT expecting to be delivered to the Bar Harbor Regency hotel to be served in a banquet room. The view from the room was fabulous though.

Are you sure about this? 
Lori, Charlene & Stephanie

After lunch was served, we were back on the bus headed for Acadia National Park!

We saw the Beaver Pond (and dam) and a little fall color!

We saw more  fabulous “cottages” (I would love to get a look in one these, wouldn't you?)

We stop and got off the bus at Thunder Hole.

On the road again!  

Next stop:  top of Cadillac Mountain (prior to 1918 it was called Green Mountain!) Unfortunately 15 minutes was not much time to enjoy all there was to enjoy.  We were told names of all 7 islands and warned we'd be tested on the names of the islands. If we didn't remember them we had to walk back to the ship.  I remembered the name of the last one, which was "bald island" (don't ask which one it is cuz I don't know). 

Luckily others on the tour remembered the names, were earned a "C" and was able to ride the bus back to the port.  It was a quick trip back to Bar Harbor and we caught one of the last tenders back to the ship before it left!

We were so thankful they waited for us! Had they not waited, we would have missed our Tim class and THAT would have been devastating! lol

The evening class was:

And these were my creations from the class and the only project I actually finished in class. . . well except for the ribbons I still haven't added those! lol

October 2

October 2 - Portland, Maine

Our first port!  After seeing some of the views from the ship, we were excited to begin exploring the town!

   

 We had planned to walk around, but as we got off the ship we discovered Portland as a FANTASTIC Deal - a hop on/hop off pass for $5.00!!!!!  So of course being the wise women that we are (wise women = Charlene, Lori, Maurene, Wendy & me!), we purchased tickets!  We rode the complete loop and noted the places we wanted to go, then started the loop again until we got to the first stop we wanted to explore!

One of the first places we explored was a used bookstore which happened to contain the Cryptozoology Museum!  We didn't pay to go into the museum, but one of it's "residents" stood guard over the bookstore so we took advantage of him with a photo op!

Bigfoot was kinda bored and was looking towards the door, maybe he was thinking about running away! lol 

After we left the bookstore we wandered around some, shopped a little, took in the sights.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow statue

Then is was time for lunch.  The bus driver and a guy at one of the giftshops we visited suggested DiMillo's Floating Restaurant.  Since we didn't know any better, we headed that way.   Thankfully they had a menu posted outside and there were some crafters (not from the cruise) with tables set up nearby.    We all decided we did not want to spend $25 plus for lunch.  The crafters suggested J's Oyster.  One of the shows on the food channel had featured J's in the last couple of months!

It was a beautiful day and we were lucky enough to get a table outside, but we had a few rules to follow!  Since none of us had our kids or dogs with us, we were OK! lol 

After lunch we did a little exploring near the water front.  I "made" Lori and Charlene walk down a couple alleys/piers but I think we found some great pictures (I am only sharing about 10% of the photos I took in Portland!) and at least I didn't make them pick up some gross stuff for our collections. (On the first day of class Tim told us to look for little "treasures" about 2" or less while we were exploring all the ports.)   And you wouldn't believe some of the stuff some people were collecting!  Does anyone know if they used the "gross" stuff?

If we lived nearby, I know where I'd do some shopping for dinner!  Do you see those prices?

All too soon it was time to head back to the ship :(  Once back on board we headed up Deck 12 to have another look around and watch as we left the port. 

Portland Observatory as seen from the ship

 

Taxi anyone?

Charlene & Lori

Wendy & Maurene had the same idea, they were on the deck above us.

This is the "baby" lighthouse

 This is the "mama" lighthouse

This is looking back at the "mama" lighthouse as we left port.

Fort Gorges

And a few pictures of the "papa" lighthouse aka Portland Head Lighthouse

Since we were heading into open waters and the sun had set, it was getting cold so we headed in to the Windjammer for dinner.    Not sure what else we did because pictures for the day ended with the lighthouse and the written journal I was keeping has disappeared.  Even though I thought we left Roger in New Jersey, he may have paid me a visit and taken the journal, because he is sneaky like that! lol  (I will tell you more about Roger in a later post!) 

If you haven't checked out Joy's blog, what are you waiting for?

Hope you have a fabulous week!