Hiding from the storm

It is the afternoon as I type this and we are in port in Saint John, New Brunswick. The plan HAD been to spend the day here and sail on to Bar Harbor, Maine. That has changed and we will spend the night here and the day tomorrow as well, then sail on to Portland, Maine on Wednesday for our last stop before we spend a day at sea on Thursday and Port Liberty, NJ and hopefully fly home...if the airlines have not been disrupted too much.

The cruise has been wonderful and the seas have been quite smooth,. We have taken many pictures, some of which I will share with you when we get back. The wifi on the ship has been poor at best and not allowed me to upload pictures, much to my frustration. The only other "issue" I had during our trip was that after loading my pictures for the first two days, the hard drive on my computer failed. I hope I can retrieve them but if not, I will try to find others who have take some of the same excursions. Needless to say, BACKUP YOUR COMPUTERS. The other change we will make on future trips is to take enough of the little memory chips for the camera and not erase them as we load them on to the computer.

For those of you who have been concerned about us, don't be. We are well and well fed (will deal with this latter issue when I get home.) Pictures seem to be quite difficult to upload here, even now in a port building with free wifi (which is working), so I will share pics with you when we are at home.
Tim

Gaspe

-->

Tuesday 

(Thursday posting-finally have a connection)

We arrived in Quebec City Monday afternoon, relatively unscathed by our trip. We had a very close flight connection with a second overbooked flight, but all 40 of us but one made it on, and he arrived today Tuesday before the ship sailed.

Hoping that we would not miss the beautiful colors of the Fall, even just here we have not been disappointed.

Jan and I had a bit of dinner last night and called it an evening. This morning we enjoyed a bus tour of the new and old city here in Quebec City, as well as the Montmorency, a waterfall as old as Niagara, one and a half times as tall.

Interestingly, Quebec City is a walled city, complete with a variety of cannons. Placed there in 1700’s, they aimed a number of them toward the United States, fearful of another invasion. I was surprised to learn that America did in fact attempt to acquire Quebec as another state.

One of the interesting facts that our morning guide (Renee) shared with us is that in Canada the average salary here is $36,000 with the average tax rate that is 51% (and I thought mine was high). Her comment was that Canadians are “subsidized from conception to resurrection”.

After a wonder dinner tonight and some great entertainment by an Italian pianist and back up, I decided to chill in our cabin. (Jan, on the other hand decided to go back to the big theater to hear him again at 10:30pm)

In preparation for our visit to Nova Scotia, I have been reading Anne of Green Gables, a very old book that was written there long ago. I found one found one of Anne’s stream of conversation with Marilla that particularly resonated with me (although she was talking about being in church during a long winded prayer and looking out the window.

“Mr. Bell made an awfully long prayer. I would have been dreadful tired before he got through if I hadn’t been sitting by that window, But it looked right out on the Lake of Shining Waters, so I just gazed at that and imagined all sorts of splendid things.” “You shouldn’t have done anything of the sort. You should have listened to Mr. Bell.” “But he wasn’t talking to me”, protested Anne. He was talking to god and he didn’t seem to be very such interested in it, either. I think he thought God was too far off thought. There was a long row of white birches hanging over the lake and the sunshine fell down through them, way, way down, deep into the water. Oh, Marilla, it was like a beautiful dream! It gave me a thrill and I just said, “Thank you for it, God,” two or three times.

I found myself saying this several times today as we toured.

Finally a post

On our trip I have attempted on multiple occasions to upload pictures and stories to you, however the ship's wifi has thwarted me at every turn. Jan and I are about to get back on the ship here in Prince Edward Island, with the next stop tomorrow in Sidney, Nova Scotia. Be assured that I have some great pictures to share with you when I have full access with my computer (rather than my IPad)
Tm and Jan

Before we leave...

Before we fly out to our cruise, I thought those of you who decide to follow along with us might like to know what ship we are on. It is the Brilliance of the Seas, one of Royal Caribbeans ships. You can click on the name above if you would like to learn more about this particular ship and class of ship (there are a number of them). Jan and I will have a cabin with a balcony, something that we have found is well worth the extra expense. We have a number of "excursions" planned at our different ports, among them "Lobster and Lighthouses by Boat" in Halifax, Nova Scotia and a "whale watch" boat ride in Bar Harbor, Maine, and some other fun things. We do hope the Fall colors have not completely gone, however we will have fun no matter what...

Getting Ready to Cruise

As we have for many years, we booked this cruise through our favorite Cruise Travel Agency, Cruise Dreams. Early on Kim Gibbons managed the FIRST cruise only in KANSAS CITY for 9 years before starting her own agency CRUISE DREAMS. During this time she also ran the group and charter division of one of the largest Cruise Only Travel Agency's in Canada. Cruise Dreams is based in Lee's Summit and has agents and connections that enable her to work with clients and cruise lines in many countries. She books individuals like Jan and I, and works with corporations in setting up incentive cruises. I just want to give Kim and her staff credit upfront!! Check Cruise Dreams out! (This is a surprise and unsolicited plug.)

Our Itinerary

Begin in Quebec City
Cruising
Gaspe, Canada
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Saint John, New Brunswick
Bar Harbor, Maine
Portland, Maine
Cruising
Cape Liberty, New Jersey & fly home

I don't know if I will blog every day, however as our schedule and time permit, I plan to document our trip by sharing it with you. My hope is that my descriptions and pictures will inspire you to start now to dream and to plan a trip SOMEWHERE. I have friends who have expressed to me that they take these trips vicariously through me. Not good enough! My thought is - start saving. Start planning. Then get off your buns and go somewhere!!!!!