Travel Day
We enjoyed a ten day cruise on the Caribbean Princess starting in Quebec City and ending in New York City from August 9 to August 19, 2019.
It is now 2:12 and we are on Air Canada heading to Quebec City after an ordeal at the Toronto airport. We had a very long walk to find a bathroom. coming off the plane We did get a ride back to the long line to go through customs. We then had to take a bus to gate D 43.
We walked more to find Gate D43. We didn’t have time for a sit-down meal so we got blueberry muffins and shared a strawberry smoothie.
We had aisle seats across from each other.
We used Princess transfers for the bus trip to the cruise terminal. Dan’s black tote was not on the curb with the others. I saw the bus driver load his bag underneath the bus so I knew it has been there. A black bag with someone else’s name was the only one left. A Princess representative took that bag and said they would try and find Dan’s. It was close to 4:30 p.m. so we did not have a wait to get on the ship. We used our Ocean medallion to sign in.
We are on deck 8 Emerald 404 with a window not a balcony.
We have Anytime dining. We ate with Jean and Carol from Kentucky and Andrew and Johl from Calgary. I had the prime rib.
We walked to the other end of the ship to the princess later for the folkloric show With three French Canadian musicians. One man played the violin and tapped out of rhythm with his feet. It was lively music and very entertaining. It is now 10 pm and no bag in sight.
We both unpacked. I took a shower and am now watching The Big Bang
Montmorency Falls & Sainte-Anne-De-Beaupré
Our tour today was Montmorency Falls & Sainte-Anne-De-Beaupré. The falls are 30 minutes outside of Quebec City.
There were 2 flights of stairs to the boardwalk then a long walk to the falls which you couldn’t see unless you walked down 2 more flights of 16 stairs. It was described as moderate for exercise. I was exhausted by the end.
The next stop was the Shrine of St. Ann. Dan’s Grandmother Brown visited the shrine before 1905. But shrine has been welcoming people for over 350 years. It is a renowned pilgrimage site, dedicated to Saint Anne’s, the grandmother of Jesus. It is visited by over 1 million people every year.
The present day Basilica was built in 1923 after the first Basilica built in 1876 was destroyed by fire in 1922.
The copper doors were Designed by Albert Gillis, a renowned copper artist, whose family continues the repoussé style of copper artistry.
The guide did not have much time to give us details about the church because a wedding was starting. We sat in the pew and watch the bride walk down the aisle with her father who was holding hands with a 4-year boy.
The final stop was at Albert Gilles Cooper Museum. He did the copper doors at the church. Gillis was from France and died in 1997. He did scenes from the life of Christ which is on display in the museum.
We were back to the ship by four and we went directly to our muster station for the safety drill. We were fortunate to get seats in the explorers lounge. We cleaned up a bit before going to dinner at the Icsland dining room. We did not have much lunch. We shared a sweet and salty cereal bar and a package of pretzels from the plane.
Saguenay, Quebec
It was raining and 57 degrees when I woke up. We left at he ship in time for our 11:30 Tour of New France. It is windy and raining as we headed out of town about 15 miles to the site of our tour. It is a recreation of the original site that Camplain founded in Québec in 1609. The movie the Black Robe was filmed in this area.
There was free WiFi at the port reception area. We had coffee and a cookie to get Canadian change for a $50. Dan went back to the ship to shower. It was too late to go to tea because it was going to be over with at 3:45 PM.
Love the Sea Days
We enjoyed our sea day.
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown is both the largest city in the provincial capital of prince Edward Island, featuring many historic buildings, as well as a delightful harbor and lively shopping district.
We took a cab for $8.50 ($10 with tip) Canadian to Victoria Street which is known for the Victorian era shops. We walked a block back to Saint Dunstan’s Basilica.
Dan noticed that Mass was starting at 12:05 PM so we stayed for Mass.
The stone cathedral was built in 1896. Just six years after the dedication of the cathedral, it was destroyed by fire so it was reconstructed in the same footprint as the walls of the burned cathedral. It was completed in 1919. It is a beautiful church.
We are now at the old Dublin pub which required to climb to the second floor. We shared a lobster roll. Dan is thinking this is an expensive excursion because the lobster roll was $18 CD. The bill was $38 with drinks and $45 with a tip. We ar.e not used to expensive lunches
As we walk back to the ship we came across an Indian powwow.
Sydney, Cape Breton Island
We rode one hour on
Your Gaelic adventure begins as you board your transportation for a scenic drive through the heart of Cape Bras d’ Or Lakes region to the Highland Village, a living history museum and cultural center that celebrates the Gaelic experience in Nova Scotia. The 43-acre village is studded with 11 buildings, representative of a Gaelic community from the late 1700s to the end of the 1800s. Visit the rare farm animals including Soay sheep, a descendent of the earliest domestic sheep in northern Europe, and long-haired Highland cattle. Throughout the village the costume guides will showcase the art of weaving, quilting, and rug hooking. View authentic artifacts, discover Nova Scotia’s rich Scottish Gaelic cultural history, and learn a little Gaelic from the friendly and knowledgeable staff. If you are interested in your own Celtic roots, ask about searching through the museum’s genealogical resources. You’ll return to the ship along the same scenic route.
We had to hike around to various sites such as the black house (style of house in Scotland), the log house (would have been built in Cape Breton, a wood frame house and a church. The church and wood frame house
Halifax, Nova Scotia
We took the 90-minute trip Hop On Hop Off bus seeing the sights around Halifax. We drove by several sides of the Halifax Public Gardens, a Victorian era public garden formally established in 1867, the year of Canadian Confederation. In 1872 Richard Power was hired as the superintendent of the Halifax Public Gardens and given the task of combining all these pieces into a harmonious whole. We drove up to the Citadel national historic site and then along the road to the Fairview lawn cemetery. This cemetery has the largest number of Titanic victims in one cemetery.
We did some shopping in the Immigrant Museum shop next to the Cruise Terminal. It is one of the best museum shops I have seen with many items by Canadian First Nation artists. The cruise terminal is full of many shops for souvenirs.
Hundreds of people were lining up to get back on the ship starting about 3 PM. We were boarding right at 3:30 and I looked down and saw many more people still in line to get on the ship. We were supposed to be on board by 3:30 PM.
We both took showers and dressed up for our captains circle party at 4:45 PM. They announced the first second and third number of days cruising winners. Number one couple had cruised over 1700 days.
Portland, Maine
We stayed on the ship and enjoyed a day off from touring. We even did laundry with the pods I bought along.
We are back in the United States after a foggy night sailing from Halifax. I woke up at 8:45 AM and then slept until 9:45 AM. We decided we would do laundry and stay on the ship today as a rest day.
Boston
We had shuttle tickets to get to Atlantic Ave and Milk St. The bus dropped us off by the ticket booth for a hop on hop off
The 90-minute tour covers most of the Boston historic sites. Big Tom, the driver, had to detour a busy intersection with construction. There was a lot of traffic for a Saturday.
Faneuil Hall under wraps for restoration with a performance in the front. There was lots of activity in the parks and streets of Boston on Saturday
Massachusetts State House with the gold dome which was painted black during WWII.
The Greenway is quite impressive with each section designed by a separate landscape designer. The Greenway is the result of the Big Dig which cost $23 billion and took over five years. They put the Highway underground it to replace the overhead Highway that cut through the city.
We shared a $33 dollar lobster roll and headed to Gate 2 for the Harbor Tour using tickets that were 50% off since we rode this morning.
The 45 minute harbor tour was enjoyable now that the sun came out.
I learned that Donald MacKay built clipper ships in his shipyard, the fastest type ship during that era. The record was 89 days 8 hours to go from Boston to San Francisco.
We saw the USS Constitution or Old Ironsides from the water.
We arrived back from the cruise with only a few minutes wait for the shuttle back to the pier.
Travel Day
We paid a porter to get our luggage to the bus. The buses were labeled by airlines so we were on the first one for American Airlines.
With a final swipe of our ocean medallion we headed to the terminal to pick up our luggage.
The port was in Brooklyn and we had to travel to Brooklyn and Queens to get to JFK airport. We were able to get our luggage checked, our known traveler numbers entered so we were TSA pre-check and we headed to C 31.
We spent the day at the airport, having coffee and a roll about 10:30 at Au Bon Pain and then a pizza for lunch at a small restaurant, Cascata, near Gate 31.
The plane is delayed from 4:00 to 4:45 pm. It is now 4:48 PM. The plane has arrived but they are cleaning it before they will let us board.
Dan finished reading a book on his Kindle, I read the New York Times, and watched some YouTube videos.
I wrote a long email to Clara and Aida about the Uber eats program and some ideas for Charlestown to do in the far future.
We boarded after 5 pm and were delayed on the runway when a rain storm came through. The pilot announced we were 55 in line to take off. That finally happened at 7:09 p.m. It was a small plane and out totes did not fit in the overhead bins. I ended up sitting in a single seat with my under the seat bag under the seat which is not go on the way in so I sat with my feet out in the aisle.
We were lucky that C1 was close to the baggage claim and baggage claim was close to the exit for the ride hailing area. We rode home with Kim which called us baby, sweetie and every other term of endearment that older people don’t like.
Kim said the temp was up to 104 today. It was good to be home after 9 pm.