My Canadian Vacation Recap...Somewhat Briefly...Because Who Really Wants To Look At Someone Else's Vacation Pictures....

How's that for a blog post title?  I thought it was fitting.

So yeah, the fam & I went on a little cruise up to Canada last week out of New York City.  BTW, I still really dislike NYC.  But that's a novel post for another time...

So we left the dock and went past the Statue of Liberty.  Goodbye America.

After a day and a half at sea, we were greeted by fog.  Like lots of fog.  I think I enjoyed our first port of call in Saint John, New Brunswick, at least what I could see of it.  That's a little bit of an exaggeration but it really was quite foggy.  

Saint John...I think...

We took a bus tour called the "Top Ten of Saint John" that drove us all around.  We saw the Reversing Falls, the New Brunswick Museum, the City Market, the Caves at Bay of Fundy in Saint Martins, and a bunch of other historical stuff in and around town.  It went far too quickly and I have to give a big tip of the cap to Ian Patrick our tour guide from Aquila Tours.  He gave an excellently entertaining tour...would highly recommend it to anyone who's into that sort of thing.  

Lilly and her flag

View of "Reversing Falls"
River flowed left to right in morning, but right to left when we returned in afternoon.

City Market

Caves at Bay of Fundy

Lilly getting her sneakers wet

Low tide = boat in mud.
High tide touches the bottom of the covered bridge, a pretty dramatic difference

That was pretty much my Saint John experience, as we had to be back on the cruise ship in the early afternoon.  Far too short.  So that night we sailed through the fog & rain and ended up in Halifax, Nova Scotia the next morning.

The weather was much nicer in Halifax...it was sunny, warm, and we had a little more time to do "stuff."  The Harborwalk area by the pier was really nice.  

Lilly & Samuel Cunard statue

Sailing ship in harbor

Lilly getting her sneakers wet

There was a farmer's market, shopping, beautiful views of sailing ships, you name it.  I would have liked to have had about an hour or two more of free time, but we had another tour scheduled after lunch which took us to Peggy's Cove.

Peggy's Cove was pretty interesting...you know with all the granite stones, boulders, whatever you want to call them, and the lighthouse.  Really quite pretty.  We had about an hour and a half there to walk around, take pictures, visit the local shops, but other than that...I'll be honest...the sightseeing tour of Halifax was a little bit boring.  I couldn't help notice people falling asleep on the bus...you know when I wasn't dozing off myself.  Ian Patrick was sorely missed.

K.C. & Lilly navigating the rocks

Fish art

The lighthouse...with some weather rolling in...

The family picture

After that, back on the boat...a day at sea...and back to the United States.

Overall, I really enjoyed our trip around the Canadian Maritimes.  Being a cruise, we only really got to spend a little more than an afternoon in each port of call, and I really think I'd like to get back sometime and give at least 2 or 3 days to each city.  Especially to Saint John.  Oh, and maybe even try a little fishing...and perhaps even eat some dulse.

As for the cruise itself?  The boat was big, the amenities were nice, but the on-boat part of the trip was just "okay."  There were some issues on the ship that I really don't want to talk about here.  Let's just say long lines, CDC warnings, excessive use of plastic gloves, a SAW contingent, and fountains of Purell.  Yeah, we'll just leave that one be.