Cruise

Leaving Baltimore

 Maine

 



 Our ship, Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas in Portland, ME

Pulling into Bar Harbor, ME

 

Hans in Bar Harbor

The famous reversing falls in St. John, New Brunswick (I have no idea how to explain this phenomenon, Google if interested)

Hans, shopping in St. John - the book is called "My Love Affair With the Navy" (he did NOT buy it)

The market in St. John

Leaving St. John

 Pulling into Halifax, Nova Scotia

Noon cannon firing (blanks only--haha!)*

My husband forced me to try on regimental dress and pose...Halifax Citadel

Towel art onboard the ship

 

 

 

 

*  It's still a joke almost a decade after our honeymoon...staying in Edinburgh, we saw the noon cannon firing from the castle there and I was horrified that they were firing shells so close to the city.  UNTIL my husband explained to me that they used blanks.  Um, duh. 

 

So--finally, the cruise.  I know, the world (all four people who read this blog) has been waiting in suspense for details of the cruise and pictures.  I have a good excuse:  I was busy setting my house to rights on Monday after having company for almost two weeks and yesterday Josiah and I were both violently ill.  We are better today, thank you very much for asking.  Oh, and we had the birthday party in there, plus getting caught up with the mail, the e-mail, the notes and report cards and various crap from school, etc. all took up a goodly chunk of time as well.

 

I would like for everyone who sent a gift or a card for William to know that we THANK YOU!  For once, I'm going to play the "overwhelmed mother" card and not send out thank you notes.  I hope that you can all forgive me for not sending them out--I have done it every other time in eight years of birthdays and Christmases.  Can you tell I feel guilty?  Anyway--thank you SO much all of you, for making WIlliam's day special. 

 

Again, back to the point:  the cruise.  First of all, may I apologize again for being SO damn confused as to where we were going?  I know that when I first told people about it, I listed about 10 different stops.  I still managed to get one location wrong--I thought we were going to St. John, Newfoundland (Hans thought this too, so I'm not completely alone in my wrong-ness).  There are far too many St. Johns in Canada, that's all I've got to say.  We stopped in Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine.  St. John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Bar Harbor was my favorite in terms of scenery, shopping and dining.  It was Canadian Thanksgiving in St. John, so almost everything was closed.  Halifax had the most interesting history and we did the most sightseeing there.  We walked all over Portland.

 

I am going to go ahead and pre-apologize to anyone who is getting a subscription to AARP here, anyone who claims the senior discount, but everyone else on the ship was quite a bit older than Hans and me.  I'm not sure what we were expecting, maybe more of a young party crowd?  Upon reflection, we decided it was probably pretty obvious that the young party crowd would be headed south, NOT north to look at leaves.  No problem, cool, except that most of the activities onboard the ship were geared towards Baby Boomer age and up.  The result being that Hans and I participated in a scant few of the activities and none of the tours offered by the ship.  We chose our own walking routes in Portland and Bar Harbor and took local tour buses in St. John and Halifax.  We spent a lot of time relaxing on deck chairs in sunny corners, reading or watching 80s movies in our stateroom.

 

Hmmm, what else can I say?  The cruise wasn't perfect...we had to change rooms after two nights of listening to the super loud music coming from the club underneath us.  We had a lovely location at the very aft end of the ship, with a big balcony, but that music was ridiculous (not to mention that since most everyone onboard liked Elvis and not Pitbull or Flo Rida, there were probably six people down there clubbing).  We were able to move into a comparable stateroom along the starboard side and spent the rest of the cruise in blissful silence. 

 

The food was excellent, I have to say.  According to the scale, I gained six pounds in those eight days, which I find a little suspicious, since we ate well but didn't overdo it (anyway, the flu took care of that).  We ate at the buffet for lunch and supper nearly every day, only dining in the main dining room on one occasion.  Our seating time was 8:00 p.m. and we were usually ready to go bunk down by then, so buffet it was and the buffet was astoundingly good.  It's a rude awakening to come home and not have my choice of dishes plus dessert every night!

 

I know that we will most likely cruise again, especially since Royal Caribbean gave us a 15% discount on our next cruise.  The days at sea were tranquil and lazy, offset by the days in port when we could do as much or as little as we pleased.  It was truly the perfect vacation for us.  I'm looking forward to doing it again, with the kids, since these ships have so many great activities and clubs to keep them busy all day.

 

Most of all, I'm thankful for this opportunity to celebrate a decade of marriage and reconnect with my husband.  To discover that at the end of the day, we really do still like each other, still make each other laugh, and still find plenty to talk about.  Being alone and being away was a much needed escape.  Let's not wait 10 more years before doing this again, OK, Kit?

 

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't publicly thank my WONDERFUL, AMAZING parents who drove all the way out from Minnesota and took care of our wild brood, Elsa included.  Thank you, you guys.  I love you to pieces!  Hans and I were able to really relax and enjoy because we knew that our children were in the best of hands.

 

All right then, that's about it.  I have approximately 2,348 things to get accomplished this morning that should have been accomplished two days ago.  I'd better get to work!