Canada, New England and COOL weather...............

Girlfriends, It is soooooooooo good to be back with you  and the two Rachels today.  You are a bright spot in my week and I've missed you.

 On July 14th, Hubby and I boarded a plane headed towards Montreal, Canada. We were off on our 40th Anniversary trip which began in Montreal.  We decided to spend a couple of days seeing the sites in Montreal before boarding the ship for our Canada and New England Cruise.  It was so nice to be greeted by such cool weather. ~sigh~ 

To make the best use of our limited time there we jumped on the Gray Line tour bus and away we went.  And, I might add, it was just the first of many tour buses we would board over the next 10 days. ~smile~

 One of our favorite stops was the open air Farmers Market.  There was so much beautiful fruit, veggies and pastries.  We enjoyed meandering through.

We boarded the Holland America cruise liner Maasdam on July 16th.  Over the next 7 days we would visit Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Sydney, Halifax, Bar Harbor and then disembark in Boston for a two day stay there.

Everyday involved some type of bus tour so that we could make the most of the time we had at each of the cities.  We were generally only at each  city about 8 hours, so a bus tour seemed to be a best bet.  But, I must admit, we did tire of the bus.  On and off, on and off and there were about 42 of us on the buses.  I'm sure you get the picture. ~grin~ But, we saw some beautiful sites during our tours.

One of many interesting stops was in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  It was here that we met Emard Court.  He is a man in his late 80's, and models the hat he is wearing in the above picture for Land's End catalog.  How funny is that?  He was such a sweet man and very ready to have his picture snapped.  I can only imagine the stories he could have told had we had the time to sit and listen to him.  The tour guide told us that he comes out and meets every tour bus that passes in front of his house.  

The 2nd evening of the cruise was the Captain's Welcome Dinner, so Hubby and I "gussied up" for the occasion .  It was later that evening that hurricane force winds blew up and "rocked and rolled" the ship the entire night.  There were times that we were actually holding on to the bed to stay in it.  Can I just say that we were on the 9th floor with a balcony and the waves were splashing it with water.  Yikes! If we had not had medication, we would have been some "sick puppies."  They had "barf bags" hanging by each elevator. ~gross~ But, we lived to tell about it and our children were sure glad of that. ~laugh~


On the 23rd we disembarked the ship in Boston and went to our hotel, the famed Fairmont Copley.  The first site to greet us was Catie.  

Catie is a black lab and she is the hotel dog.  She lays out in the lobby and greets everyone that comes in. Look closely at the above picture (left top) and you will see the Waterford bowl that she drinks her water from.  She is 9 years old and definitely showing her age, but she is one more loved dog. 

Once we settled in we were back on a tour bus to see the sites of Boston.  Later that evening we would enjoy pizza at Regina's.  It is a "hole in the wall" type place where folks wait in line to get in and eat.  We had heard it was a "must" and we were not disappointed at all.  It was the highlight of our evening. 

There was so much to see and do in Boston but one of our favorites was seeing and touring The USS Constitution or "Old Ironsides" as it is affectionately called. I did not realize the history of that ship until we toured it. 


On Monday the 25th we were homeward bound and we were ready.  I think one of the great things about going is coming back home.  There's just no place like home! But, we made a lot of wonderful memories that we will treasure for years to come.

For more fun reading, check out Home Sanctuary and Finding Joy. 


Blessings for a wonderful weekend my dears!