Montreal,Canada

Despite the rainy weather, we had a wonderful day in Montreal. We began the day by walking around the metropolitan area of the city, which has all the upscale shopping and several cafes.

This is what the day mainly looked like



Here is one of the streets full of shops

In the middle of the metropolitan area was a nice park with several maple trees which had their leaves falling. It was a picturesque moment for sure!

Lots of color


After leaving the newer, metro area of the city, we walked to the 'old' part of Montreal. We were pleasantly surprised with the selection of cafes, souvenir stores, old buildings, and gift shops

Here is a picture we took from 'old' Montreal looking at 'new' Montreal


Lots of old stone streets here in old Montreal (just like Quebec City) And I LOVE these streets!



Just a fun picture we took in front of beautiful display of flowers


What a fun trip this has been....From New York City to Montreal, Canada! Thank you for allowing us to share this trip with you! We arrive home tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon into the arms of Nick, Kate and Ashlan! (and Bismark!)

Quebec City

We really enjoyed visiting Quebec City. We finally had a cool, crisp day on this trip which was so nice. We even had a few sprinkles of rain in the city, but not for long, and it didn’t stop anyone from doing anything. We decided to take a walking tour of the city via a tour guide. This tour was scheduled to be 2 hours. We had the most amazing tour guide (a retired history teacher), and the tour ended up lasting almost 4 hours. No joke! It was great! Our guide took us all over the town, inside several churches, knew the history on every building, etc. Needless to say, we enjoyed Quebec so much!

Of course, the hotel that sits at the top of the city. Hotel Frontanec


This city really decorates for the Fall season. Pumpkins and gourds everywhere. I loved it!




We happened to walk past a menu displaced by a café that offered Caribou Stew. If you know Brent, you know that was something he wasn’t going to leave without trying.


And surprisingly, it was very good!


Here is a picture of one of the narrow walking streets full of shops


And here is a picture of the city of Quebec, at night, from the ship as we sailed away for Montreal.

A Tour of the Ship

We were at sea all day yesterday sailing towards Quebec. It was all open seas, so I didn’t have any pictures of scenery to take. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some pictures around the ship to share with you. So here is a short tour of some of the places on this ship. The Crystal Symphony.

Here is our room


Our bathroom


Our balcony


The Silk Road (Asian Restaurant onboard) Delicious!


There are three shops on the second floor of the Atrium (clothing, jewelry, perfumes)


The Deck (during these two days at sea, it's been so cold and windy. 42-50 degrees. The deck has been vacant because of the weather)


But we love to wrap up and read out on the deck


One of the bars/meeting areas on the ship


The cigar bar where we have been watching the Ranger games each night!!


The Main Atrium with a two story waterfall


We miss everyone, but are having a fabulous time! Leaving you with a picture that was taken last night

Halifax, Nova Scotia

We were so excited to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was another beautiful, yet abnormally warm, day for this area. It was also Thanksgiving, so lots of stores were closed and the town was very quiet. Yes, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October and the reason being, per our tour guide, is that they prefer not to have turkey in November AND December so close together like that, so they celebrate Thanksgiving in October instead. Sounded like good reasoning to me. But unfortunately, being the holiday, most of the places were closed and it was quiet. We were, in fact, able to visit the Citadel (British fortress), as well as the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic featuring a Titanic Exhibit.

Here we are at the entrance of the Citadel


Brent walking along the Halifax waterfront


The only surviving deck chair off the Titanic. This was the coolest exhibit ever!


We could see 2-3 lighthouses in the distance, just from the waterfront of Halifax. Very beautiful.


I wish I could post every picture we take, but I just can't do that. I try to post just a few of the highlights. Overall, we have taken hundreds of wonderful pictures, though! Very much enjoying this trip!

New Brunswick

We spent the day in St. John, New Brunswick, which is a province of Canada. We scheduled ahead of time to have a private tour here. Our driver spent 6 hours driving us all around St. John and St. Martin, New Brunswick, showing us all the highlights and breathtaking views.



The first place we saw was the reversing falls in the Bay of Fundy. The tide in the Bay of Fundy is the largest in the world. It’s faster than a speeding bullet, higher than a 4-story building and able to squeeze 100 billion tons of seawater in and out of the bay two times every day, rain or shine. It’s this event that causes the ‘reversing falls’ whereby the river actually flows back upstream. It’s so cool to see!


We were able to drive up the coast to the fishing town of St. Martin. A very quiet town with wonderful views of the coast. Here is Brent standing next to the lobster traps which the fishermen are working on.


We stopped for a lunch of seafood chowder and a lobster roll while sitting on the patio watching the tide go down.


We then headed to see a couple of lighthouses and a waterfall, both which are Brent’s favorite things to see and photograph.


Leaving you with a picture of our ship that we took this morning as we left for our excursion this morning.


We have left New Brunswick and are now sailing towards Halifax, Nova Scotia where we will arrive tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing Halifax!

Boston!

I love Boston. Love, love, love it. We have been to Boston before, and I love it each time (minus the traffic we encountered here today) We began our day by taking a trolley ride around the city to see the highlights, which included so many places.

Here is Brent being silly inside the trolley

Boston is FULL of history and amazing landmarks! We did take the time to tour the USS Constitution while in town



We wanted to make sure we had lunch somewhere that served Clam Chowder. Thankfully, our trolley driver introduced us to this restaurant on the harbor that supposedly has the best clam chowder served in a bread bowl. We agree. It was delicious! Not to mention, it had a great view of the harbor!



We walked through the famous Quincy Market, which was super crowded! But that comes with being in town on a Saturday, I guess. One cool thing we came upon was the filming of a movie. There will be a movie coming out in 2013 called Rip'd starring Kevin Bacon, Jeff Bridges, and Ryan Reynolds. They happened to be filming a multiple car crash in one of the main intersections in town so we were able to stand around and watch that for a bit..


Leaving you with a picture of us from last night. It was a formal night on the ship and we hung out after dinner in the cigar bar watching baseball playoffs. What a great evening!



We have now left Boston and are currently sailing towards Canada. Our first stop there will be tomorrow in St. John, New Brunswick! Looking forward to it!

Newport, Rhode Island

We spent today in Newport, Rhode Island. What a drastic change from being in New York City 12 hours earlier!!! Newport is small and quiet, but beautiful. Lots of old, tall trees and the most beautiful, old houses. And sailing seems to be very popular here. Sailboats are everywhere!


We walked around the city for most of the day. We stopped at the Breakers Mansion to take a tour of it. This mansion was the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt, II, and it was breathtaking! Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside.



After we toured the mansion, we took a hike along the Cliff Walk. Again, another gorgeous day we’ve had which made for a beautiful walk along the cliffs!


We have now left Newport and are sailing towards Boston, where we will arrive in the morning. We’ve been to Boston before and loved it, so we are eager to arrive and enjoy that city again!

New York

As most of you know Brent and I are cruising the New England coast, which includes stops in Canada. Our trip began by spending two days in the Big Apple before sailing away. We had a wonderful FIRST time in New York together. Between walking, taxi's and the subway, we managed to see what we wanted to in the short amount of time we had! Here are some highlights from our visit in New York.

We went up to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Ctr) to see the best, most amazing views of New York. Here you can see just how big Central Park is

Times Square

St. Patrick's Cathedral (the biggest cathedral in the U.S.)

No, we didn't see his show but thought it was worth getting a picture outside!

Ellis Island

Lots of Irish Pubs around the Times Square area, so we stopped for a quick beer and some Fish n Chips!

Brent was so sweet to make sure I was able to go inside and shop in the original Saks 5th Ave!

We ate at Carmine's, then went to see the Broadway show War Horse!

Ground Zero. Lots of construction going on. Lots. The museum doesn't open until 2012, so we plan to come back and definitely see that!


We are now sailing to Newport, Rhode Island. Check back later for pictures of our trip there!