Big Ships, Big Motors, Steve and Carol

Dateline: Out of Norfolk for Baltimore
October 30, 2007 0005 hours

As an extra today we are posting some of the pictures we took leaving New York and heading towards Norfolk, it was really beautiful and we wanted to share them with you. You can find these pictures at the Google Picasa Website as well.

This morning at 1100 we hit Norfolk, Virginia!! What a wonderful place. We woke up this morning to warships, warships and more warships… There are a ton of them here in Norfolk… a Navy zodiac with a driver and a machine gunner at the bow picked us up just as we came into the Norfolk Naval Base area off the Hampton Roads sea lane. That, in addition to the Navy helicopters and police launches as escorts… welcome to the biggest naval installation on the East Coast. We’re talking carriers, nuclear boomers, frigates and of course the Battleship Wisconsin, which we ended up parking right next to. Steve was ecstatic, to say the least. Grand Princess is the largest passenger ship to come to Norfolk (and this was the Captain’s first approach to Norfolk in this ship as well they told us last night after dinner), so there were a TON of people out to see us tie up downtown.

We also solved the mystery of the “disappearing 18 wheelers….” We woke up to sunny skies, Force Eight winds and choppy seas, and Carol noticed a road intersecting with the sea lane we were in (at about 14 knots with this tub that weighs only 109,000 tons!) Carol called me to the balcony, saying, “Steve, you need to some look at this! There is a road coming right at the front of the ship with trucks and cars on it, and we are NOT slowing down! I threw on some pants and hit the balcony, only to stare in awe as this 18-wheeler DISAPPEARED under the ocean! Come to find out there are all of these auto roads here that tunnel under the sea lanes, which is sort of weird for us folks from the mountains of California. We learned that HUGE areas of water surrounding low lands here is the normal geographical landscape. The seas kicked up a bit coming into the Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay, which if you are doing a geography lesson, would swallow San Francisco Bay about 50 times over.

Norfolk was England’s first successful overseas colony, and as such, there is a LOT of history here. Much more than one can see in a nine-hour visit, so we will hit the details when we drive back up here and stay in Colonial Williamsburg and Washington, D.C. next month. We made port and tied up right next to the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin, which in the 1940’s was a leviathan of the seas. Next to the Grand Princess it looks like a cruiser or a large destroyer. Check out the photos at our Google Picasa Website. The area we docked in has been completely renovated and taken over by professional people, and is a seriously upscale part of Norfolk. The streets have been paved in cobble stone, and the homes reminded Steve of the dorm he lived in at Harvard University in Cambridge. No fall colors here yet to speak of, but a nice crispy day in the middle 60’s. We spent the day touring the old historical portion of the city, including St. Paul’s church, which was built in 1739 and still has a British canon ball embedded in one of its walls from a 1776 attack! Now that is Revolutionary War stuff (see the photo at our photo book). We also toured the battleship Wisconsin, which is still an active duty Navy ship (class B warship, which means everything below the main deck is sealed and ready to be re-commissioned on short notice, which doesn’t make a great deal of sense given today’s technology, which could blow something like that out of the water in about 10 seconds according to Steve). It has been upgraded for Desert Storm, and for those who give a shit, it has Tomahawk missile pods, AAMRAM ground to air missiles and the Aegis guidance system on-board (the docent who gave us our tour I am sure thought Steve was some sort of spy when he began asking him all of these technical questions about launchers, in-bound target tracking and a bunch of other stuff I don’t understand or care about!). Anyway, the docent told us the cost to run this ONE ship at sea was $ TWO MILLION per day (that is NOT a misprint). That would teach a lot of kids and provide a lot of medical insurance in our book, but hey, we just pay for this stuff!

We have met some really wonderful people on the ship, I think most of them want to adopt us and they think of us as their kids. You really get a good feeling about most of the people on the ship and you know Carol, she just talks to anybody.. We think she has talked most of the women here into getting a mammogram. One of the couples we have met Tim and Cindy have become our compadres in crime. We go to the shows and while everyone else is sleeping, we are whooping and hollering and clapping. Again, I think we are seen as the youngsters!! Well, Cindy called last night and asked us to come by their room before we ate dinner and when we got there they had purchased this beautiful poster and when we read it all four of us cried.. I’d like to share it with all of our friends and family:

What Cancer Cannot Do
Cancer is so limited
It cannot cripple
LOVE
It cannot shatter
HOPE
It cannot corrode
FAITH
It cannot destroy
PEACE
It cannot kill
FRIENDSHIP
It cannot suppress
MEMORIES
It cannot silence
COURAGE
It cannot invade the
SOUL
It cannot steal
ETERNAL LIFE
It cannot conquer the
SPIRIT

This says it all…We will be having this framed and will hang it in our living room and each time we look at it we will think of our dear, dear friends Cindy and Tim!!

We had an interesting experience or two this evening. Given all the security here we had a small helicopter flying right around the ship so close we could see the two guys in the glass bubble. Steve was out on the balcony shooting photos of the whole thing. Then, at about 9:30 p.m. while we were taking a short break between after-dinner shows, we were on the balcony watching the pilot boat coming up to the ship to fetch the pilot who guided us out to the marker at the Hampton Roads where we were to turn north for Baltimore. The water was pretty rough and it this little pilot boat was stuck in our bow wake and it was throwing the boat all over the place. It took the crew three times to pick up the pilot, who was hanging on a line between our ship about 15 feet off the water and the little boat that came out to fetch him. Of course, Steve got it all on film, so check it out.

We got back to the ship, ate dinner, and decided to party in a serious fashion tonight, as we only have about five more days left aboard to raise Hell. We have gained a reputation for being involved in some out of control behavior aboard the ship (which with an average crowd of 70-years-old ain’t hard to do), but the Brits, Canadians and the Aussies really seem to appreciate our antics. Again, if any one can complain about the food and entertainment aboard this ship they have to be missing something. We went to a Broadway-type show featuring the “Motor City Years” and it was just phenomenal. The dancing, music and costumes were tremendous. In one scene they did a Stevie Wonder anthology where the entire stage was blacked out and the dancers and singers had on day-glo painted costumes as they danced under black lights. Pretty amazing stuff these people do for the ship’s programs. We have sort of befriended this house band on the ship that plays a lot of soul and blues music, which are our favorites. They specialize in EWF and Tower or Power, which is right up our alley. We partied with the band until they threw us out of the lounge at midnight, but not before the drummer gave Steve a pair of sticks and invited him to play a set with the band, and a promise of back stage passes when they return to their home base of Las Vegas, which of course we took them up on.

So we returned to our “stateroom” (which the comedian on the ship last night ragged on as being about the size of a small closet) and decided to get this written before we hit Baltimore lat this morning.

So until then, stay in touch!

New York City and the Statue of Liberty

Dateline New York at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
October 28, 2007 1030 Hours

Carol had her epiphany at the John F. Kennedy Library; I had mine this morning.

I can remember from the time I was a little kid watching all of those black and white James Cagney and Pat O’Brien movies, PBS and History Channel shows, seeing the immigrants all lined along the rails of large ships coming into New York Harbor, craning their heads for a glimpse of the famous American Statue of Liberty as their first sight of America. This morning I finally got to realize my dream of experiencing the feeling for real on the deck of a large cruise ship.

We watched Series last night until Boston was ahead 6-0 and then hit the rack early (we assume they won the game but have not heard the outcome yet). Because Carol SO loves to get up with the chickens, I had the cruise control set for O’Dark Thirty this morning. We got up just as first nautical dawn was showing out the balcony windows and hit the ships’ televised monitor. Moderate seas and Force Six winds right across the deck – just the perfect way to begin the day. We quickly jumped into our warmest sweats and sock hats, grabbed the camera back pack, and blew straight for the top of the ship. This is the nastiest place to shoot photos from on-board, as it is the highest point on the ship and the wind howls up there, but if you can gut out the wind and the cold, the reward is the very best photo opportunities you can find on the ship, because a lot of people don’t want to deal with it.

It was no surprise to me that about 1,000 other passengers all had the same plan. For some dumb ass reason the crew at the purser’s desk was not sure when we were going to pass the statue and no announcements were made around the ship, but WE ALL KNEW! Usually at 0645 there ain’t nothin’ stirring on this tub, but the portside deck rails were swarming with passengers, cameras and video cameras as we made out way under the Verrazano narrows Bridge on our entrance into Upper New York Bay and the East River. The skies were a dark and a deep, clear blue, with an almost full moon setting in the west. The light in the east was just turning pink when we got our first glimpse of Ms. Liberty, standing alone on her pillar in the bay. Just about that time two Norwegian Cruise Line ships appeared behind us, moving toward their berths on the Westside along the Hudson River. Princess has built a new terminal facility in Brooklyn right by where the old Navy yard used to be, which made this an extra special experience for me. I stood on the top of the ship, thinking about what my father must have felt in the end of 1945 as he sailed into this very spot past the Statue of Liberty on the Queen Mary when he came home from World War II as a 21-year-old kid. I am sure it made him think very hard about what he had been fighting for the previous three years in Europe. With the two other gaily painted cruise liners running right along side of us, it was a stirring sight to behold. When you added in the obvious “hole” where the Twin Towers once stood in lower Manhattan, it even made it a more stirring sight.

As the sun rose we got a totally unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Staten Island Ferry running in front of it all, Battery Park and the Manhattan skyline, with both the Verrazano and Brooklyn Bridges thrown in for good measure. For me, this paid the price of the entire trip.

We have now sailed over 2,000 nautical miles from Quebec City and it would appear we are about half way to our final debarkation port of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. We have been able to experience everything from a little bit of France, England, Canada, as well as the rough days and nights across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the Grand Banks and the North Atlantic.
We’re off to get all of this data transferred to the website blog so that can all continue to share this experience with us. Please continue to follow our voyage pictorially through out photos, videos and comments at the Google Picasa Photo Album.

For those of you who are interested here is a video of our arrival in New York.

Newport Rhode Island - Tall Ships and lots of Money

Dateline: Newport RI in Newport Harbor
October 27, 2007 1730 hours

Okay, forget what I wrote the other day about the richies living in Bar Harbor, Maine. The REAL rich folks live here. Today was another “tender” day getting into the docks in town and I thought we were on some sultan’s navy base. I have never seen so many 50 – 100 foot motor yachts and ocean sail boats in my life. Some of the people must live on them.

It is a foggy and rainy day here, so not a lot of time spent touring in town. Tomorrow in New York we are going to spend the entire day working on the computer, photos, laundry and other things like that, as the ship docks in Brooklyn at the new cruise ship terminal. Unfortunately, Brooklyn is still Brooklyn, and since we will end out first phase of the vacation in New York, we thought it would be a good opportunity to get caught up on other stuff.

We went to dinner with friends last night for the second formal night on the ship, and we decided to hit the hoity toity Italian restaurant, which was very nice, and then went to the piano bar and listened to this Aussie musician who has become a ship-board favorite. He does Elton John just like Elton John, as well as a lot of other artists, and is a pretty funny guy to top it off.

We went into the town of Newport this morning and just sort of walked around a bit, and (of course) smuggled a few more bottles of wine back onto the boat. There are some really wonderful examples of colonial homes and building here, one of the oldest Baptist (Trinity Church) churches in the U.S., as well as the first Synagogue in America. Check out the photos at our Picasa Google Photo album. Dad, check out the pipe organs in the churches we’ve taken this week. How would you like to play one of those babies? Check out the photos of George Washington’s private pew (well, shared later with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles during our lifetime) and some of the buildings from the middle and latter 1600’s. Coming from California the sense of history here on the East Coast is something for us to really get into. Of course, Newport is one of the few cities in which the Brits and French didn’t piss on one another’s boots, but was founded as an “open” religious city, so there was quite the mix of Protestants, Jews and Quakers even. Pirates ruled the roost for some year and were then thrown out.

The city’s wealth came at the cost of slavery, as it was a major component of the Triangle trade, in which goods and Rum were shipped to Europe and Africa, and slaves were imprisoned and brought back to the Colonies.

We also went to the church where John and Jacque Kennedy were married, as her family was part of the super rich who lived in the mansions here along the other side of the city. We passed on the mansion walk along the cliffs because of the weather, and were glad we didn’t waste the time, as we heard a lot of grumbling on the tender back out to the ship about the tour of them, in which all the cattle got to see were a lot of shrubs and hedges hiding the homes from the street. Duh…

Carol went and got a massage and some sort of seaweed treatment this afternoon while I just wasted some time, which of course, is my specialty act. They are pulling up the hook and the scurvy should be sailing in a few minutes. It’s an early dinner and Game Three of Series tonight, as they have decided now that we are back in the U.S. to pipe the games right into our staterooms.

It is probably going to be another rough night, as the fog and rain has increased and so has the movement of the ship, even at anchor in the harbor here. Something real interesting happened as we were getting ready to leave this evening. This three-masted schooner almost ran into the bow of our ship. You could hear the anchor coming up and this guy sailed right under the bow! Got a few photos of this fool out there.

So until New York tomorrow….

JFK Library - A Step back in Time

Dateline: Boston, MA
Time: 17:00 hours

A glorious day in Boston, MA… We got up early and for the first time since the cruise began we were one of the first people out through the gangway! We were third in line for the taxi and were at the Kennedy Library at 9:00 a.m. on the dot! This was the day I have been waiting for and I was not disappointed.

When I was young, one of my very first memories was of Walter Cronkite announcing to the world that JFK was dead. I remember my mother ironing and crying and telling me to go tell my aunt that JFK had been shot and killed. I thought he was a relative and I have been fascinated by the Kennedy family since. In preparation for this cruise I have been reading everything I could get my hands on about JFK, RFK and the Kennedy family so when I found out this cruise went to Boston, I was all over it.

Steve went to graduate school at Harvard so he was very familiar with Boston, the library, Boston Common and most of the touristy spots so having him as a personal tour guide was wonderful. We spent three hours at the Kennedy Library and when we walked in I was in tears. What a wonderful place to spend time learning about John Kennedy and what he tried to accomplish during his short time in history. It was a dream come true for me and made me believe in the United States of America again, if only the current resident of the White House could adopt some of the same values that John and Bobby had during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I believe we would not be where we are with respect the animosity we have experienced as we have traveled around the world.

For those of you who haven’t been to the library check out http://www.jfklibrary.org/. This site will give you information about the library including President Kennedy’s diary, a reference desk, virtual library tour and the information about the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is a fascinating tour and one everyone who is thinking about politics should be required to attend. There were tons of school children and high school kids at the library.. It was like being on a field trip with the kids again. I had to tell one kid not to touch the video screen because I was watching the video. Steve kept telling me “You’re not in Canada anymore matey!” I just wanted to grab the kid’s arm and ask him where was his mother? But Steve made me be good!!!

Steve is outside the cabin yelling at the locals who are saying “Go Sox” again for those of you who know us; you know we are BIG SOX fans!! Go Sox! We met this guy today who said he was going on five days with three hours of sleep because of the series. Steve made me go hang out at Snookers (a cigar bar) and watch the game…we finally left when the score was 6-1 and we understand they won 2-1 last night. Too bad we aren’t in Boston for a couple of more days.. We would have been definitely at the game. As it stands we are listening to Eric Clapton (Cocaine) and Steve is taking pictures of big airplanes flying into Logan airport. They look like they are going to land right on the ship. It is pretty cool. You’ll get to see them on the blog at our Google Picasa Photo Album.

We took the tube to Boston Common…and participated in an anti-war rally right in the middle of Boston Common Square…Makes you really think about it when you realize you are standing on the same ground that the Boston Massacre occurred. Really gives you a sense of history and a sense of awe. We still have the right to voice our opinions and a right to protest against our government… that is what democracy is all about. I only wish we could have someone in the Oval Office who would listen to the people!

Boston is a wonderful place, I think we will come back and spend a few days here. Steve wants to take me to Harvard and we just ran out of time today. We have decided that a cruise is like the samplers we saw in Halifax, a taste of the City. It is up to you to decide where you want to spend more time and to make that happen. I definitely want to come back to Boston, take in a Sox game and spend time just exploring the city. What a wonderful place.

We will dock in Newport, RI tomorrow morning, so we have a chance to be in the smallest state in the U.S. Until then….

Back in the USA - Bar Harbor Maine

Dateline: Out of Bar Harbor, Maine at sea in the Atlantic
Date: October 25, 2230 hours

Today was our first day being brought into a city and back via the “tenders,” which is just a fancy name for the larger 150 passenger lifeboats we have on the ship. However, it is a lot of fun to watch them lower and raise them, and to get a chance to actually ride in one of them. Although they are fairly large and each hold 150 passengers in some level of comfort, have life jackets, LORAN, GPS and full lockers of emergency rations, I am not too sure I’d like to spend a week in one at sea with 15 – 30 foot swells, which are common up in this country during the winter months. It was sort of rough in the bay and the boat we were in was bobbing up and down like a cork in a waterfall. Again, Mr. Patch saves the day!

We dropped the hook off the City of Bar Harbor in Frenchman Bay about 0700 this morning, and our first order of business was re-entry back into the United States, which went very well given they had to clear some 3,000 people from all over the world in a space of about 90 minutes. Cruise ships make NO money sitting idle in port, so it is either onto the next destination, or get the herd off the boat and onto expensive tours as quickly as possible. Again, in watching the people who work on this huge ship work to get these things done, it is amazing to see how practiced and quickly they get their tasks done. They even load these older folks and their Rascal scooters into the life boats so they can go ashore for tours, which is a really cool thing. However, not too sure what they do if the transfer had to be made in the rough seas we encountered the other night.

We hit the dock in downtown Bar Harbor to find many of the businesses closing, or closed, due to the end of the summer season here; as this is a summer resort community (you already know this if you are a Stephen King fan). It was overcast, cold and threatening rain so Carol and I decided to wimp out on our bike ride through Acadia National Park and signed up for a local tour of the park. It was a good choice.

One gets a sense of history here in the North East for the constant fighting between the Brits and the Frogs when they were both considerable European powers. Every port we stop in tells of a history of one country’s army and navy pushing out the other, then the positions reversing 50-75 years later, and the locals getting stomped to shit in the process. The indigenous population of the area must have thought these white ass holes are mucho loco!

Acadia National Park is not very large, but what it lacks in size, it MORE than makes up for in beauty. We thought the colors in Canada were gorgeous! Unfortunately, because of the dry summer Maine experienced a lot of the reds were very short-lived this season, but the yellows, oranges and golden colors were nothing short of spectacular. Our driver and guide was a local who actually lives on the edge of the park. She has degrees in Natural Resources and History, so she was a natural to do this trip with us. She is also a NPS docent like we are for the USFS, so we bonded well with her of course. We are trying to figure out how to return here on “business” to teach Leave No Trace courses in the park, which they are just really getting into here. She told really bad jokes, but it was obvious she loves her work in the park. Make sure to check out the new additions to the “Fall Colors” photos we shot during the day. We saw deer, beaver, otters and a lot of other critters in the park, and had an opportunity to go to the top of Cadillac “mountain.” Now, if you are from California or Colorado, a 1,500-foot hill is not a mountain, but in this country it is. Anyway, we were afforded an amazing 360 degree view of Frenchman Bay, the Atlantic, and all sorts of large and small lakes inland. Also, by the time we got to the top of the mountain, the weather had completely cleared, the sun was shining bright and it was so hot we had to strip down to T-Shirts for the remainder of the day. The area was/is also the playground for the super rich from down the coast. The Navy was going to build a communications station next to Acadia National park, but the Rockefeller family told the U.S. government, “Nope, you ain’t gonna do that here… however, because we are Americans and do wish to cooperate with you to some degree, we will build you a Navy base down the road and WE will pay for it!” We didn’t get to see the base, but she said it is the most-beautiful Navy base in all of the states. The Rockefellers, Fords and some of the other destitute of America also constructed 54 miles of horse and bridal trails throughout the park, including a “carriage house” that is about five times larger than the place we live in, and to this day you cannot drive a car on any of them. Hiker, horse person and mountain biker heaven! In the winter when it is colder than hell and snow is everywhere, one can cross-country ski, snow shoe and (yuk) snow mobile in the park.

After getting back to town we headed out to the actual “Bar Harbor,” which is how the town got its name. Look at the photos we took, where Carol is walking across the bay (you always knew she could walk on water, eh?). The tide changes about 12-15 feet every six hours and it creates a very large and long sand bar, so you can actually walk to the long island which is across the bay from the town. You just have to be mindful of the fast tide racing back in unless you want to swim back to town. There are some wonderful historical homes and some totally out-of-control mansions in and around town. Steve took some photos so you can see how the REALLY rich slugs live on the East Coast! Check out the Google Photo Album! Our tour guide told us the same issue exists in Maine as in California, where the people who actually do most of the work in the town cannot afford to live there, so many of them are commuters. She told us you could snag a two bedroom one bath shack for about $400K.

Highlight of the day was Carol’s opportunity to get her hands on some REAL New England clam chowder, which she is addicted to. Our friend Anne Marie Gold who is a part-time local here told us about a restaurant called the Bluefish Café, but it was unfortunately closed for the season, who we hit a lobster joint right down by the docks. We told the waitress we had traveled from Lake Tahoe (no one know where the hell Pollock Pines is) California, across Canada, to Newfoundland, and down the East Coast of North America just to get a bowl of real New England clam chowder, so she brought us each a nice, large bowl of the stuff. Carol was in heaven, and the local beer was pretty damned good as well.

Carol also got a new job aboard the Scurvy as a “Welcoming Person on the tender dock, which is this cool thing that unfolds right out of the ship of the ship, just above the water line. There are two or three of them that are working at the same time in order to get all of the cattle back on time to sail. Anyway, if you want to get some idea of just how big this ship is, take a look at the photos I shot from this platform looking straight up the side of the ship, which is 120 feet off the water line at it highest point (not counting the additional 30-feet of draft between the waterline and the bottom of the keel!). So there I was taking all of these photos and Carol got bored, so she started assisting the crew in greeting people back aboard. I think she is looking for a new career now.

After dinner is was off to “Snooker’s Bar” and Cuban cigar smoking establishment to watch the Red Sox pound the shit out of the hapless Rockies. Lots of fans for both teams, so the place was rocking pretty good. All of our friends (Jack, Fosters, Chardonnay, etc.) were in attendance, so we hung around until it was 6-1 Sox and then called it night.

Until Boston….

Saint John - Here we are!

Dateline: Bay of Fundy to the North Atlantic in SMOOTH Seas!!
2340 Hours

This is our last night in Canadian waters as we head for Bar Harbor Maine and the good old U.S. of A. We have been at sea for one week and this is the smoothest night we have had since our first night out of Quebec Cite on the St. Lawrence (spelled correctly if you will note) River. Seas are calm and so are the winds. We have just returned from dinner with our new friends Tim and Cindy and a visit to “Snooker’s Bar,” Cuban cigars and drinks, where we watched as the Boston Red Sox whipping Colorado’s ass in Game One of the World Series. As usual, Carol and I got rowdy during the ballgame, but we have a lot of other Red Sox fans on-board egging us on (not that it takes a lot to get us fired up at a ball game). I have to smoke those Cigaros Cubanos as we have to go through customs tomorrow in Maine. Well, not all of them. I just will pull the rings off of them and tell them they are Macanudo’s… the liquor smuggling business is doing quite well, thank you, and our pals ask for daily updates on how we keep getting our booze on-board. Funny what will make you a short-time celebrity, eh?

We docked at 0800 Wednesday morning in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. After catching up on our blog, email and VoIP phone calls to make sure the kids are okay (especially our eldest who lives in the L.A. area), we headed off for yet another Carol and Steve “self-guided tour” of the city. What an amazing place. Many of the “Loyalist” Brits migrated here from the Colonies at the end of the American Revolutionary War in the 1780’s, and began this city, which was completely annihilated by a terrible fire in 1877, and was completely re-built from the ground up. There are a few masonry churches that survived, but not much else. We have a photo of what is left of the city (see photos at our Google Photo Album).

From 1820 until the advent of iron ships at the turn of the 20th Century, St, John produced over 70% of the Western World’s ships, which made this a very wealthy city indeed. Please take some time to not only look at the beautiful Victorian homes we took photos of, but the technology employed to build these amazing wooden ships. Remember, all of this was done (until the 1850’s) with HAND saws, wooden pegs, hemp and tar (for caulking between the pieces of wood), and these ships endured the same (and worse) than the 985-foot Leviathan we cruise on tonight, with 16 engines that gobble 2731 TONS of fuel to produce 65,000 horsepower, driving our 109,000 TONS of mass through the ocean at a comfortable 22.5 knots!!!

We really enjoyed the museum here today, and they have a collection of marine life skeletons and fossils from the area that are just amazing. We also visited a science store for kids and came up with gift ideas for all of our grand children, which they really do enjoy getting from those weird grandparents that refuse to buy them iPods and such for Christmas and birthdays.

Vara - here is a special picture for you - a baby beluga! So now when you sing Baby Beluga you'll know that Grandma and Grandpa saw one!

Also remarkable about the Bay of Fundy are the tides here, which rise and fall almost 50 FEET every day!! It was really cool. Even with the size of the Grand Princess, when we left the ship this morning early, the gang plank walk was fairly steep. When we returned to the ship at Noon to put the laptop on our stateroom, the gangway was almost FLAT!! When we returned for the final sailing at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, the gangway was steep again. Note to self: No matter how big we build them, NO ONE screws with Mother Nature! She owns us all.
This is for you Dad, and all the other pilots in the audience. Look at the photos we took of the first variable pitch prop for airplanes, which was also invented in St. John in 1927. I was amazed to learn this (if you do not care about engineering or machines this will be a big HO HUM for you, so sorry about that)\, especially when you look at Turnbull’s rudimentary workshop. The tools Carol and I use to build furniture with today are machined so precisely, it is hard to imagine what these folks produced with such inaccurate tools.

For the shoppers in the crowd, Carol did you proud. We hit a Mall and the City Market, which is this sort of open affair under a roof that sells everything one could ask for. Of course this afforded us an opportunity to smuggle aboard a couple bottles of New Brunswick wine, which is now cooling in our stateroom fridge. Also, for those who are not that familiar with our travels, Carol and I have a Cardinal rule: One MUST purchase a cheesy fridge magnet from every city we visit, and the most important rule is that it cannot be “Fabrique in Chine.” We have pissed off the metal detectors coming on-board so much that the crew knows who we are and we just run the magnets through the scanner (good thing wine bottles are not magnetic or we would be screwed).

Well, that’s all until we find another port and the time to connect up with wireless Internet. We plan on biking through Acadia National Park all day in Bar Harbor, and hitting a lobster place recommended by our friend Anne Marie Gold.

Until then…..

Halifax, the Titanic and the Steinbrechers

Dateline Halifax, Nova Scotia and at Sea
October 23, 2210 hours in the North Atlantic

Another riotous ride in the North Atlantic tonight. Not quite as bad as the previous two, but we have been encountering gale force winds, either cross-wind to the ship or right down our length. The mirror in our stateroom right in front of the computer is rolling from side to side, as well as up and down. Gee, what fun!’

Arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia at 0800 this morning. We were up at 0700 and off the boat by 8:45 after hitting Jimmy (Buffet) for a large breakfast.

As you may or may not know, Halifax has quite an amazing history as a sea faring town (it is actually a city of some 300,000 these days) that has played some major roles in North American history. The city has been a strategic asset to both the Brits and the French since the early 1600’s. We had an opportunity to visit a Citadelle that the British used for almost 300 years to protect their assets in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, once they threw the Frogs out.

When the Titanic went down off the Grand Banks in 1912, Haligonian (that’s what the natives are called) fishermen picked up debris from the liner, as well as some 245 bodies off the North Atlantic, and brought them into Halifax. We toured the Maritime Museum of the North Atlantic this morning, and they had a ton of items on display that the local fishermen brought in off the ship. There are some 150 bodies of those who drowned in the disaster buried in local cemeteries here. They also came up with an ingenious methodology (by 1912 standards anyway) to identify the bodies and make sure the proper folks were notified. Body number 124 turned out to the none other than John Jacob Astor.

During World War II, all of the American and Canadian convoys ferrying supplies for the Great Britain, Murmansk and Archangel runs to Russia formed here, including the infamous Convoy 237, which lost 18 of its 29 ships to Nazi U-Boats.

We spent the day walking all over the city, and of course, Carol found two Starbuck’s here, so she is back on track. We visited the Victorian Gardens in the center of the city, and went through some churches that have been here since the late 1700’s. A very historical, but modern city and we continue to meet the nicest people as we walk through the cities. As always, Steve took some wonderful photos and you can find them on our Google Picasa Photo Album, we have also added some fall color photo, check them out at the Fall Colors Photo Album.

We had an unusual thing happen tonight when we left. There is another liner in town for the first time on this trip (a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship), and as we were preparing to depart the harbor, as the pilot came along to take us out, so did three Canadian navy guided missile frigates. They sort of cruised slowly around the large and very deep inner harbor here until we began making headway. They then blew right by us, with one taking station about 1500 yards in front of us, with a trailer in the same position behind us. Made us feel like we were sailing in 1942 with one of the convoys. Hopefully, no U-boats are lurking out there tonight, as the seas are rough and the wind is howling. Good news is that as we were coming back to the ship, we noticed the crews of both crews of the liners having life boat lowering and release drills in the harbor, so at least we know the damned thing works!

Also heard for the first time today that it is the Red Sox and the Rockies in the series. Last time we had heard Cleveland had them on the ropes ala the Yanks a few years ago. We have also been following the fires in Southern California via CNN, which the ship carries when we are in satellite range. It looks REALLY bad from the news so we are hoping that every one is alright. They stated on the news that 500,000 people had been ordered to evacuate?? Hopefully that was a screw-up.

Well, that’s it until he hit port at St. Johns, New Brunswick and find an internet port.

Sydney, Canada - G'day!

Dateline: Sydney and at Sea
Date: October 22, 2007, 2110 hours

Happy 10th Birthday Alyssa Lee Ann Holder from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Good evening from the Grand Princess sailing somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean moving towards Halifax. We spent a wonderful day in Sydney, where we have decided to try a new career (wine and booze smuggling), and found the best Internet café in all of Sydney.

After a very rough night at sea (Carol wanted to be air lifted off of the ship) in which the wind speed went from soft breeze to strong gale and the ocean waves went from bathtub to freaking whirl pool, we were awakened by a audio-text message from T-Mobile at O’Dark F’ing Thirty Monday morning encouraging us to “Keep in touch with your family while you are traveling in Canada.” At that point we REALLY wanted to reach out and touch some one (right upside the head) at T-Mobile. If you think that the whole 1984 thing was just some author’s imagination, try traveling with a cell phone. The government and private sector is EVERYWHERE and they know where you are!!! Based on Steve’s past work with the NSA he says this is nothing compared to what they could do if we were on “someone’s” enemies list!!! Dick, we are just kidding! (Steve says, “No we’re not….”)

We have been following the fires in Southern California and are hoping all of our friends down there are safe. We heard Arnie declared a state of emergency. Please take care of yourselves and let us know you are safe via email.

We finally got out of our room around 9:00 a.m. and shared a wonderful breakfast with two couples from Canada. When we told then we were interested in moving to Victoria on Vancouver Island down the road sometime, one of the gentlemen brought out his business card and said to call him because he is a real estate agent. Pretty cool. We told him we would be getting in touch with him in about 10 years. The Canadians are such wonderful people, they are hospitable, kind and are always willing to help you in any way they can. We started joking about needing a sponsor…well you never know…

Finally we got off of the ship and went to the Port of Sydney terminal where we logged in and downloaded pictures, uploaded our blog and for the first time videos…. Please enjoy the videos and photos at our Google Picasa Photo Album. We really are having a wonderful time and we want to share our fun with all of our friends and family. We are both also learning a lot about blogging, uploading stuff and creating new materials. A lot of the older people on the ship watch us every day, and they are amazed about the stuff we are putting out there for you all to read.

We did what we usually do, walk around and find our own way…we walked through Sydney and found a liquor store where Carol met this woman who decided to tell her all about her life. She was about 80 years old and proceeded to tell Carol that her boyfriends would take her to the local hotel, pay $25 CAN for the room, take her upstairs and (well, you all know) her brains out and their wives never found out!!! This made us laugh and then tried to avoid her as we left the store and headed towards the old churches in the City.

Our new career as booze smugglers is off to a hot start. You have to understand the scenario here. They charge you about $8.50 for ONE drink, and about $30 for the least expensive bottle of rot-gut wine they have (the California stuff goes for about $45 per bottle). Since they have you as a captive audience, they warn us everyday that “ALL alcohol will be confiscated from passengers and returned to them on the final day of the cruise.” Well, you know how much we love a challenge, so we have been playing this game with the security geeks when we come back on-board, and so far we are kicking their asses. We hope to Hell they are a LOT better at detecting bombs than they are booze, but it gives us something to do on our stops and is a constant source of humor for our fellow-passengers.

After a great day of touring this beautiful little city (under the bluest skies and warm sun we have seen since we left California) we finally boarded the boat to the tunes played by the local retired coal miners playing every “auld lang syne” sort of song you could think of. Not sure if this is a positive or not, but it sort of reminded us of the movie “Titanic.” We will be visiting the graveyard in Halifax tomorrow where they delivered a lot of the bodies after she hit the berg and went down. Local info states they buried 120 of the dead in the graveyard here. More on this bit of trivia tomorrow after we get the skinny at the Museum of the Atlantic.

It is truly amazing what happens to these little cities when the cruise ship lands. The city goes from a population of 1,000 to 4,000 in one day, but the locals are very friendly, are very helpful, and make you feel right at home. Part of taking a cruise is to meet your fellow passengers and the local people, and we have made this a mission as far as we are concerned. We even gave directions to a woman who couldn’t find a local street. Can you believe it, Carol being asked for directions, and further more, she gave the correct ones?

We got back to the ship (boat) whatever and took pictures and videos of the departure…how the captain can make this boat turn around and go the other way is truly amazing…

P.S. Steve just realized he has been spelling St. Lawrence incorrectly…don’t think bad of him…he just can’t spell….

Well, this is the end of the Sydney portion and we will fill it in with Halifax tomorrow. We’re off to dinner and an early bedtime, because there is a LOT of cool stuff to see in Halifax !!

The Steinbrecher's have gone Hollywood!!!

Hello Everyone..

This is a movie of our departure from Quebec City Canada at 10:00 p.m. on October 17th. Hope you enjoy!

This is Steve's favorite video.. He shot it right at sunset in the fog in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hopefully it will give you some idea of how rough and cold it is up here off of the east coast of Canada.

Look forward to more videos as we get time at Internet Hot Spots!!!

Corner Brook, New Foundland

Dateline: Gulf of Saint Laurence at the Confluence of the North Atlantic
Time: 0000

It is midnight in the North Atlantic and we be rockin’ and a rollin’ BIG time. Mr. Saari, it is a good thing you took that tub out into the Pacific! A lot of the experienced cruisers are saying this is the roughest trip they have been on in a LONG time. Thank God for Mr. patch… they do work well. Better for me than for Carol, but they do work. Without them it would be a LONG two weeks! We are getting swells abeam again, and although the skies are partly clear and the moon is shining over the sea, it REALLY is rough again this evening and tonight. Force Nine cross winds and 12 – 15 foot seas. I was just on the balcony and had to hang on pretty tight. The water looks really cold and I am not in the mood for a late-night swim, as our cabin is about 70 feet above the waterline. Welcome to the North Atlantic in late October. I am sitting at the desk in the stateroom writing this while trying to hang onto the computer and keep my ass in the chair at the same time.

Sunday we left you all a message about the updated blog in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Bottom line, although it is a very nice little Company Town for the huge paper mill there, ain’t much going on. We took a shuttle to the Mall trying to find wireless hotspot, and you would have thought we were from another planet. Most of the stores there did not open until Noon as it was Sunday. Carol looked like Sherlock Holmes, walking all over town with her Crackberry looking for wireless. You can see the photos at our Corner Brook photo album located on Google Picasa Photos. Also we have created another album that will showcase the spectacular Fall Colors. This album will be located at and will have a collection of Fall Colors photos we will be taking from Corner Brook throughout New England. The colors are spectacular so make sure you check them out!

Finally, SUCCESS. We found a very nice little local coffee shop called Brewed Awakening, where we worked on the blog, our photos and answered emails while bullshitting with the locals for a few hours. We had a completely wonderful time and met some very nice people, who are really excited to talk with us about where we are from and all we are doing. Imagine living in a town of about 2,000 people, and having 3,000 visitors drop in on a Sunday morning for the day. Also met two of the bigger stars of the ship’s acting company and shared some fun with them. They were looking for the same wireless hot spot we were so they could stay in touch with their families and friends, so we learned from them where all of the free wireless places are until we reach the United States (and Starbucks…!). Really, really nice kids, and extremely talented as well. We saw their Rock n’ Roll entertainment show late tonight. The ship is amazing with respect to entertainment and the quality of the food. Any night of the week you can go and enjoy Las Vegas caliber entertainment (we understand a lot of these folks move between here, Vegas, Reno and “Off-Broadway” all year to earn a living) in about 10-12 different venues. They also have a Jumbotron on the upper deck that has these ass-kicking speakers and they show first run movies and concerts every night. Kinda slow up there this week, however, as I don’t think people could stay in their chairs because of the rough seas. I was up there wolfing down a late pizza last night and there were like three people out there with me.

Anyway, we found a beautiful nature Park and hiked about four miles to shoot Fall colors, and then walked back to the ship. We sailed right on time. Once we broke the harbor limit into the Gulf of Saint Laurence the shit hit the fan. For those of you that are navigators we are just SSW of Saint George’s Island steaming a course of 200 degrees, according to the nav information I am watching as I write this.

We have met some folks who have become friends with us. They are about our ages and own an art gallery in Ft. Lauderdale. We went to dinner and to a couple of shows with them tonight, and were going to close out the night dancing to this ass-kicking blues and rock band they have on-board, but it just got too rough to stand up or walk. I figured it was time to knock off the Jack and sevens as well….

Until the next update I am off to bed.

Sailing, Sailing, Sailing

Dateline: In the Gulf of Saint Laurence off Gaspe Point: October 20, 2007 2200 hours Atlantic Time Canada (6 p.m. in California).

This is our third day at sea. Lots of photos and cool stuff to share. Check out the photo album at Google Picasa Photos. It has been a beautiful trip so far, it is dark outside right now and we are about 138 nautical miles from our first stop in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. It is cold, beautiful and foggy outside, and as soon as I am done writing this, I have a date with our balcony, a Cuban cigar and a glass of Cabernet….busy “First Formal Night” last night so Carol is in the rack dreaming about shopping in Corner Brook bright and early tomorrow morning. The ship is moving quite a lot, both up-and-down, as well as side-to-side, so it will be a great night to sleep.

Again, we begin with thanks to Matt Knowles for getting us to the ship, WITH our baggage, on-time and together. Frankly, the cruise line business is not what it used to be. We Americans have FUBARed the business up quite nicely, thank you. A whole shitload of people lost their stuff en-route to the debarkation port of Quebec, and the attitude from the people on the ship appears to be, “Your problem, mate.” Many of the people we speak with working on the ship barely understand English, and are not much help. We met two women yesterday who literally have NO clothes, including underclothes, until their luggage can catch up with them (which at the earliest will be tomorrow morning in Corner Brook, Newfoundland). We were processing our laundry yesterday, and Carol offered them some of ours, but they politely declined. I guess neither of these young women felt they would look good in my Jockey shorts… anyway, it is really amazing. The ship’s stores don’t sell any chonies and it’s hard to wear a tux to gym class and sweats to the Captain’s reception.

For those of you who served in Southeast Asia with me, it is like hitting the bar and whore districts all over again at the age of 59! When they say these cruise trips are “all inclusive” do NOT believe it. Instead of “You buy me drinkie or BIG boom boom G.I., it is you buy anything else, rich tourista…” We have been literally hounded to purchase everything from soda cards to coffee cards, jewelry, alcohol, to photos to whatever. It is a constant hassle keeping these people out of your way in order to enjoy the actual cruise. It truly is as bad as the street corners in Las Vegas, and it has really placed a damper on the other joys of the trip. The people from the U.K. (who are the coolest people on the ship) are like, “What the HELL is it with you Americans and money???!!!” As an American it is truly embarrassing. Anyway, enough about that crap.

The ship itself is beautiful, appears well maintained, and run with precision, except for the fact that a lot of the crew do not appear to understand English. The muster and “emergency at sea” drill was really funny (only because I was half in the bag during the drill), and with us being in “Titanic Country” you had to be here to enjoy the humor. Leah, think of your 911 stories at Sac Fire on steroids!! If this tub goes down I know I’ll most-likely end up driving a lifeboat while under the influence, and God Have Mercy!!

The ship sailed right on time, and we spent yesterday touring the lower Saguenay River en-route to the Gulf of St. Laurence. Dinner (as with all of the meals) was grand, and we had a very nice time on our first “formal night.” The Captain came along and said “Hi and Welcome” and that was about it. He is Italian and seems kind of shy. However, he must have an awesome responsibility for the correct operation of this ship, If you think about the Captain of a 747 with 450 people on-board, this guy is responsible for a ship that weights 109,000 TONS (that is NOT a misprint) and is almost 1,000 feet long, 3,000 passengers and another 900 crew people. We have been traveling in what the ship’s crew calls “moderate” seas and pea soup fog and Force Six winds all day, and we have been thumping and bumping a lot. Mr. seasick patch came for his first visit today, as for us landlubbers it has been rough in a mild sort of way. We are expecting even more rough seas in the North Atlantic in late October and early November.

Carol and I speed-walk two-to-three miles every day we are not going ashore to tour, which is abut nine laps around the ship’s promenade deck. Each lap is 1/3 of a mile, which gives you some idea how big this thing is, and yes, there is even a guy out there hassling us to purchase Irish Coffees while we exercise. We have been eating like pigs (and it shows!!), and are taking a French language class from this young woman who is truly an amazing teacher and funnier than Hell. How did the French get a reputation for being such ass holes (even she says they are the rudest people it the world, especially Parisians!)? There is more stuff to do than there is time to do it, and while there are a few “younger” (and I use that term carefully), many of the passengers are seniors, and one does have to be very careful about being run over by a Rascal or Lark at the bar… there is a huge “under the stars” movie theater on the 14th deck (we live on deck 11) that is the size of one of those old drive-in movie places.

Well, time to sign off and get to that cigar and glass of wine. More later when we get a chance. BTW, Internet access is like REALLY expensive on this ship, so we will be shooting emails and updating this travel blog when we hit port and find Internet access for less than $.50 per minute (no shit….:-))!

Quebec City - Mon Ami

Dateline Quebec

We arrived from Winnipeg Wednesday afternoon, unpacked some of our basic stuff and immediately hit the streets of Quebec City. We are both on the same page when it comes to traveling… unpack your shit and hit the streets for meeting the locals and seeing the sights as soon as possible, which in Quebec City (or La Cite) means until the late hours, and then sleep it off at the hotel. We booked a room right in the heart of the Old City (or La Cite Vieux Quebec) at a really cool French-Canadian hotel. The High City and Lower City are full of narrow winding streets and alleys, lots of quaint shops and interesting people to meet and talk with. Never been to France (but I’ve been to Oklahoma), but Carol (who lived in Europe for three years) says it is “just like Paris.” Steve is still simply still looking for Je Sous and Nuf….

The weather has been our friend since we left. We have experienced about ½ day of rain since we arrived in Canada a week ago, and the local forecast calls for good weather right along our route out the Saint Lawrence Seaway and River all the way out to the North Atlantic above New Foundland. Life is good and we are happy about that!

Carol found a great “Art Alley” and we bought a painting of Old Quebec to have shipped home in December. We walked the streets and alleys, Steve bought a box of Cigaros Cubanos (product of Habanera even), which is a BIG NO NO in the States, but the folks in Canada have forgotten all about Fidel and the Commies down there, so he picked them up here at fairly reasonable prices, if anything is reasonably priced in Quebec, also picked up a few bottles of French wine for the road. This seems to be the most expensive place in Canada, or maybe it is just because they have two giant cruise ships in port right now, with a bunch of dumb-ass touristas looking for “deals.” Taxi’s are outrageously expensive ($9.75 from the hotel to the ship, which would have been about a 15-minute walk without all of the stuff we have brought along in suitcases, backpacks, cameras and computers, etc., etc.). We look like Circus Vargas on the road!

We shipped our favorite traveling bag (Bloaticious) from the States last month, because we did not want to haul our formal clothes around for a week before we met the ship. Had a little issue with Steve’s tux (Canadian customs thought it may have been a temporary elephant tent, so they were suspicious) but everything got here safe-and-sound.

We had dinner at an Irish pub (yeh, in Quebec City, but the beer and fish and chips were excellent!), did some serious drinking and partying with a bunch of professors from America who are in town trying to impress one another, walked until it got too cold and called it a day. We slept in, checked out of the hotel, taxied to the cruise terminal to meet the S.S. Scurvy, dumped all of our stuff in the stateroom, and headed back into La Cite. We toured the Governor’s Promenade, Chateau Frontenac (which doubles as the local Fairmont Hotel), which is quite expansive (and expensive most-likely), la Citadelle, which is a Fortress built by the Brits to keep those pesky Frogs out of the area in 1759, as well as a few parcs and other cool places. Since we are not at a high speed internet connection we are uploading all of the pictures on our Goolge Picasa Album. Check the photos at our google photo album

Carol is going to tag a Google Earth shot of la Citadelle so you can all see just how big this place is, but suffice it to say that for the mid 1700’s, these people were serious as a heart attack about war.

Rules of engagement required us to be back aboard the ship for a 1730 lifeboat and abandon ship drill, which was pretty straight forward. We felt sort of like the people on the Titanic, as this ship is SO big it seems hard to imagine it ever sinking, but you also have to remember the Perfect Storm. NO ONE is bigger than Mother Nature, so we took the drills seriously. Life jackets are in the closet right next to the tux and formal dresses.

We had a really nice dinner Thursday evening with a few people from the U.K., and a couple of cranky people from Florida and New York. It appears we were damned fortunate in getting here and on-board when we did. Some of these folks arrived about two hours before the ship sailed due to screw ups by the airlines, lost baggage, and other stuff like that. They were still throwing bags onto the ship just five minutes before we pulled away from the dock. Thank you Matt Knowles (our niece’s husband and travel agent par excellence who designed this part of the trip for us) for saving us this sort of grief. Our only hang-up was late delivered luggage. We thought we might have to show up for dinner dressed as smelly back packing goats, but or suitcases arrived about 30 minutes before dinner, so life was cool.

The ship pulled away from the dock (all 1,000 feet of this BIG tub) right on schedule at 2200 hours sharp! More from sea tomorrow or the next day. Might even throw in a little “home movie” footage to bore people with!

Our Winnipeg Family

Bonjourrrr Winnniiipppegggg!!

Part of this trip was planned in advance to include a little family responsibility on our part. Our youngest daughter Erin’s boyfriend Ryan is a business major at Manitoba University in Winnipeg. Because of all of the academic and political B.S. (and that is not the degree), he is here and she is there until graduation. We had all planned to meet as sort of a “family’s introduction” during this vacation, but due to mid-terms for Erin back in California, Carol and I became the surrogate diplomats. We were both a little stressed out Mom was given STRICT orders regarding MY behavior (gee, I don’t understand THAT) about making the right impression in our daughter’s absence. Well, that was stupid!

We were met at the VIA station by Ryan and Pam (Ryan’s mother). Pam was holding a GIANT sign that read, “Welcome to Winnipeg, Carol and Steve Steinbrecher!” as we walked down the stairs to snag our luggage, and we knew that everything was going to work out just fine. It has turned out to be the highlight of our trip. Pam said that people came by and said “They’re on the train.. guess we made an impression!”

Ryan’s family invited us into their home and has made us an immediate part of their family. We spent our first evening in Winnipeg drinking wine, watching CFL football (well, at least Ryan’s Dad Rob, Steve, Ryan and Kali’s boyfriend Andrew did) while Carol, Pam and Ryan’s sister Kali solved all of the problems of the world (which is the way it is supposed to work, eh?). We had a cake that is made only in Winnipeg.. Pam what is the name of that wonderful cake?

We all ended up having a GREAT time together. We traveled around the city for three days and learned about the history and the culture of Manitoba and Winnipeg, toured the city’s beautiful gardens and parks, went to a nature preserve, learned that Ryan’s Dad is one of the premiere bowlers in Canada (the MAN has a couple of 300 games and is competing in the provincial championships this coming weekend), attended a session of Provincial Parliament (gee, they waste as much time and money in Manitoba as they do in California!!) at their equivalent of the State Capital, and would have met the “Governor” of the province (who is a personal friend of the family) except he had political commitments. Again, we have once again learned that where ever you go in the world, we are ALL the same. The people here work hard and pay taxes, and the politicians figure out ways to waste that money. However, watching Parliament is a LOT more refined than the Bozo’s in the California Assembly or Senate. Surprisingly enough, their “state capital” building was so similar to ours in Sacramento we were just amazed. Carol got a chance to go to the Mall and we found a Starbucks.. It was great, we also learned all about 5-pin bowling and Carol promised this elderly man that she would send her daughter to Winnipeg in January to shovel snow!! He thought she might be too young!!!

We had an opportunity to ride the “Millennium Train.” For more pictures check the photos on the Google album!, share homemade pizza with the family, and we capped off the visit with front-row center (in football terms four rows behind the bench on the 50-yard-line!) tickets (provided by Pam’s brother) to the local AAA AHL Hockey Franchise, the Manitoba Moose. Many of you know I spent a few years playing football and REALLY enjoy all of that violence, and I had really never paid a lot of attention to ice hockey (I mean, in California there ain’t a lot of ice) before. But after watching this game, I am quite enamored with the idea of giving 12 big guys on ice skates sticks and telling them, “There ain’t a lot of rules here, boys….” At the end of the first period there was this huge fight between a couple of players, and we read in the paper this morning that one of them went to the hospital with a broken jaw. NOW that’s a sport! Carol was standing up yelling and screaming, and when we woke up this morning to leave, both of us had sore throats from the game. When the Moose came out to throw shirts, Carol and Pam were yelling and hollering and they threw a t-shirt to Carol. It is her favorite night shirt now!!

Thus ending the first of a LOT of future family get-togethers in Winnipeg and Pollock Pines. We are so happy to have the Dufreane’s in our family and of course, Carol was wiping tears out of her eyes as we said good-bye.

Aboard the Train

All aboard the Silver and Blue Train:

We got to Vancouver station at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday for a 5:30 departure, but alas, the in-bound train got hammered somewhere along the Frazer River and the crew for our ride was late. Fortunately, because we were traveling “Silver and Bleu” (1st) Class, we had the option of sitting in a tea and coffee bar, and listen to music while we waited. We have traveled Amtrak before, and based on that experience (of course) we WAY over-packed for the size of the sleeper cars on the Canadian. So while we “downsized” all of our crap to fit into the smaller room, we had an opportunity to listen to this AMAZING guy sing and play every railroad-oriented song that you could think of, including “Country Roads Take me Home,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Summertime” and “Good Night Irene.” Julie, you would have loved this dude. Man, he played the sax, guitar, keyboards and everything else as well as sung pretty damned good. It was great and we have video which we will post next week while we are on the boat.

Our purser’s name was Deon and he lived in Vancouver and stayed with us until Winnipeg. It was wonderful being on the train and being lulled to sleep by the chug-a-chug of the train at night. The chow was excellent and our sleeper was small, but very efficient and comfortable once you got into the single bunk beds (Steve had the top and it was great fun watching him climb into that five-foot bunk on this tiny little ladder. All of the VIA rail cars well built by the Budd Company of Pennsylvania in the 1950’s, and sold to the Canadians (who again, are a LOT smarter than we are) when the U.S. roads began giving up passenger service in the States. Because the cars could not be reproduced at a reasonable cost, the VIA shops just continue the upkeep of the original cars, and it makes for some superior rail history for those of us who are into that stuff. Bottom line is it is sort of an expensive way to travel in this day and age, but it brings back a period of wonder from when out parents were younger.

First night out, we had dinner with a snotty, cranky semi-retired professor from Rutgers University in New Jersey who couldn’t say a good word about anything. We wanted to find another seat but that is just not possible on a train! However, we had a good time pissing him off by baiting him, so it worked out okay for us. Steve REALLY wanted to ask him about “Nappy headed Ho’s” but Carol dropped the hammer on that idea!!

We woke up early the next morning at O’Dark Hundred so we could be first to have breakfast and bogart the “Best” seats in the Vista Dome car for our trip through the Rocky Mountains. It was simply spectacular…We saw Mount Robson as we turned one corner and it was truly breath-taking. We had been traveling through the mist and rain throughout the morning, and the sun popped through just as we got to the mountain. Mount Robson is an amazing piece of rock, and what a beautiful sight. The Rocky Mountains are stark and beautiful at the same time. We actually passed through this one valley in which the Rockies, Selkirks and two other mountain ranges came together. Take a look at the Picasa Photo album for more pictures.

We stopped in Jasper and only stayed for 30 minutes as we were behind 2-1/2 hours and the engineer was trying to make up time. Jasper is known for its skiing, hiking and mountaineering. Steve and I went for a very short tour of the city in search for pretzels. There were none….We made it back in time and overheard one of the pursers saying that someone didn’t make it back in time and was going to be spending the night in Jasper. When they say 30 minutes, they MEAN 30 minutes.

We decided to spend the afternoon in the bottom of the dome car and had the most delightful time. We ended up with a group of Brits and spent the afternoon laughing, talking politics and sharing wonderful travel stories. It was pretty hysterical and even got to the point where people were asking us to keep it down. Leave it to us to get in with the rowdy crowd. They were wonderful traveling companions and we learned that people are the same no matter where they come from. We (of course) now have a list of addresses and people who have invited us to return to Old Blighty for a few pints and some more laughs. They were going all the way through Toronto, but we had family business in Winnipeg the next morning.

The next morning found us trying to make last call for breakfast, as we had slept in after the O’Dark Hundred experience of the previous day, and we retired back to the dome car to watch the Canadian prairies roll by. We were very surprised to see that the southern prairies of Manitoba Province looked so much like Nebraska, Iowa and Steve says Northern Russia. It was enjoyable to just relax and read our books and look up once in a while and take in the scenery. If you haven’t taken a train ride, do so. It is one of the most wonderful and relaxing things to do. Just don’t be in a hurry to get anywhere. It won’t happen.

Probably one of the best things that happened on the train trip was this young woman who works for VIA. Of course, since we are in Canada, all announcements are made in French and English. One of the young ladies who was the official “we’re coming into…” announcers was hilarious. She would give her schpeel in Engliski, ending with Weeelcome to …..” (like the guy who yells “Let’s get ready to ruuuummmbbbllleeee” and then she would repeat the information in French, always ending with Booonnnjjjooouuurrr “city name!!!” she made every one in our car laugh.

Surprisingly, we were 2.5 hours late the first night out of Vancouver, and we arrived at Winnipeg Station exactly 2.5 hours late. Just enjoy the ride!

Dateline - Victoria, British Columbia

Today is Karma Day!

After a wonderful day of touring Vancouver Island, Butchart Gardens and high tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel we awoke this morning and:

• Steve's razor (purchased last week) fell apart on the floor
• He broke the Kleenex dispenser in the hotel bathroom
• Carol went to three different outlets to purchase all day travel passes so we could go out and hike this suspension bridge that is 250 feet over the Frazer River and all three outlets were out of passes

Not a good sign, so Carol made an executive decision that Karma says "You guys are supposed to take it easy until your train leaves this afternoon for Winnipeg." So here we sit in the sitting room at our hotel updating this blog, reading and responding to email and generally enjoying the beautiful sunshine and a down afternoon..

We found this restaurant here called Tom and Jerry's and it is our newest, latest hangout! No sign of the cat or the mouse but the place has a great hockey bar and the food is very reasonably priced and extremely good and it helps that it is near an "Adults Only" bookstore. Carol keeps telling Steve the restaurant is the door next to the bookstore!!

Actually we have found that everything except taxi rides is very reasonable here. However, we have not rented a car as yet which is a good thing as gasoline is about $4.20 a gallon. The Canadians are obviously a great deal smarter than the Americans, as Vancouver is crawling with hybrids, smart cars, and electric cars. The weather forecast earlier this week was for rain but it has been either just partly cloudy or pretty clear since we got here. With temps in the high 50's and low 60's. T-shirt weather for Steve and light sweater weather for Carol.

Yesterday was a truly fabulous day. It started at 0-dark hundred and ended at 0-late hundred (for those of you not in the service it was dang early and dang late) but it was worth every minute. Our driver, named Gordy, was an Irishman who was full of lousy jokes but he was a really nice guy and made a very long day easy to pass. We truly had an international crew of 14 people joining us on the trip, inlcuding folks from China, Isreal, way up north in Ontario, and some people from Alaska.

After everyone got picked up (which was a tour in itself) we headed out to the ferry terminal to catch a BC Ferry. You would not believe the number of cars, trucks, busses, and other assorted vehicles that go back and forth between the island and the mainland on this ferry, which we guess was about the same size as our cruise ship will be. There were literally two full decks of 18 wheelers and buses, plus another two decks with 200+ cars. The parking was still jam-packed for an outbound trip when we arrived in-bound at 9:00 p.m. last night. And this was a Wednesday! Gordy told us that it costs $65CAN each way for a car and anything that is not a car was $12CAN a foot. After a really neat 90 minute cruise through the Gulf Islands, we arrived at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island (Check out all of the photos on our Google Picasa Photo website.)

And of course, Carol needs her coffee! It isn't Starbuck's but it is organic. It was very good and I'm thinking of going to the other side...naah...don't think so. Starbucks is everywhere in Vancouver! I'd probably be laughed out of the country.

We then drove to Butchart's Gardens, where we had 90 minutes to walk the gardens. For those of you who like Steve and I love anything that grows, 90 minutes was about 1/10th of the time we wished we had to investigate the three main gardens. Neither of us have seen such amazing fall colors, and if this is a preview of our fall colors cruise next week, we don't have enough memory sticks for the cameras! We are thinking about volunteering next year to come work in the gardens!! We were told that a lot of college students and retirees (300 people) volunteer during the high season to keep this magnificent place in top shape. Carol took tons of pictures and will begin working on her own "Pollock Pines" garden next year. Brecks look out!!!

Vancouver Island has a large number of retirees for good reason, reasonable property costs, fairly low taxes (compared to the US), 250 days of sunshine a year (it is nicknamed the Sunshine Island), and a laid back sort of British lifestyle. This fits right in with us.

Then it was off to highlight of the day, Steve remembered his mother going to HighTea at the Empress Hotel (part of the Fairmont chain) in downtown Victoria and raving about it. So this was one of the things he promised me would be on the agenda. So...we sat and stuffed ourselves on all sorts of delicacies, and some really interesting teas. Some of you might recall the movie "The Shining" (one of Steve's all time favorites "all work and no play makes a Jack a dull boy"). All of the indoor hallway scenes with Danny Torrance on his big wheel were shot in the hallways of the Empress Hotel. So Steve found a way to beat the card code access system and took his camera up to the third floor and got a few shots.. That's our Steve, never one to miss a camera shot. Meanwhile, Carol was being watched in the gift shop by the snooty employees who thought she was going to rob them blind. And, I wouldn't even buy their "White miracle tea".

After walking around the city centre (that's center for you Yanks) for more photos and talking with the locals, it was time to head back to the ferry. We have found the people here to be very friendly, extremely polite, and most helpful. They really enjoy talking with us about the country, the customs and will answer any question we have.

Well, it is time to go to the train station and catch the Canadian through the Rocky Mountains and on to Winnipeg. We'll be in touch!