The U.S. and Canada

We have really really enjoyed being in the US for the past week or so. When you are mostly in Europe, it teaches you to be appreciative of just how comfortable it is to be back in your home country. You don't need to worry about language barriers, you know where everything is, you know which stores to visit in order to find what you need, all the products you know and love are there instead of European versions, and your phone works!!! Wonderful. :-)

One huge highlight has been visiting with my two best friends and my roommate from the Rhapsody - Tracy, Tim and Mandy. Tim and Mandy lived near enough to Boston to come out, and Tracy's ship happened to be in port that day!! The only day our ships meet, and its the place where Tim and Mandy live.....what are the odds of that! It was a fantastic day of sightseeing, shopping, talking, and eating. After Tracy had to leave I took Tim and Mandy on a tour of the ship. They were duly impressed as the old Rhapsody is their only point of reference. :-) I loved showing them around.

I also really enjoyed walking around the port towns of Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, and Newport, Rhode Island. We had some great food and great times in those ports, despite fighting a bit of fog.

Then it was on to Canada! We had a miraculously warm day in Halifax, Novia Scotia. I actually got sunburned just from walking around a bit. The harbor walk is beautiful. I got to meet up with my friend Deedee from the Voyager, who now works on Princess. We had lunch at a pub called My Father's Mustache, which apparently has some fame there. It was yummy. From Halifax we sailed north and had a day at sea on our way to Quebec City. What a surprise we had at night as we sailed when the deck cadet made this special announcement - the Aurora Borealis was visible!!! It was an amazing display that took up the whole horizon. Not terribly colorful, but beautiful nonetheless, and much bigger than the one I saw last year in Alaska. What an unexpected surprise! We went out on deck and watched it until the wind had completely frozen us and sent us back inside.

Quebec City!! What a neat place. Part new world, part France....a very interesting place. I sure wished my french was better, but we got around ok. They are used to tourists in most areas. I tried the famous Poutine that I remember my first ship roommate, the french-canadian Marie, raving about. We were treated to lunch by our musician's agency Proship, which is based in Montreal. We wandered around the Chateau Frontenac, and up and down the Rue St. Jean with all its cafe's and shops. At night I went back out to a big club on the Grande Allee, it being a Tuesday night the only people there were really us crew members, but we were all grateful for a change of scene from the crew bar and stayed out til the wee hours. What a great night!! Today we had a marvelous breakfast at a creperie called Breton, got some coffee, and are headed back on the ship soon. I have loved this cruise - we don't want to do the crossing back!! :-)