Fall Color? Cruise up the Eastern Seaboard

Ken and I, along with Don and Ada,  recently enjoyed a delightful cruise up the eastern seaboard of the United States.  The purpose was to see beautiful fall colors in the east.  As it turned out, we were too early and didn't see much in the way of fall colors, but as you scroll through the pictures, you'll see that our trip was indeed very colorful!  

We boarded the ship in New York.

Dinner is always the best part of the day.

Sail away past Lady Liberty.

Newport, Rhode Island

Ken and Don walked each early morning on the deck of the ship.  They often saw beautiful sunrises.  This was our first morning-in Rhode Island.

Our first stop was Newport, Rhode Island.  Newport was the societal hub in the early 1900s and there are gorgeous mansions built in that era.  We toured three of them.

First was Marble House

The Tea House behind the mansion

My favorite mansion was Rosecliff.  This is where "The Great Gatsby" was filmed.  Do you recognize it?

The Breakers is probably the most well-known.

We walked several miles between those mansions in Newport, so earned our delicious dessert that night at dinner.

Boston, Massachusetts

The next day was in Boston.  We took a Duck Tour- a land/sea vessel.

The bus becomes a boat as we plunge into the Charles River.

A beautiful way to see Boston.

I thought we took care of these guys 200 years ago!

The red brick pathway marks the Freedom Trail.

We visited Quincy Market

So many choices of food!

Everything looked and smelled so delicious!

Cemetery where many famous founding fathers are buried.

Government building in Boston.

Swan Boat Lake in Boston Common- no swan boats there today!

Flowerbed in Boston Common

George Washington statue in Boston Common.

The famous "Cheers" pub

Ken photographed a sleeping squirrel in Boston Common.

Church across from Boston Common.

Portland, Maine

We had a great room at the back of the ship.  We could walk right out of our room and onto the deck.  It was fun to see what was back there each day as we came to ports. We were in a different port each day except one of the 11 day cruise.  

I love this picture Ken took as we came into harbor in Portland, Maine.  He captured the Portland Headlight while on.

Sunrise.

Probably the most beautiful and most photographed of all the lighthouses.  

We could not have gone on a nicer, more beautiful day.

Rosehips.

We stopped at this pastry shop at the recommendation of Dustin and Nikki and Melanie who  traveled here last summer.  

Our ship

Ken is sitting in a chair made entirely of lobster traps.  It even rocks.

This chain link fence was entirely covered with locks that lovers left after locking the locks and throwing the key in the harbor.

Listening to entertainment that evening.

St. Johns, New Brunswick

Reversing rapids.  The river is going into the sea, but at high tide, the rapids reverse and the sea goes up the river.  We were lucky to get there at high tide and see this phenomenon.

Seals or Seadogs, as the locals call them, playing in the reversing rapids

Ken and Don go down for a closer look at the Sea dogs and, you guessed it, birds.

This was a fascinating story and sight.  Every year, in the spring, this long roadway is blocked off and all of the school children from the area come.  They are given flower seeds and they plant the seeds that grow flowers in the median .  It is a beautiful sight- and what a great idea to help children take pride in their hometown.

This also was a fascinating story.  Our taxi driver took us up to see this "widow's watch".  These are on many of the seaside homes.  It's where the wives' would wait and watch for their seafaring husbands to return.  There are many legends about this particular house.  The taxi driver claimed that people have taken pictures inside that house, but when they come out, they are no longer on the camera.  He grew up across the street from that house, and told many stories of how it was haunted. He said no one ever saw anyone who lived there.  Anyway, they were great stories.  We really enjoyed that taxi driver who basically gave us a great tour.

He dropped us off at this beautiful park across from the City Market.  It was a gloriously beautiful day.

The flowers were just gorgeous at that park.  We couldn't get enough pictures.  

This City Market was a beautiful, colorful and fascinating place.  Notice the traffic guard in costume helping pedestrians across the road.

We may not have seen many autumn colors, but look at this colorful market!

The fruits and vegetables were displayed so beautifully.

We had to pose by these interesting statues.

The bees loved these flowers

This was one of my favorite appetizers.  It is a mushroom sauce on a cracker.  It was delicious.

Prime rib.

Delicious fish with safron potatoes.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sunrise over the sea.

It was a sunny,cold, and windy day.  This was at the fort atop the mountain.

Guarded by these guys.

We hiked from there down to the Maritime Museum down on the sea.

The highlight of the museum was the Titanic display.  Halifax was the closest port to the Titanic disaster, so they sent out the rescue boats and recovered many of the bodies.  It was sobering.
Halifax had another horrible disaster- the great Halifax explosion in 1917.  Two boats collided in the harbor.  One was loaded with explosives which caused a massive fireball- comparable to an atomic explosion.  Many people were killed and maimed.

After visiting the museum, we walked back to the ship along the seaside boardwalk.  It was a beautiful day and so fun to walk by the sea.

This helicopter flew people back and forth, back and forth to a small island.  We aren't sure what it was doing.  The people would sit right in the doorway of the helicopter and look at us as they flew by.

A lighthouse on an island in the harbor.

We met this gal on stilts on the boardwalk.

This statue honors the immigrants.  I loved it.

That afternoon, local Royal Mounted Police came on board and entertained us.

This was my least favorite appetizer.  I just couldn't eat the suction cups!

This may be the best dessert I have ever tasted.  That little cup was made of white chocolate and it was filled with creamy white chocolate filling.  Then the white chocolate cheesecake on the bottom was just delicious!

Who ordered all of those desserts?  Notice the ever-present creme brulee' at Ken's place.  He had it every night.

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Our next stop was Sydney, Nova Scotia.  We hired a taxi to take us to church there.  We found the people to be kind and intelligent.

This giant violin- the biggest violin in the world- was near the ship.  Why a huge violin?  I simply do not know.

Seafood Trio- another favorite appetizer.

We sought out and listened to these two Russian violinists many times during our time on the ship.  They were really good.

Ready for the show to start.

That night was the Supermoon and an eclipse.  We got some great pictures from the ships deck.

The eclipse.

Cornerbrook, Newfoundland

Sunrise in the east . . . 

As the Supermoon sets in the west.

In Cornerbrook, we started to see beautiful autumn colors.

They were so welcoming in Corner Brook.  They gave us candy and then ferried us on buses into the town-square where this folk duo were playing and singing.  It created such a fun atmosphere.  I should have taken pictures, but there were stalls around the town-square, selling their wares.  I bought a pretty scarf.

Most of the towns we visited had a statue honoring veterans.

Ken and I walked down into the town from the town square.  

This was a beautiful nature trail.  It was such a beautiful day. (Yes, Ken is good to me on long walks and carries my purse for me.)

I waited on a bench and took selfies while Ken went a bit down the nature trail.

O Canada!  Now is that a great shot, or what?  Don caught the flag at full furl!

Okay, here is probably my favorite appetizer.  It's seafood with orange and caviar.  It was just delicious!

Our waitress.  She was very, very good.  She reminded us in looks of our niece, Kari.

I always love the beef wellington.

Another delicious dessert.

Sea Day

Oh wait, maybe this was my favorite appetizer.  It was a seafood quesadilla with delicious salsa and guacamole.  Man, my mouth is watering as I remember.

Gnocchi

Scallops.  A small, but delicious entree.

Triple chocolate dessert.

Quebec City, Quebec

I had to take a picture of the morning ritual.  Every morning, Don and Ken would order hot chocolate, "Very, very strong."  They had a hard time getting the assistant waiters to make it chocolatey enough.

This was our coldest day, by far.  It was SO SO windy and bitingly cold.  But Quebec City is a beautiful city.  We loved it, despite the cold.

But there were still many beautiful flowers

The Funicular that takes you up the mountain.  

A street musician entertaining us.  He played classical music, but only little parts of each piece.

This is one of my favorite shots of the whole trip.  I love this picture.

This is taken from onboard the funicular.  It literally went straight up.

You have to admit, the selfies are getting better. 

There you can see the funicular going up.

This castle/ hotel (Le Chateau Frontenac) is THE landmark in Quebec City.  It is beautiful atop the hill.  You'll see many shots of it.

Inside the hotel.  Notice the beautiful ceiling.

Resting after our hike in the cold wind.  It felt so good to get inside.

Chandelier.

Outside the castle.

There were monuments all over.  I'm not sure we ever learned what they were.

Another street musician.

This picture doesn't show how fun this street was.  It was an alleyway lined with artists selling their wares.  It was so fun to walk down.  We didn't buy artwork, but we bought some Canadian chocolate in a little shop at the end of the alley.

Carriage rides for hire.

Shopping in Quebec City.  This was a little Christmas shop.  Ada loves nativities, so we went in several Christmas shops on our trip.

Yep, another statue.

Another selfie.  We really need a selfie stick.

They were just setting up their Halloween display at city hall.

This was so fun!  We happened on a school playground/ courtyard where the children were out for recess.  Most of them were playing a game with a football.

I loved getting this glimpse into real life.  We watched them for quite awhile.

All made from plants.

Quebec City is a beautiful city.  There are gorgeous murals on the sides of many of the buildings. 

Looking down the hill on a street in Old Town, Quebec City.

The castle from our ship.

The fort.

Parliament building

The architecture in this town is just beautiful.

Another mural.

Ken worked hard to get this picture with the autumn tree and the castle in the background.  We loved, loved this beautiful city!

Could it be more food?

Turkey dinner on the last night

Locals from Quebec City entertained us

Quebec City, Quebec (Day 2)

We stayed in the harbor that night and then had a second day- departure day- in Quebec City.  Our flight didn't leave until five in the afternoon, so we took a cruise-sponsored tour that went to some of the places we had seen the day before, but also took us to Montmorency Falls.  As you can see, the storm had passed and it was a beautiful day.

This area is where they hold big concerts on the green in the summertime.  Celine Dion and other famous Canadians have performed there for thousands of people.  Our own daughter, Michelle also performed there when she was on the Folk Dance team at BYU.  In fact, she did a solo at that huge festival.  

Sick of pictures of the castle yet?  I'm not.

Back inside for a bathroom break.  Such a beautiful revolving door.

We stopped at this park.  This light up tree was pretty.  They were decorating for Halloween and boy, do they go all out.

Montmorency Falls

Ken did great at capturing the beautiful rainbow.

Our bus and very French tour guide.

Selfie at the falls.  

From there, we headed back to Quebec City to await our 5:30 pm flight.  It was a LONG Day.  We appreciated Brian picking us up in Las Vegas.  Michelle had late night refreshments for us before heading back to St. George.  Thank you, Don and Ada, for a great trip.  We made wonderful memories!!!