September 30th was our 28th wedding anniversary. Last we took a trip to Savannah, Georgia to celebrate. This year we took a cruise through New England and the Canadian maritime provinces.
On Friday we drove to New Jersey and spent the night at my sister's house. Saturday morning my brother-in-law dropped us at the train station. We rode the train into Penn Station, which took about 90 minutes. We had to schlep our lugging around, but that forced us to pack as light as possible. This was Ed's first time riding a train. As you can see he was fascinated with the scenery as we rode into NYC.
From Penn Station we called Uber and got a ride to the cruise terminal in Brooklyn. It was our first time using Uber. It ended up being a positive experience. I highly recommend it. The driver was pleasant and the vehicle was clean. We met a couple on the cruise ship that had taken a taxi. The gentleman's shirt was filthy from the taxi seat. Not sure what all the black marks were from. I'm not sure I want to know either.
After boarding the ship we ate lunch and then went to the upper deck to enjoy the view. I had my new camera and played with the different lenses. With the telephoto lens I was able to get this shot of the Statue of Liberty. We really weren't that close.
This is gives a better idea of how far off she was.
We set sail Saturday evening. Our first stop was in Newport, Rhode Island. We didn't purchase an excursion. We did go ashore and walk around the town for the afternoon. It is a cute town. Maybe someday we'll go back and explore further.
The second stop was in Boston. We took a tour that include walking part of the Freedom Trail. When I was young, my parent took us to Boston and we walked the entire trail as a self-guided tour. I'd like to do that again. This time we got a small taste of it, about a mile.
After Boston we sailed for Bar Harbor, Maine. This was our favorite port. The town of Bar Harbor is so quaint. We went ashore early enough to walk around and have a beer before our tour. The excursion we purchased took us to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. The view was absolutely stunning. Here is a view of the highest peak on the Atlantic shore in the western hemisphere.
Our first stop in Canada was Saint John, New Brunswick. It was a very foggy day which hampered visibility. I think Ed was a bit disappointed. He didn't realize that Saint John was a major city. He was hoping for something more like Bar Harbor. At Saint John we took a tour lead by a professional photographer. One of the stops on the tour was the Reversing Falls of the Saint John River. Here she taught us about adding "curves" to our photos. She mentioned that curves show movement and tell a story. She offered advice at other stops which I hope to practice more at home.
The last stop of the cruise was Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a very rainy day, making our excursion to Peggy's Cove quite soggy. As you can see, the cove offered protection from the raging ocean.
That night it was very rough sailing. The last day of the cruise was at sea as we sailed back to New York. Once we disembarked, we Ubered back to Penn Station to catch a train back to my sister's. We spent the night at their place again and then drove home on Sunday.
On our drive to New Jersey, I finished my Superbulky Grandpa sweater. As you can see I got to wear the sweater. The below photo was taken by our tour guide at the Irving Nature Park.
While on the cruise I cast on my Autumn Colors socks. I have one sock done and the second underway. I hope to get these finished in the next couple weeks so that they can debut at Rhinebeck.
The trip was a very nice trip with only a couple disappointments. First, the leaves hadn't really started to change colors yet so we didn't see as much autumn color as we had hoped. Second, the nights were foggy and/or cloudy making star gazing impossible. We'll just have to go back another time to look for the Aurora Borealis.
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