Our fall vacation to New England and Canada involved two
planes, one ship, 5 Uber cars, one cab, one van, two busses, a train, and 5
hurricanes. All of this was planned with
the possible exception of the hurricanes.
We always allow for one hurricane in our plans, but 5? We had Harvey, Irma, Jose, Maria, and Nate to contend with in one form or another. Harvey
missed us entirely but interrupted our normal vacation preparation and Irma hit
us with a glancing blow. This glancing Irma supplied us with 55 to 70 mph sustained winds and 100 mph gusts. Actually, the highest recorded gust was only 99
mph. The fact remains that most people can't distinguish between being hit with a coconut going 99
mph and another going 100 mph. They will both leave a
mark. It is also a fact that, if you have just been hit by two coconuts, you are obviously standing in the wrong place.
[Note: Click on any picture for a larger and clearer image]
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| Hurricanes and Coconuts |
Jose and Maria followed us up the Atlantic coast and threatened
to turn our leisurely vacation into a queasy sea cruise with lots of
Dramamine. Our search for the wonders of fall color might end up with us viewing only the rainbow palette associated with partially
digested food.
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| Tropical Map Before We Left Miami |
Both hurricanes stayed off-shore. It seems that president Trump's immigration policy prevented Jose and Maria from making landfall in the
US. Both of these Latinos were less than two weeks
old and didn’t have time to get green cards. The
luck of the Irish travelers prevailed. Our seas turned calm and we have since placed
our year’s supply of Dramamine up for sale on EBay. Eventually, remnants of Nate rumbled north
and passed directly over our quiet spot in Vermont with no more wind than you might
have in a good sneeze and rain that barely washed the dust off the local corn. Nate had worn himself out with his travels. I knew by then how he felt.
At the beginning of our trip, we stayed near the seaport in
Boston. We managed to assist the local economy by consuming lots of
Nephropidae. Most folks not trying to
impress you with big words they just found on Wikipedia, would call them
lobster. We had boiled lobster, lobster bisque, lobster
rolls, and lobster salad on this trip. I grew up in Miami where we have a distant relative of the lobster, the claw-less crawfish. I preferred the Florida lobster growing up, mainly because it was free. It was free if you don't count the cost of the beer necessary for the trip to get the lobster. Now that I have to pay for all lobster, I have to admit the ones with the big claws taste better.
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| Lobster Roll (note: click any picture to enlarge) |
Factoid: New research suggests that
lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age. Actually, older lobster is more fertile than
young lobster. Before you begin envying
this accomplishment, just know that any lobster who manages to miss being
drenched in melted butter, will eventually die around age 50 anyway. A lobster, when threatened, will quickly curl
its tail and swim backwards at speeds approaching 11 mph. This keeps them under the 15 mph limit as
most lobster live in school zones.
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| Lobster School Zone |
We were not alone on this cruise and I’m not just talking
about the normal contingent of 2,340 Medicare recipients that boarded the NCL
Norwegian Dawn in Boston. We had as many
as 14 in our personal group of merry makers.
The core of the group was Sue’s classmates from Weston, Massachusetts,
and the remainder was spouses and friends of that clan. Later in the trip, we were joined by four
others who drove up to Quebec from Maine and Massachusetts. A few dropped out in Quebec to go home and six
of us eventually made it down to Montreal. Sue and
I then visited her brother in Vermont and later went back to Boston to rejoin
part of the original group. If this
sounds confusing, it’s because it is confusing.
You don’t need to worry though as none of this will be on the test.
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| Boston Harbor |
After leaving Boston, the ship first docked in Portland,
Maine. You should not confuse Portland,
Maine with Portland, Oregon. The people
from Oregon are called Oregonians and the people from Maine are called
Maineiacs. Such terms are known as
demonyms. Much like the Bostonians to
the south, Maineiacs have their own language.
For instance, a Maineiac won’t ask what you are doing, they will ask,
Chuppta? It also doesn’t get windy in Maine;
it is “breezed up.” When asked, any
Maineiac will tell you that they have 4 seasons, "Almost-Wintah, Wintah, Still-Wintah,
and Road Construction." If a Maineiac tells
you that he "lost his khakis", he’s not missing his pants. He just won’t be able to start his car. If you ask a Maineiac if he has lived here
all his life the likely response will be a drawling, “No......, not yet.”
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| Only in Maine |
After Portland, we arrived in Nova Scotia where our ports
were Halifax and Sydney. We then stopped
in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island (PEI) where Sue and I took a tour with
a German couple (Bernhard & Nina) we met the night before at our favorite
bar, O'Sheehan's.
Since most of our ports are not
major attractions, most in our group opted for the unlimited beverage
package. With this cruise benefit, all
alcoholic beverages are furnished at no additional charge. I guess they have found that people who are
hung over don’t eat so much or that if someone falls over the side their friends may not even miss them. We found
that 2,326 strangers (2,340 – our 14 = 2,326 strangers) are easier to enjoy when viewed
through the misty haze of a couple of cocktails*.
[*couple of cocktails is defined as any number of drinks below 12, after which it just becomes ridiculous]
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| Our Cruising Crew at Dinner |
The room Sue and I picked out was in an ideal location. Just outside our cabin door was another door
that provided quick access to a balcony overlooking our favorite bar and 24/7
eatery. A short stroll across a lounge
area with sofas and couches and we were at the top of a staircase that
descended to the hostess stand for O’Sheehan’s.
It was here that one could eat and/or order from the unlimited cocktail
menu. By the end of our week aboard, we
could navigate this path blindfolded.
Occasionally, this skill came in handy.
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| Our Balcony |
At our ports in Nova Scotia and PEI, it was easy to observe
that the locals’ favorite activity is to go down to the docks and watch the amusing tourists disembarking the latest-to-arrive cruise ship. The cruise ship passengers disembark so they can, in
turn, watch the amusing locals. After watching
each other for several hours, it was time for each group to return back from
whence they came.
On Prince Edward
Island the main tourist attraction was Anne of Green Gables. Apparently there is a book set in a
fictional town on PEI written by one of its former residents. There is a local farm that served as inspiration
for the book that has become the attraction. The
book was written in 1908 and is about a redheaded orphan girl. While this predates the redheaded Little
Orphan Annie comic strip character, which debuted in 1924, that strip was based
on an 1885 poem.
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| Little Orphan Annie |
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| Anne of Green Gables |
I guess redheaded
orphans were popular back then. Why
redheaded orphans are a major tourist attraction today, still escapes me. Since none of us in our tour of PEI was even
remotely familiar with the book, we just drove by the farmhouse without
spending time there. In Japan however,
the book is required reading and is used to teach English to students. I can't image that there are too many red-headed Japanese girls. The farmhouse tour was very popular with the
Japanese.
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Sue's Weekend at Bernie's
(Actually Sue and I on Prince Edward Island across from the Green Gables farm) |
We now come to the religious portion of our trip. For those of you who don’t know me that well,
just understand that the last time I attended a religious service, that was not a wedding or funeral, was probably in the early 1960’s. I seem to spend more collective time in
churches on vacation than would seem prudent for someone with my religious leanings. In Miami, I wouldn’t think about entering a
church without throwing in my shoe first to see if the ceiling would
collapse. In these out of the way places
however, I feel safe. The draw of
churches on vacation is that, unlike Miami where any building over 10 years old
lives in fear of the wrecking ball, these structures are often centuries old. The architecture of these houses of worship
is something to behold.
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| Church in Saguenay |
After leaving Prince Edward Island, the ship’s captain found
his way into the St. Lawrence River and managed a skillful right turn at
Riviere Saguenay. La Rivière Saguenay ou
le Saguenay est une rivière située au Québec.
Sorry about that, I just slipped naturally into my inner-Frenchman. It comes from eating too many croissants. For those of you who may be reading this but
don’t know about real French croissants, they are essentially butter, surrounded by butter,
accompanied by a little pastry dough, which allows you to add more butter.
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| Croissant |
However, I digress. What were we talking about before I went all-French
on you? Oh yes, the captain made a right
turn toward Saguenay. We think this turn
was on purpose but, with most of us on-board partaking of the unlimited
beverage package, it makes sense that the captain may have been “listing a bit to
starboard,” if you catch my drift.
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| Locals in Saguenay |
In any case, we ended up in Saguenay where the list of “The
Top Ten Things to Do in Saguenay” has only three things: Saguenay Fjord National Park (basically "outside"), Musee du Fjord (a museum about “outside”), and the famous Musee de la
Petite Maison Blanche (a tiny white house that managed to survive a flood in
1996).
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| Musee de la Petite Maison Blanche (survived 1996 flood) |
A group of us hopped on a
hop-on-hop-off bus and managed a hopping good time touring Saguenay. Actually, Saguenay was a pretty little town
filled with happy people. Since, as mentioned above, Saguenay only has three attractions, we didn't hop off much. Saguenay has
only been a thing since 2002 when it was formed from three cities, two
municipalities, and a township. At one
time, they actually had a Wal-Mart but it had to close when the workers tried
to unionize.
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| Quebec City (Large Building at top of hill is the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac |
Well, the captain finally sobered up (just kidding..., I think)
and we found our way out of the Saguenay River and back to the St. Lawrence
River where we floated down to Quebec City.
This would be the end of our official cruise and the end to our
unlimited beverage package. I’m not sure
which we would miss the most.
Quebec City is actually Kébec, which means, “where the river
narrows”. I’ll have to trust that that
is true as my Algonquin is a bit rusty and ranks right up there with my French,
German, Spanish, Arabic, and any other language that is not English. I am fluent in American-English, and not that
stuff spoken by those British people who think they invented it. Actually, I can understand Bostonians, New
Yorkers, Californians, and even a few people from Georgia.
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| Fairmont Le Château Frontenac |
The hotel above is referred to as the Frontenac and is claimed to be the most photographed hotel in the world. It has over 600 rooms on 18 floors. It was a luxury hotel built for the Canadian Pacific Railway and its more affluent visitors and opened in 1893. It has a small but beautiful bar staffed by skilled bartenders. I know they were skilled because they were the first mixologists who didn't have to reference a book to make my Rob Roy.
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| A Rob Roy (scotch, sweet vermouth, & Angostura bitters) |
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| Bar at the Frontenac |
Québec City dates back to 1535 when Jacques Cartier built a
fort there. A wall was built around the
city in 1820 to protect it from attack by the Americans who had unsuccessfully attempted
to annex Canada on two occasions. I
guess the wall worked since, after the War of 1812, America never tried to
invade them again.
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| Queen Mary 2, St. Lawrence River, Quebec City |
Our own band of adventurers had dwindled somewhat before
venturing down to Montreal, and we were now six. We took a train ride from Quebec to Montreal where we sat
in comfortable seats, were fed a nice meal, and given cocktails and wine. Not a bad way to spend three hours.
Quebec and Montreal were somewhat of a surprise. I am more used to the Canadian Rockies where
you see three elk, two bighorn sheep, and a bear for every person you
meet. I found out that some people actually live in
Canada. Who knew? Coming from Miami, I always thought that
folks just went to Quebec and Montreal to buy cars and license tags before
driving to South Florida. Some winters
there are more people from Quebec and Montreal on our Miami roadways than
pythons slithering through our neighborhoods.
For those of you who may not be aware, our last python census had the count
just under 800,000, and I believe that figure is low. Most pythons have difficulty filling out
census forms and they don’t trust the government. Nobody ever said that pythons were stupid.
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| Florida's Backyard and New Senator |
When you realize that the entire state of Vermont has just
624,594 people, Florida could spin off the Everglades as a separate state and we
would have two more senators and one additional representative in Congress, all
three of whom would be snakes. I’m sure all three of them would feel right at home with the other congressional
reptiles. The newly formed Everglades State would still be larger in population than Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, and the District of Columbia. Since pythons are cold-blooded reptiles that slither close to the ground, crush their prey, and swallow things whole, I’m sure their political leanings would have them siding/slithering with (
□ the Democrats,
□ the Republicans). I’ll
let you pick, as either answer will be correct.
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Notre Dame
(as seen from our hotel) |
In Montreal, which is situated south of Quebec, they once
again primarily speak French. This being
“the south” they say "bonjour y’all." Luckily,
everybody also spoke English. Since most
of these folks live in south Florida during the winter, I looked for familiar
faces. I saw a few, but they turned out
to be members of our group. Montreal has the
largest French-speaking population outside Paris. If you would like to go to Paris but can’t
afford the trip, you might try Montreal.
You won’t find the Eiffel Tower, or the Louvre, but they do have a Notre
Dame.
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| Inside Montreal's Notre Dame |
This Notre Dame however, never saw Quasimodo
or Esmeralda swinging on a rope or climbing up to its belfry yelling
"Sanctuary." Inside, is really a beautiful representation of Gothic Revival style architecture. A church has been on this site since 1672. Construction of the modern Notre Dame was begun in 1824 and finished in 1830.
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| Hunchback of Notre Dame (Charles Laughton & Maurine O'Hara) |
A 32 foot pipe organ was completed in 1891, and had the first electrically operated foot pedals. According to the literature, it features 7,000 pipes. I'll take their word for it as I lost count around four. I wonder how
Ray Manzarek of The Doors would sound playing the long version of Light My Fire on such an instrument. We can only wonder.
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| Casavant Frères Pipe Organ in Notre Dame |
We took a tour of Montreal and went to the site of the 1967
World’s Fair (Expo 67) which took place oddly enough in 1967. I’m sure the reason for the fair was to celebrate my
graduating college that year as this was a watershed event in world history. Well, maybe only in my
history.
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U.S. Pavilion from 1967 Expo (World's Fair)
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The US geodesic dome
still stands among a few other exhibit buildings that were never designed to
last more than a year or so. I found
footage shot at the Expo 67
by British Pathé news that provided a fascinating look of this bygone era. A comment below the video mentioned that the
writer was a bilingual guide at the US pavilion and that the shade panels
wouldn’t retract as they were frozen by the cold weather and that the whole thing
leaked so they needed umbrellas on wet days.
Since the theme of the pavilion was to extole US engineering prowess in advanced space technology, perhaps they should have counted on Canada getting cold and wet on occasion.
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| Geodesic Dome Design |
This brings us to the end of our Official Fall Tour of
Canada and New England. Those of our
group that survived this far boarded a bus back to the US. Sue and I bailed the bus in Burlington,
Vermont, and drove to New Haven, Vt., to spend time with her brother and some
of his family. We stopped at the
Lincoln Peak Winery owned and operated by another of Sue’s classmates from Weston, Massachusetts.
Those Weston classmates seem to be
everywhere. When you realize that her
class had fewer than 200 people and mine had over 1,000, you would think that I
would run into more of my classmates. I
guess that surviving the 60’s was a bit tougher than surviving the 70’s.
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| Vermont Without Color (Russ & Jane's Backyard) |
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| Vermont With Color |
Vermont was beautiful and the fall was finally providing us
with the kaleidoscopic orgy of leaf hues we were seeking. We then drove to Natick, Mass., where we
rejoined friends with whom we had so recently traveled. We spent some much-needed downtime with them
before heading home.
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| Vermont Color |
After landing in Ft. Lauderdale, the trip home was uneventful if not a reminder of south
Florida traffic. It took us only 3 hours to
travel the 1,484 miles from Boston’s Logan Airport to Fort Lauderdale’s airport. It then took 1 hour, 28 minutes and 16 seconds
to drive the 40.7 miles from the Ft. Lauderdale Airport to our home. Those last 16 seconds were delightful. Our Uber driver, Sintiar, spoke no English,
but my high school Spanish consisting of: “esta
calle, gira aquí, a la derecha, and no, no, me refería a la izquierda,” saved
the day. The translation of this: this street, turn here, to the right, and
no, no, I meant left.
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| Uber Receipt With Mileage and Time Stamp |
Actually, I think
Sintiar ignored my utterings and just followed the Spanish version of Google
maps on her smartphone.
Home, Sweet Home.
