The Best Part of the Trip...

 After we arrived back in Baltimore, we took a taxi to the airport and picked up a rental car.  Then we drove to Tricia and McKay's home in Pennsylvania.  Visiting with their family was definitely the BEST PART OF THE TRIP for me!  While it was drizzly and rainy part of the time, it was still wonderful all of the time.  We waited until Saturday afternoon to take a trip to a local farm/pumpkin patch as the rain was supposed to let up.  It did and we had a delightful time.  We picked pumpkins and apples and enjoyed a local musical group.  Our favorite things were the apple cannon and the hot apple cider donuts.  We picked a variety of apples for apple crisp which was so tasty, we made it two days in a row.

 The surrounding scenery was just gorgeous even though the leaves were just starting to change.

 The store and restaurant where they sold every imaginable apple goodie was huge and the wares were tempting but we limited ourselves to the apples, pumpkins, squash, mums and porch decorations.  Of course, we had eaten our donuts right away as McKay was able to secure fresh hot ones.  We skipped the pies and other goodies because we were going to make our own apple crisp.  Everyone was happy with that option.

 Sunday we went to church and had a nice dinner together with apple crisp for desert.  In the afternoon the sun came out so we took a long walk in the beautiful park nearby.

 We also enjoyed having Cameron, Jessica and Thomas perform for us.  They each played the piano and Cameron played his cello.  It is so fun to see the progress they are making.  We love it!

 We also enjoyed brainstorming with Tricia and McKay to cozy up their new house with different furniture and decor arrangements.  It was fun working together on a project.

 Then we sat back and enjoyed the results.  We love their home!

Our visit was short as we left Monday afternoon to drive back to Baltimore for an early morning flight on Tuesday.  Thanks for the memories.  We love you Tricia, McKay, Cameron, Jessica, and Thomas!

The Port of Halifax

 As we sailed into the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia on the morning of October 7th, we didn't know that it is the world's second largest natural harbor next to Sydney, Australia or that it never freezes over.

 We were also interested to see that it was going to be a busy day in Halifax with 5 different cruise ships in port from all over the world.  We were serenaded as we pulled into port by musicians playing the bagpipes and drums.

 Once again, Steve and I chose to ride the pink double decker bus on a tour around the city to see the highlights.  We opted to hop off at the Public Gardens, one of two Victorian Gardens in Canada.  Steve and I both love gardens so we enjoyed our stroll throughout the park immensely.  Since our schedule was a bit tight, we were also happy to be able to board the next bus to continue our tour.

 We had a little time to explore the farmers' market and walk along the pier to grab some lunch.

 We had some delicious chowder at a local eatery and then hurried back to catch our bus for the hour long ride to Peggy's Cove, a small working fishing village.

 This beautiful sunset photo was taken at the end of the day by Steve when we were back on the ship. Sorry that I have difficulty putting this photo back into the correct order.

 The drive to Peggy's Cover was beautiful as we passed little inlets and bays and feasted on the fall colors beginning to change on the trees.

 At Peggy's Cove, we hiked on the rocks around the light house, checked out the little shops and visited with local artists.

 The tour guide took these photos of us with the lighthouse in the background.  I'm holding a lobster.

 We thought these stacks of lobster traps were quite interesting.  These are the traditional traps.  There are newer fancier traps too.

 Isn't this picturesque?  We purchased a small painting from a local artist to remind us of our trip.

 This is the fishing bay at Peggy's Cove.  Steve was looking out across it and noticed movement and then a spray of water shooting up out of the water.  He had spotted a group of whales.  As we departed and drove up the coast, we were able to see them better.

 We passed various inlets on our trip back to Halifax.  Many wealthy and/or famous people own homes along these inlets.

 A local artist has painted his home to depict the scenery at Peggy's Cove.  We didn't have time to make a special stop but it was fun to see.

 We really enjoyed our visit to Nova Scotia.  I noticed that a lot of the homes we saw lacked garages. Our guide said the newer homes have them, but traditionally they have about six snow storms each winter.  It actually has a milder climate than I expected because of its proximity to the ocean.

The next two days were spent sailing back to Baltimore.  The weather was much better on the return trip.  We had some beautiful sunny times which made our walks around the deck much more pleasant.  We had decided at the start of the cruise that to make up for the feeding frenzy we might experience having so much access to good food, that we would walk a mile after each meal.  We faithfully did that no matter what the weather was like.  Sometimes it was very windy with the ship rocking and rolling but we persisted.  Lots of times we were the only ones walking on the deck.  We think it was a good choice as we kept our weight gain to about 2 lbs. which disappeared as soon as we returned home.
By the way, we did enjoy the food, desserts and all.  We were partial to oatmeal raisin cookies and soft ice cream.  We also really enjoyed the live entertainment events each evening.  We loved the singing and dancing and the comedy shows were pretty good too. One evening we were very surprised by an amazing ventriloquist.  Here we have a couple of photos of the entertainers for the next cruise giving their inaugural performance which included singing, dancing and aerialist displays.

 We were pampered by the staff on our cruise.  Our room was freshened throughout the day.  The dining room staff learned our names, room number and table by our second meal.  Our waiters really spoiled us by remembering the things we liked and making appropriate recommendations and plates of food we didn't even order but they thought we would enjoy.   I was personally happy that our cruise was ending even though I really enjoyed it.  I didn't want to get in the habit of being too lazy, fat and unproductive.  It was fun but after seven days, I was ready to leave the fantasy life behind and return to reality.