Our trip started off with a bang. I lost my cellphone, Laura was fretting about
the house sitter not being there yet and it was getting late. My cell phone was located at the mall and I
was able to retrieve it. The house
sitter was located and assured us that she would be there by 5:30 am the next morning. Now things were getting back to a normal
state of anxiety before leaving on a trip.
The house sitter arrived as promised, we drove to Kim’s
at 6:00 am, and Kim got us to the airport on time. Our travel agent had not downloaded boarding
passes prior to our arrival and since we received them when we checked in at
the airport, we were one of the last people to board the aircraft. Also since Southwestern does not have
assigned seating, we did not find seats next to each other on the leg of the
flight to Las Vegas. It was a short
flight so that was not a problem. In Las
Vegas, we boarded another plane for Buffalo, NY. Again we were one of the last to board the plane;
but we did find two seats together – a window and a middle seat. We asked the gentleman seated in the aisle
seat if we could join him. He agreed and
then folded himself out of the seat. He could
have been a NFL center lineman from his size.
So the trip to Buffalo was spent hugging the side of the seat so we did
not touch.
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| Niagara |
We arrived in Buffalo and claimed our bags; then trekked
to one end of the airport to catch a shuttle bus to take us to Niagara. Only when we got there, we found that the
shuttles had stopped running since it was after 5pm. This was something that they had not shared
with Laura when she was setting up the arrangements. Laura did find another couple who were also
heading for Niagara and we shared a cab located at the other end of the
terminal with them which worked out great.
 |
| American Falls |
We found the Best Western where we had reservations after
one incorrect stop and then got unpacked before going down to the front desk to
inquire about shuttle service to the main part of town since we were about 2
miles from the falls. We learned that
they had a great system. You could
purchase a card for $6 per person and it would entitle you to ride the WeGo bus
for 48 hours. They had 4 routes and
would get you to all the tourist spots in town.
The Red Line WeGo stopped right in front of the Best Western, so we
bought our cards and hopped on the bus.
It dropped us off at the transfer station which was located directly
next to Horseshoe Falls. We walked
around the Table Rock area, familiarizing ourselves with what was
available. Many of the shops were already
closed since it was about 7:30pm. We
walked along the street overlooking the falls, and then crossed the street to
the Fallsview Restaurant where we had dinner.
Shortly after we started eating, colored spotlights illuminated both the
Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls which greatly enhanced our dining
experience. After dinner, we found that
it had started to sprinkle so we headed back to the transfer station to catch
the Red Line back to our hotel.
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| Horseshoe Falls |
The Best Western was a very nice facility. Our room was spacious and comfortable. We had a restful night and arose to have
breakfast before catching the first WeGo back to the falls. We also enquired at the reception desk about
the 4 attraction passes which allowed you to see the 4 main tourist attractions
the Journey Behind the Falls, the Fury of Niagara which was a movie which
addressed how the falls were formed; the Maid of the Mist ride and the White
Water Walk. When we purchased the
passes, we found that they also came with a WeGo bus pass good for 48
hours. So we were a little ticked at the
reception staff for no telling us about that option the night before.
We rode the bus back down to the falls and wandered
around for awhile admiring the majesty of the falls. The roar of the water passing not 30 feet
from where you are standing before plunging down to the foot of the falls. It made you feel very small. We then took the Journey Behind the Falls. We walked down a ramp to an elevator which
took us down to a cement lined tunnel which was carved out in the cliff behind
the falls. They issued each of us a thin
yellow plastic rain poncho – think of a drycleaners bag with a hood – we were
then allowed to walk down the tunnel. It
branched and as we progressed on the branch to the right, it led to two small
tunnels that exited underneath the falls itself. We could walk to within 20 feet of the end of
the tunnel but all you could see was a torrent of water pouring down from
above. The spray kept the end of the
tunnel quite wet. When we returned towards
the exit, we took the other branch of the tunnel which led to an outside
viewing platform located perhaps halfway down the falls. It was a good view, a wet view and quite
windy. In all, we were not overly
impressed with this attraction.
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| Maid of the Mist |
We next caught the Green line WeGo to go down river to
catch the Maid of the Mist. Her docks
are about half way between Horseshoe Falls and American Falls. While waiting to enter the Maid of the Mist
we found another couple from California, Leon and Sandi, who we gave our extra
WeGo tickets too. We learned from them that they were also taking the cruise
down the St. Lawrence to Boston. We took the elevator down the cliff, were
issued our rain ponchos – blue ones this time and then boarded the Maid of the
Mist. She is a small craft, double
decked so Laura chose to go to the top deck, port side to take her
pictures. The cruise is not very long
but it is exciting. It was like standing
in your shower with the nozzle spraying water directly into your face. We had to abandon our rail position and duck
behind the wheelhouse in order to take some pictures without too much water
hitting us. It was refreshing. We were both very glad that it was not a cold
windy day as any clothing exposed outside the poncho was pretty much
soaked.
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| White Water Walk |
After returning to the dock, we then rode down the Green
Line a little further to the White Water Walk.
This was a much more sedate attraction.
We rode the elevator down the cliffs and then walked about a quarter of
a mile along the Whirlpool Rapids which are located below American Falls. It was a pleasant walk alongside the river
under the cliff edge. Lots of trees
providing shade and they had provided benches where we could sit and view the
rapids which was very nice. It was not
one of the more busy attractions so that was good.
We then returned to the Table Rock area to attend the
Fury of Niagara film. We entered the
theater; we were issued our rain ponchos once again since this was a 4-D event. We first entered a small room where they
showed a rather childish cartoon showing the formation of the falls with a
beaver and an owl as the main characters.
We then were led into a large 360 degree room with metal mesh decking
and running water around the edges of the room.
They started the film which was filled with lightning flashes accented
with strobe effects, there was snow falling on us, rain and mist, wind effects
and the floor shook and the waters roared.
In other words, they tried to get all your senses involved. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, it was a
pretty lame show. Of the four main
attractions, the Maid of the Mist and the White Water Walk were by far the
best. The other two, we could have
missed and saved some cash.
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| View from the top of Skylon Tower |
We then took the Blue line from Table Rock up to Skylon
Tower so we could see a 360 degree view of the countryside from 582 feet
up. It was funny because as we caught
various WeGo buses, we kept running into Leon and Sandi. We headed back to the Best Western because it
was an early morning departure for Toronto.
We were catching an airport shuttle to the airport there because none of
the local car rental agencies would do a one-way rental without a $300 drop off
fee. So we had a pizza at the local
Pizza Hut, picked up some breakfast cookies and a yogurt drink for breakfast
and called it a night.
Friday morning we were picked up and delivered via the
shuttle to the Toronto Airport, we trekked through the airport to the rental
cars and got our Kia Forte. It was a
nice little car with a surprisingly large trunk. We were able to find the correct freeway to
take us to Montreal without any difficulty.
The drive was about a six hour trip.
The road was pretty good, only a few areas of congestion where they were
doing road work and had a lane blocked off.
We did notice that whoever had the contract for providing the orange
plastic barrels that are placed in construction areas was making a fortune
because they were along both sides of the road for miles and miles.
Laura had directions to the Best Western Hotel in
Montreal but as we got into town we realized that the directions were not the
best in the world. We got into the right
area of town and started making circles trying to find the correct streets. It was one of those – “Sorry, you can’t get
there from here situations.” Finally after making several attempts to locate
the correct street, we spotted it but it was one way the wrong way, so it was
once more around in a circle to get to the other side. We did get checked it and found that the
Hertz rental office was only a few blocks away.
During our journey to find the hotel we had located a gas station which
we later found was the only one in downtown Montreal, so we filled up and then
returned the car. We had to walk about 8
blocks back to the hotel but it was an enjoyable walk. Laura paused in front of one store window
and grabbed me to point out the mannequins all dressed in leather and chains;
but in particular, the one with the large leather cod piece. I don’t know what they were trying to sell
there but it certainly got our attention.
There were many people out on the street, one street was
closed off to traffic and they were setting up some sort of event on the
block. We saw several young men with
puppies who were standing around soaking up the attention of all the young
girls as they walked by.
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| Shower Scene |
Bonnie and Pete were staying at the same hotel but when
we got back to the hotel they had already left for dinner. So we started out and stopped right next door
to the hotel for dinner. We sat at a
table right next to the window so we could see if we could find them on their
return. It started raining and then we
saw them go dashing by. We finished our
dinner and then stopped by their room to set up what we were going to do the
following day. We found out that our
room was much bigger than theirs, so we adjourned to there to visit and make our plans. We also decided to try to see if all four of
us could fit into our shower since it was the size of an elevator room. We could have fit 8 people into the shower
although the next morning when I went to use the shower, I learned that only a
couple of the 8 people would have gotten wet.
We would have had to have kept moving like the Emperor Penguins in the
March of the Penguins.
 |
Our room on the Lower Promenade Deck - Sliding Door
opened onto deck |
After a good night’s sleep and breakfast in the
hotel, we loaded the bags into taxi cabs and headed for the cruise ship
terminal. It was still raining so plans
for a self-guided walking tour of the older portion of Montreal was
cancelled. Our cabins were located on the
lower promenade or deck six, if you prefer, about midway down the ship on the
port side. The cabin was nice. It had a sliding glass door that opened onto
the deck and there were two deck chairs there for us to use. During the cruise, we did use them several
times but the weather was not too conducive of lounging out on the deck. It was much more comfortable sitting around
the pool on the Lido Deck just steps away from the buffet line.
 |
| Quebec City |
The day was spent travelling down the St. Lawrence to
Quebec and we docked there at about 8 AM on Sunday 9/23. We left the ship shortly afterwards. The dock was located in Lower Town just under
the fortress. We walked up the streets,
looking at the shops many of which were not open yet. We found the funicular which would carry us
up the hill to Upper Town. The four of
us, Bonnie and Pete, Laura and I continued walking up the street until we came
to the edge of the walls of the fortress.
Here I had to stop because my back which had been hurting and was
aggravated by tossing suitcases in and out of vehicles was giving me a lot of
pain. I returned to the ship to soak in
the hot tub and to undergo an acupuncture treatment to see if that might do
something. The most that it did was
lighten my wallet by $150. The Doctor
said I should soak my back in warm water & there are herbs that she would
sell me to help. Also you should come
back for 2 more treatments. I thanked her and left; not to return. So Laura will have to write her views of the
old city of Quebec.
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| Hotel Fontenac, Quebec |
Quebec is an old walled city, very French in the feel of the place. Bonnie, Pete and myself walked all the way to the old citadel where we climbed up on the walls and had a nice view of the entire city from above. We then headed back into the Upper Town area where we found a horse and carriage ride. Our driver was a young man who grew up in Quebec. He was raising a 4 year old daughter on his own as her mother had died. He threw that in several times, I think with the hope that we would give him a larger tip - which we did. He was actually quite delightful with his narrative, and told us quite a bit about the city. After the carriage ride we visited a few shops. Bonnie and I really wanted to go out to Montmorency Falls on the outskirts of the city. Pete decided he was tired and would head back to the ship to join George.
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| Montmorency Falls |
I had researched the falls before leaving home and new that their was a city bus we could take to get there. The Information Center drew me a map of how to get to the street where we could pick up the bus. The clerk there also told me that when we returned, that if we stayed on the bus to the end of the line, that it would take us down the hill and deposit us near the cruise ship. Sounded like a good plan. We hiked up to catch the bus and rode it for about 45 min. to the end of the line. The falls were just through a fenced in area, a short hike. They were worth going to, quite pretty and taller than the falls at Niagara Falls - although they could not compare in width. We crossed the footbridge that spanned the falls and followed a path to a lookout balcony. We saw lots of fall foliage in this area.
After visiting the falls we got back on the bus into Quebec and we stayed on it till the end of the line, which was about an hour and a half ride. However, when we got to the end of the line, we were no where near the cruise ship terminal. Instead we were on the far side of Quebec in the suburbs. We had gotten bad information from the clerk at the Information Center. The driver got us transferred to another bus and we set off to get back to the ship, which was another 45 min. ride. We had to be back on the ship by 4:30, so we were a little worried about that, but we did make it in plenty of time, and this driver did tell us where to get off, which was fairly close. We even had time to make a stop at a fudge shop - where I couldn't resist buying some fudge.
The tourists had to be back on the ship by 4:30 PM and we
were underway shortly thereafter. That
is one of the down sides for being on a cruise ship. You do not have much time in any port and the
number of things to do really exceed the available time.
 |
| Sydney Harbor |
Wednesday, 9/26, we arrived at Sydney, Nova Scotia at
about 8 AM. We had an early tour so we
were off the ship and right onto a bus.
The tour took us through the countryside of Cape Breton Island viewing
the Bras d’Or Lake eventually ending at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck. That was an interesting stop. Alexander Graham Bell is known for inventing
the telephone but the museum told of the other things that he was involved with
such as the first airplane flight in Canada, tetrahydrine kites, the iron lung
and hydrofoil boats. He was an amazing
man. His home is not open to the public
but they had recreated several of the rooms in the museum which was
interesting. We walked up through the town of Sydney prior to
returning to the ship. It was rather
underwhelming. Most of the shops were
not that exciting and were crowded with tourists just panicking that they would
not be able to spend their Canadian dollars prior to our 3:30 PM boarding time.
 |
| George in the Titantic Cemetery |
The next day we arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia under
drizzling skies. We had an afternoon
tour, so we left the ship and did a little walking tour of our own. First there was a stop at the local equivalent
to a Target to purchase a thumb drive to download photos from my computer which
I had downloaded from Bonnie’s camera when it ran out of memory. Mission
accomplished, the ladies continued their walking tour while Pete and I returned
to the ship. Our tour, that afternoon, was of the Fairview
cemetery where 120 of the Titanic passengers were buried and then on to Peggy’s
Cove. Peggy’s Cove was a very
picturesque place. The village is very
small, only about 30 people live there.
The lighthouse, like many of the ones along the coast which have been
replaced by automated beacons and GPS navigation, is no longer in operation but
was purchased recently for $1. A group
of volunteers had repainted the lighthouse just last week so it was looking
good for us. We had an enjoyable time;
the weather had cleared so it was perfect picture taking weather. We just made it back to the ship in time for
our departure for Bar Harbor, Maine.
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Peggy's Cove
|
 |
| Bonnie Hula Hooping |
This was the second formal night onboard. We had been going to the dining room with
Bonnie and Pete; the couple from Lompoc, CA that we had met in Niagara – Leon
and Sandi. Several of the nights we were
joined by two sisters from Minnesota - Laurie
and Ann. The meals on board were very
good. The majority of the time we ate
breakfast and lunch in the Lido Restaurant and dined in the Rotterdam Dining
Room for dinner. There were plenty of
choices of what to eat no matter where you chose to dine. Tonights specialty was lobster.
We attended several of the production numbers that the
entertainment cast preformed in the ship’s theatre. Laura and Bonnie went to play bingo on several
occasions with Bonnie having the most luck.
We visited several of the ship’s lounges for a drink and to listen to
the entertainment. We even ventured up
to the Crow’s Nest to dance a little.
Bonnie won a spa treatment for her ability with the hulu hoop. For much of the time, it was early to bed,
early to rise.
 |
| Laura at the top of Cadillac Mtn. |
Friday morning, 9/28 found us moored off Bar Harbor,
Maine. We had to clear Immigrations and
then with our clearance card in hand, obtain our boarding cards for the tenders
which would take us ashore. We caught an
early tender and went we got off the pier located the offices of a tour trolley
which took us to the top of Cadillac Mountain which is the highest point on the
Northern Atlantic Seaboard. It was a magnificent view from there. We then rode back into town, walked up
through the tourist shopping area to catch a “free” bus which would take us to
the Acadia National Park. It was a
pretty ride up through the area. Some of
the trees were starting to change colors so that was special. We got off to have lunch at Jordan Pond
Restaurant. Laura had a lobster stew
that was filled with large lobster chunks while I had a chicken salad. What topped the lunch were the popovers which
they served hot from the oven and we spread with butter and jam.
 |
Lobster Stew and Popovers
at Jordon Pond House |
After lunch, we caught several “free” buses to work our
way downtown. Then it was a final
shopping spree prior to boarding the ship for Boston.
Final night at sea, we were busy packing our bags so the
porters could get them off the ship in the morning and deliver them to the
pier.
Saturday morning, the ship docked in Boston and we were
disembarked to locate our bags and catch the shuttle to the airport. It was 10 AM, we were at the airport and our
flight was not until after 3 PM. We
stayed in the First Class Lounge which was located directly across from the
gate from which we were scheduled to leave.
So that was perfect, not only was there free drinks, snacks and fruit;
the seating was comfortable, there were plug-ins to charge our electronics and
it was a quiet atmosphere. Life is good
when you can go first class. However, we
were not flying first class so we soon had to join the churning masses yearning
to go to Denver. In Denver, we had a
short layover and then it was on to San Diego where Kim and James met us at the
airport so we could get home.
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Our ship the Maasdam in port in Bar Harbor
|
The trip was 7 days onboard the Ms Maasdam in which we
travel 1537 nautical miles. Our pre-cruise
portion consisted of two travel days with one full day in Niagara Falls. It was a fun trip but as always it is good to
be home to the welcome of Baxter and Sadie.
 |
Baxter playing with his new lobster toy, Sadie in background
They were happy to have us home |
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