St John New Brunswick.... and... the last of the cruise

Howdy All....

The cruise was over last Friday and today is Monday, so, yes, I'm way behind in posting about our "vacation".  I "..." because since we're retired and full-time RVers folks think we're on a perpetual vacation, and, I suppose we are....  but I'll have to admit that I tend to categorize things and my "rating" system puts a genealogy cruise and the accompanying sight-seeing trips in the vacation category.  Anyway...  last I wrote we'd visited Portland and Bar Harbor Maine.

Then it was on to St John, New Brunswick....

Bill & I have been to St John a few times in the past, so we didn't go to the Reversing Falls or any of that stuff on this trip.  We did head to the Market Place....

 We love all kinds of markets and, like a compass heading north, here we are....

I'd been to this very market many years ago...  another lifetime....  and bought a bag of DULSE (seaweed) way back then.  It's kind of an acquired taste...  and darned if it didn't taste this time exactly as it did over 35 years ago ;-).  The lower left shows Bill by a sign for Poutine.  Now....  THAT'S another acquired taste...  french fries, covered in gravy and cheese curds!  Yep!  You read that right....  our friends Roche and Elise, from up in Quebec introduced us to that little "heart attack on a plate" several years ago.  ...  We passed it up this time around.

I love seeing churches....

 Doesn't matter to me what denomination they are...  but this one was a Catholic church cathedral.  It was so beautiful!  I didn't get a good photo of the rose window....  but it was truly beautiful.

An artist John Hooper...  had lots of sculpture art on the city streets...

 Bill struck up a lively conversation with that guy heading to work on the left.  The middle guy couldn't be bothered with us...  too interested in his newspaper.  And the guy on the right who was feeding that pigeon was so engrossed he hardly had time to say hello to me.

This "timepiece" was quite interesting...

 Not your ordinary clock...  also by John Hooper, had a neat way of telling time.  It was at the entrance to the Market Square....  very colorful and fun to look at.

We walked a lot (we seldom take ship excursions, preferring to meander around town on our own) and walked up to the city park and bandstand.....

We never did figure out how anyone got to the 2nd floor of the bandstand....  but the autumn flowers and especially the autumn leaves....  were so colorful and made for a grand walk.  I love to kick the leaves as I walk and listen to them underfoot and as they swirl in the air.  

We spent all our shore leave just wandering through the town.  I did find a really neat yarn shop...  didn't buy any yarn but did buy a pattern book for some items I'd like to knit.

All in all it was a great shore leave for us.

Our stop, the next day, was in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Again, a trip we've done in the past, so we did not go to Peggy's Cove, Lunenburg, or any of the other great places to visit.  We did walk up to the Citadel and along the boardwalk, but my photos aren't anything I'd want to post.

After Halifax we spent 2 days at sea heading back to Baltimore, Maryland.  We docked early Friday morning and Bill & I were among the first to disembark...  getting through customs and immigration quickly and easily this time.  We took a taxi back to the hotel in Columbia, Maryland, where our car was parked, and were on the road to the Hudson Valley of New York by 8:30 am.  

The 8 day cruise was a real vacation...  Bill did all the genealogy workshops and lectures during our days at sea...  I loved the "quiet time" to knit, read and just relax.  Our idea of a true vacation!

After that we did have a couple days visit in NY with our daughter and her family, and then on to Pennsylvania to visit another daughter and her husband...  and today, leaving there and heading  back to Ohio where our motorhome awaited us.

It is SO good to be home.  

As much as I love our family and also those vacations, it sure will be nice to sleep in our own bed tonight.

I hope to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs and get back to posting my own again soon.

That's All For Today!