The Traveling Idiots-Where The Tuck Are They Now?: Oh Canada............and New York too!

Sorry for the delay since the last blog but when you pack for a weeks cruise in a backpack it doesn't leave much room for bringing along a laptop.

I wanted to first of all say Thank You to everyone who is following our journeys on this blog. Since I started this goofy thing there have been close to 2,500 page views. Don't worry, the only stats that are available are the number of page views so I don't have any record of who you are and can't sell your e-mail addresses to some African Prince who has discovered that their government owes you a billion dollars which they will gladly pay if you just give them your social security and bank account numbers.

Now about our most recent adventure:

We flew to NY last Saturday (6/11) arriving late in the afternoon, The older I get the less I like crowds and as you well know NY tends to be a little crowded and busy. In spite of that NY is a fun city to visit. If you've never been I would encourage you to give it a try sometime. Also, I would encourage you to see the mid town/Times Square area and then get out of that sea of humanity as quickly as possible. Of course while you're in Times Square you'll want to check out the nearly naked painted ladies, what a freak show!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/topless-performers-times-square-gallery-1.2331134?pmSlide=1.2331131

If you're a walker like Beth and I there are some amazing areas to explore on foot such as Central Park and the upper East and West Side along the park. We had a great walk Sunday morning in and around Central Park covering about 9 miles before getting on the ship.

The cruise was a six nights with three stops, Halifax, Nova Scotia, St. John's, New Brunswick and Portland, Maine. The high temperatures in Halifax and St. John's were in the low 50's which was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of Florida. Below are a few highlights:

Halifax
We partnered up with a very nice family from Hickory, North Carolina and did a tour out to "Peggy's Cove" which according to whoever keeps track of interesting facts such as this has the most photographed lighthouse in North America. Not wanting them to lose that honor we took pictures of it ourselves and you will see one or two of them below. We also had some amazing lobster at a really neat little lobster place right on the water. The only regret we had about the lobster was that we ordered a small one and after one bite we were sad that we hadn't gone with a two or three pounder instead, it was amazing. I'm not a huge lobster fan but if I lived in that area I'd be a regular.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g635951-d2252615-i113458309-Ryer_Lobsters-Indian_Harbour_Halifax_Region_Nova_Scotia.html

The ride out and back we were entertained by Doug the cab driver who according to him has been driving a cab for 48 years. He was also one of the best "conspiracy theory" people that I've ever met and living in Texas for 23 years I've ran across some good ones. He shared with us the virtues of cannabis oil as something that can pretty much cure everything but that it's being held under wraps by the government and big pharmaceutical companies. I'm looking for the incidence of death and disease in Colorado to be dropping rapidly in the near future.

St. John's
The main attraction here was the Bay of Fundy which is known for having the greatest variances between high tide and low tide (averaging 26 feet). If you're not a water person that may not mean much but it's a whole bunch of water flowing in and out twice a day. A typical tide variance here on AMI is 2-3 feet.
We went to an area called "Reversing Rapids" which is about a half mile wide and all of that water moves through this relatively small area creating Class V rapids going one direction on the outgoing tide and the other direction on the incoming tide. It may sound about as exciting as watching paint dry but to actually watch it was pretty amazing.

http://www.bayoffundy.com

Portland, Maine
This was a very cool city. We passed some amazing houses along the rocky coast line both coming into and leaving the port. Folks up there either have some big time money or some big time debt, I'm leaning that they have a bunch of money.
The ship docked pretty much in downtown and there was a very neat area called "Old Portland" right off the ship. It was cobblestone streets, buildings that were 100+ years of age with shops, pubs, restaurants, etc. Fun to roam around but if they were depending on us to bolster their economy they were probably disappointed although the donuts at the Holy Donut were spectacular.

https://theholydonut.com/

In the afternoon we took a short ferry ride over to Peaks Island, rented bikes and rode around the entire island. Don't be too impressed the ride around the island was less than five miles. It was a great ride with some amazing ocean views.

http://peaksislandmaine.net/Peaks.shtml

After a relaxing day at sea on Friday we arrived back in NY early Saturday morning. Our flight wasn't until late afternoon so once again we took off exploring more of the city on foot. There is an amazing walk called the High Line which is actually an old elevated railroad track that has been converted to a walking path that is about 1.5 miles long. We had walked it before but it was in the winter and a little nippy, this offered a totally different view with tons of flowers in bloom and leaves on all the trees. If you get to NY you should really check it out.

http://www.thehighline.org/

After walking the High Line we walked the lower west side along the Hudson River all the way from mid-town to Battery Park. Again, an incredible place to explore if you get a chance.

Back to Anna Maria Island late Saturday night with great memories of this part of our perpetual journey.

In closing, it was a great Father's Day yesterday and I hope all of you who are Father's had a great one as well.

Happy Father's Day to both of my Dad's. Some of you know this story but others may not so here it is in a nutshell. My "biological dad" passed away in an accident two months before I was born. I've heard many stories about him over the years and wish I would have had the privilege of knowing him. Most stories are about what a great athlete he was so I'm looking forward to playing catch with him sometime down the line because I'm pretty certain there is baseball in heaven.

Out of that tragedy came an incredible dad who was as kind, gentle, loving and supportive as any person who has ever roamed the planet who also gifted my older brother (Gerald) and I with another cool brother and sister! I feel so blessed.