Because of Hurricane Fiona we are skipping Halifax and heading back to New York. This will be the third port out of five that have been skipped on this cruise. We are disappointed that we will not get see the Peggy Cove lighthouse and the village. So today and tomorrow will be days at sea. At this point we are looking forward to getting back on the road to go to New Hampshire to visit the White Mountains. We will start posting after we get to the B&B.

Finally got to shore and we had booked the Hop on Hop off bus for the day. We rode the bus the entire loop to get an over view. We did stop at the Reversing Rapids. This is really amazing. The Bay of Fundy has such dramatic tides that the sea water rises above the level of the Saint John River and forces the water to flow upstream back inland. On the first bus loop, we saw the Rapids at high tide and the water was flowing from left the right in the following picture.

Had lunch at a restaurant near the City Market. We finally got our lobster rolls. Linda had a standard one and I had a lettuce wrap version. We then got back on the Hop on Hop off bus to the rapids to see low tide. The water is going from right to left in the picture below.

Looking forward to going to Halifax tomorrow to visit Peggy’s Cove and the famous lighthouse.

Because we were to tender to Bar Harbor and they had small craft warnings and the weather was not good, we spent another day at sea. Out where we were on the way to New Brunswick, the weather seemed OK, but we have been on tenders when the seas are rough and it is no fun. We were sorry to miss Arcadia National Park, but safety first.

We dock in Saint John so we should be able to get ashore and see some sights. More tomorrow.

Had a great day in Boston, even though the skies were overcast. We did a bus and harbor cruise tour and got a great overview of Boston. We had been in Boston a number of times by it was great to sit back and take in an overview.

The harbor cruise gave us great views of downtown Boston and we got to see Fort Independence, the Nantucket Lightship and the Constitution and Bunker Hill Monument.

The bus tour took us to Copley Square. We saw Trinity Church and the New Old South Church. We also saw Fenway Park, the Boston Common and a lot of other sights.

We just learned that we will end up skipping the Bar Harbor stop. We are very disappointed as this was one of the places we wanted to see on this cruise. We are not sure if we will end up in New Brunswick tomorrow night. More tomorrow. We hope we will be close enough to the coast to see some of the many lighthouses that dot the Maine coast.

Small craft warnings prevented the tender operation at Newport, RI and we spent a relaxing day at sea. Fortunately, we had already been to Newport, but we would have like to seen a few new things. The weather at sea was very pleasant and we sat outside both on deck and on our room balcony.

We watched some of the entertainment on board and had a very nice dinner. We will be docking at Boston tomorrow so we will have more to report off the ship. Our stop at Bar Harbor, ME is a tender operation and we are hopeful that we will be able to go ashore there. The weather does not look too promising, however.

Arrived in Brooklyn yesterday after a good drive the last two days. I-80 across Pennsylvania is very pretty and an enjoyable drive in spite of the large number of trucks. We also had an unanticipated drive thru the PA countryside as we were detoured off I-80 for a closure. It was a nice detour for us, but the truckers earned their pay as the roads were very curvy and hilly.

Had an enjoyable Mexican dinner at a local restaurant and had Mescal margaritas, yummy.

Of course we had to get tested for Covid using a proctored test. We both tested negative so we can get on the ship and get into Canada!

We will be posting after our Rhode Island stop tomorrow

Soon we will be driving to New York, NY to hop on our first cruise in five years. We are fully vaccinated and just got the new updated booster shot as well. We are driving because after the cruise we will be going north to New England to New Hampshire and Vermont (Linda’s last US State!!) to see some fall color and sights. Once we are on the cruise, going to New England (Providence, RI; Boston, MA and Bar Harbor, ME) and then on to the Canadian Maritimes (Saint John, NB and Halifax, NS), we will update this blog. The drive to NYC is not that interesting so no posts until we are on the ship.

We are posting this from 38,00 feet above the Atlantic.

No photos as this is the last post for this adventure. We had planned to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Dublin yesterday, but the “oops” fairy got us. We left our passports in the room safe in the hotel in Belfast. We were a good 45 minutes down the road towards Dublin when we realized this. We called the hotel and were able to retrieve the passports but this delayed us. This along with the Irish Sunshine, aka Rain, caused us to alter our plans and we then drove along the coast on Mourne Coastal Route. We didn’t stop for pictures but the coast was beautiful. We able to drop off the rental car fine and then check into the airport hotel. After relaxing for a bit, we had a nice dinner.

Today we got up and headed to the airport, intending to have a nice breakfast together at the Aer Lingus business class lounge. The hotel shuttle worked great and we checked in just fine. Of course, Bill got patted down because of his hip. Bought some things at Duty Free and then went to the US Pre-clearance area. Dublin is one of those airports when you clear US Customs before you get on the plane. Linda sailed thru Global Entry, but Bill got a big “X” on his slip. Linda went to the lounge and Bill had to wait 45 minutes to get cleared. Apparently the mild identity theft issue we reported in March flagged his passport and they had to confirm it as really him. Better safe than sorry, but Bill will have to go to Customs in Milwaukee to get this off the record.

We hope you have enjoyed our adventure half as much as we did. See you all soon from the road again.

Started the day by walking to the first stop on the Hop-on Hop-off Bus. Took the bus the the Titanic Experience. This is well done and we spent a couple hours looking at the information about Belfast and how the Titanic came to be built in Belfast. The Titanic and her two sister ships, Olympic and Britannia were built at the H&W shipyards.

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Got back on the bus and rode to the City Market stop. We went in search of an ATM to get Pounds and by the time we got back to the market, it was closing. Saw the North Ireland Parliament Building and a number of the murals from both sides in the Troubles. Even though there has been peace for 21 years, apparently the two sides still don’t trust each other. Finished the day taking a picture of us at the River Lagen. Our band plays a song “Down by the Lagenside,” so a picture was in order.

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Tomorrow we are driving to Dublin Airport to turn the car in, check in to our hotel, and then do a bit of touring in Dublin before we take off on Monday for home.

We had a wonderful stay at the Island View B&B near Burtonport. Our Host Anie Boyle was a wonderful source of information, including alerting us to the Donegal Pro Rally that was being held near Letterkenny. We had originally planned on driving directly towards The Giant’s Causeway via Letterkenny. We modified our route to go more on the Wild Atlantic Way in Donegal, including a ferry ride from Rathmullen to Buncrana on the Lough Swilly ferry.

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We got the the Giant’s Causeway late in the afternoon and enjoyed the walk along the coast listening to the Audio tour. We also saw some daisies grow in some rough and unlikely locations.

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After a while at the Giant’s Causeway, we drove to our hotel in Belfast. We were a bit tired from all the driving so we had dinner at the hotel dining room. We plan on touring Belfast tomorrow, including the Titanic Experience.