Northeast vi

Notice the name of this market, "City Market" in the middle of St John, Nova Scotia. Couldn't resist. Inside was small, but very crowded with many, many things to buy.

This is a rather unique thing, as our tour guide pointed out to us. We rode in the bus thru this covered bridge to a tourist spot. As you look back you can see another covered bridge in the distance on the right middle of the picture. As the guide says, it is unique to be able to picture two covered bridges in one picture.

As part of the tour, I got off and went into this church. It was very New England. Inside, I thot these pipes for the organ were very beautiful and worth a picture.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, after the morning on a tour into the countryside, We had passes for this double decker bus. It had the "hop on/ hop off" feature. We planned on going out separately, so I was alone on this tour. If I stayed on the bus and just rode, it was supposed to be about an hour and a half and there was about 4 hours in the afternoon to see what we wanted to see. I stopped at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia because there was an exhibit called "The Painted House of Maud Lewis". Our guide had earlier told us of this woman, Maud Lewis, who was born quite handicapped who also had rheumatoid arthritis who lived in a tiny house, and spent her days painting her walls, chairs, windows, anything she could lay her hands on plus boards or canvas to sell. She didn't leave her house for 35 years, just painted, and sold some things from the house. What a story of courage and doing the best with what you have. I was so glad I went into that gallery.

At the dock, near where out ship was, in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the huge violin stands. There's some kind of festival associated with it. I just thot it was interesting.

Northeast v

In Nova Scotia, we were on a tour of Cape Breton Island and these are pictures of a Highland Village. The little rock house with the grass roof was built for the village in a simulation of how the people lived when the island was first colonized. The rest of the houses there were authentic houses, that had been moved together in a group. I've just pictured here, the church and another house.

Near this "Highland Village" is the museum for Alexander Bell. He lived near here but his house isn't available for tours tho our tour guide pointed to the area where his house was, way out on a beautiful point of land. The weather was quite cool, but beautiful and the trees still had fall leaves.

This another street of Quebec City that I thot was pretty. Another motif for painters. Some day maybe I'll use it. I tried to take pictures that were artistic looking.

This picture shows the city gates the tour guide told us about. The older part of the city is surrounded buy walls which is the area around the water where the ships dock. There are several gates like this in the wall that survive.

As I said earlier, Quebec City is very hilly and just above the oldest part of town there is a very steep rise. To get up there, you could climb a lot of stairs, or take this "funicular". The tour guide recommended taking the funicular up and then walking down. It was $2.00 which seemed worth the experience.

In the lower part of the city there are some quaint shops with all kinds of artistic things going on. The tour guide said we should buy our souvenirs here because it was mostly made locally, you know, not from Taiwan. So I went into this glass blowing place and immediately thot of our experience with glass blowing and Thomas - in Cape Cod. I asked for permission to take a picture because I didn't want to startle the technician.

This last picture is of the entire wall painted with scenes. Our tour guide took us there specifically. Very interesting.

Here's another pretty picture of the city. Another painter's motif which maybe someday I'll use as inspiration. I really tried to take artistic pictures.

Northest iv

On the first day I was in Quebec City, I was on a tour bus without Deb. Our tour guide always said "Quebec City" without the "w" sound in Quebec. At one point he showed us this building that has an interesting story. I liked it so much, that I had him circle on the map where I could find it, and the next day I walked, and made my way back to see it, and take pictures.

This is an old church that was about to be demolished. A businessman bought the site and proceeded to tear the structure down. At some point, someone made an effort to preserve it and someone in charge got involved seriously. The result is that the facade of the church was saved and the businessman agreed to use it as the front of his new fancy hotel. I thot that was very sweet.

To get there, I had to walk a long way and back, using just the map. I made it and was impressed that I could find the right streets. Sonya, you'd be proud of me, walking so much. Also, maybe you would enjoy the challenge, as this city is up and down, much more hilly than Manhatten. When I got back to the boat that night, I took my shoes off and was surprised to find a nail in my shoe had torn a hole in my right foot and I had been bleeding into my shoe. I was so involved that I didn't even notice.

The second day we were in Quebec City Deb and I were walking around and came across a building with these paintings on the wall. Some were high up and some ground level where I had Deb pat the lady on her shoulder. We understand there were other places murals like these are, but we only saw another wall which I'll post in another place.

Quebec City is set up in two parts, there is the lower area near the water which is full of charming little shops. This is one of the street only for pedestrians.

On the tour outside the city, we saw the Montmorency Falls. Tho not as impressive as Niagera Falls, the people here are proud of their falls. This picture is at the bottom, and there is a cable car we rode up to the top of the cliff, where we could walk on the bridge above the falls. There is also a "villa" with restaurant, gift shop, etc.

This is the inn where we had lunch, most everyone had lobster, but I had steak. It is right on the water.

In an armory we sat as an audience and watched these two young men give us some of the history of Quebec City. They gave us the history of the battle on the Plains of Abraham, outside the city in 1759. The general in red is the English General Wolfe, and one in blue is French General Montcalm. It was fun to watch and I wished I knew more about the the city.

This is the Chateau Frontenac, which is a huge hotel in the upper part of Quebec. Huge.

This is a street scene in Quebec, that I just thot was pretty, another artist's motif. Of course you'd have to blank out the truck in the middle in a painting.

We were on Prince Edward Island or "P.E.I" as the locals say, and I took this picture of a church with the tree in front to show that the leaves were still very beautiful where we were. The little shop sold mostly Anne of Green Gables things, and chocolate. I just thot this was a cute picture. Bought a few little things inside, for Christmas presents.

Don't you just love this picture. Actually, I'm sorry you have to suffer thru it. At one of the gift shops, they used our cameras, gave us the costume and took our pictures for us, free of charge. How could I resist.

Northeast iii

These are the best pictures of the lighthouses we saw. There were quite a few lighthouses along the way, but most of them were too far away. I think the top one is in Peggy's Cove, in Nova Scotia. Most of the days we were in port were were sunny but the last 2 days in port were rainy. But the tours went on in spite of the weather and mostly it was okay to be out in the rain, just more atmosphere.

Northeast ii

I thought this little bridge over the pond was pretty - it's somewhere there in Maine near Bar Harbor.

This picture is to give more of a feel of the area. We were in a bus above the harbor and could see our cruise liner out there above the trees. Beautiful scene.

This is a view of the shore, see the beautiful trees, even the middle of October there were plenty of fall leaves to see. I'm sure a week or two earlier would have been better. The house in front, someone on the deck by us said she planned on buying and we were all welcome!

Here's me and Deb on the deck as we're pulling into Bar Harbor, Maine. Finally, I made it to Maine. I've wanted to visit here for at least 15 years. It was sunny and reasonably warm.

North East i

So begins by Northeast cruise saga. I'll try to keep it short, a little. This is our cruise ship, Celebrity.

Everytime we got off the elevator, we knew we were in the right spot if we saw this glass statue. We headed for it, and turned left. The hallways of the ship all looked like this, too many to imagine. Our room is at the end on the left. There were 11 stories on the ship, our room was on the 7th. #10 had the pool, hot tubs and buffet food. #4 and #5 had the theaters and the restaurant where we ate dinner. Deb said, in spite of the food, we wouldn't necessarily gain weight, because we would do sooooo much walking. Just the walk around the buffet spread is bigger than my whole house.

Of course, I ate much more than I usually do in a day, after all, it's paid for and there for the taking, and when you're finished, you just leave the mess on the table. Many times a young man wanted to carry my tray around for me while I filled it up. Usually I didn't let him do that.

Alaska vii

Pictures in Ketchikan: A picturesque picture of the harbor. This looks like a picture to be painted, Motif #2, right, Val? We rode on this ferry from the island to Ketchikan, got there about 10 am and had twelve hours to kill until the other ferry. First we went to the park where there were several totem poles - Tina in her pink rain coat and matching vinyl boots - too cute. There was a large house meant to resemble a gathering place for the native Americans above this park. We could have gone in to see a program including dancing and singing, but we decided to go for dinner instead and shopping for souvenirs (made in China). I was so tired from staying up late the night before and getting up early to leave the cabin and get to the ferry.

Jan and I went into the museum that tells the history of the area. Did you know there is such a thing as "temperate rain forest". This area is one of the largest remaining. It's different from the tropical rain forest, obviously, because it's much cooler. But it does the same thing, which is provide moisture and oxygen for the whole earth. We also went into the mall which was small but fun to wander thru. There was a quilt store, that I was very excited to find. I had heard of it from one of the ladies in the quilt guild. I only bought a couple pieces of fabric - gotta have it!

And we had an ice cream. Tina looked into the yarn store. If I'd known there was a movie theater there, I would have gone. See Tina in her pink rain coat crossing the Ketchikan street.

We killed some more time, I was so tired, I felt like I was weaving instead of walking. Finally it was time to get on the ferry. Jan and Ken took their air mattress on and settled onto the floor in one of the big rooms. Tina and I found some chairs with reclining backs in one of the lounges, tho she elected finally to sleep on the floor. We took a luxurious shower and slept for the eight hour ride. Then, it was the 36 hour drive back to Utah. We watched DVD's and relaxed - musicals like "Sound of Music" and "Oklahoma". When we drove thru SLC, it felt so strange to me. It was so warm and there were soooo many people. Who would think that warmth and population could become so strange after only one week of being on an island in Alaska.