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Alas, all good things must come to an end.
Whenever you’re on a cruise, the night before you dock, you’re supposed to pack all of your things (except for the things you’ll need the next morning, like clothes, makeup, etc), and put your bags outside your cabin door. The stewards then take your bags down to cargo, and give you a number. When we dock the next morning, they will unload your bags onto the pier.
We reached New York at 7:30 in the morning, but Kevin and I were up at 6:00 taking showers and getting ready to leave our cabin.
They want everyone out of their cabins by 8:30 so they have time to clean them and prepare them for the next cruise.
We woke the boys up at 7:00 so they could take their showers and Kevin and I went up to the Promenade deck to eat breakfast. When the boys were ready to leave their cabin, they called me and together we went through to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind.
The boys kept their carry on bags, so each of them was responsible for their clothes. I had stuffed our dirty clothes into a plastic bag, and put everything else into my backpack.
This is probably my least favorite part of the cruise experience – departing the ship. It’s quite a process and it takes a long time, everyone has to be patient. (Kevin compares it to being in prison, they won’t allow you to leave and you can’t really go anywhere on the ship other than the Promenade deck to 1. stay out of the way of the people leaving the boat and 2. to stay out of the way of the crew so they can clean).
Everyone has to sit around and wait for their number to be called. This is an efficient way to make sure everyone gets off in an orderly fashion.
Our number was 19.
We ended up leaving the boat about 9:00, which was actually a little sooner than I thought it would be. But the cruise people have this down to a science and as long as people cooperate, it goes pretty quickly.
We left the boat, went through customs, found our bay number, and I unloaded the extra crap from my backpack into our luggage. I was a little stressed because I didn’t have a scale with me, so I had no way of knowing if I was keeping the weight under 50 pounds, but we guesstimated and did the best we could.
Then we walked out onto the sidewalk and waited for a taxi.
Along with about 500 other people.
It was pure chaos. There were no taxis waiting and there were literally hundreds of people needing one. Kevin noticed a woman handing out tickets and though we had no idea what they were for or why we might need one, he took one anyway.
Thank goodness.
As taxis pulled up, the woman called out the numbers. They set it up this way so people wouldn’t push and shove their way to a taxi whenever one was available (though some people took advantage of the pure chaos and stole someone else’s taxi anyway. Honestly, what is wrong with people?)
I was so focused on trying to hear the woman as she called out the numbers and trying to get her attention so she wouldn’t bypass our number that I nearly forgot one of our bags! Fortunately, I remembered at the last minute and then had trouble locating it, suddenly convinced that someone had stolen it. Luckily, I located it and didn’t have to make the taxi driver wait too long.
Our taxi was a Ford Escape Hybrid. Only, the man already had a huge bag in the back (his own) and I was sure we were going to have to give up that taxi because there sim
Halifax is steeped in history: from the Halifax explosion to most notably, (or in our opinion at least), the 300 people from the Titanic who are buried there.
But let’s back up a bit:
Once again, we opted for the more relaxed and easy shore excursion with the Halifax City Tour. It was on a huge tour bus so Kevin was comfortable and we saw much more of the city than we would have normally. Our tour guide was dressed in a kilt and frequently sighed in either boredom or exasperation as he told us about the history of his fair city.
It was both amusing and annoying.
We toyed with the idea of taking a shore excursion that included the city and admission to two of their popular museums, the Martime Museum of the Atlantic and the Halifax Citadel, but we changed our minds at the last minute because we’re not sure Kevin would have been able to handle all of that walking.
I’m glad now that we stuck with just the city tour. Because by the time we got to Halifax, the week was catching up to him and he was reaching the exhaustion point of no return (though I suspect he had already reached it by that time).
We got on our bus and headed to downtown Halifax.
The tour was very interesting. I’ve really enjoyed taking these tours because you learn so many interesting details about the city, details you might not have learned otherwise unless you Googled the city before leaving.
One of the things we enjoyed hearing about, was the Halifax Explosion.
The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in “The Narrows” section of the Halifax Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. This is still the world’s largest man-made accidental explosion.
The smoke stacks that you see in the above picture, in addition to being functional smoke stacks, symbolize the disaster that happened in the cove.
The tour guide told us that 24 short hours after the devastating explosion, a train carrying doctors, nurses and first aid supplies arrived from Boston to help take care of their wounded. As a way to show their appreciation, Halifax now sends Boston a huge Christmas tree every year.
In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help that the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disaster. That gift was revived in 1971 by the Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association, who began an annual donation of a large tree to promote Christmas tree exports as well as acknowledge the Boston support after the explosion. The gift was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government to continue the goodwill gesture as well as to promote trade and tourism. The tree is Boston’s official Christmas tree and is lit on Boston Common throughout the holiday season.
See? Interesting stuff.
But it gets better.
0 Comments on Vacation 2010: Halifax, Nova Scotia as of 1/1/1900
Here’s the thing about cruising – it’s like five vacations rolled into one package. Or in our case, three vacations rolled into one package. (Unless you want to lump New York in there and then it’s four, but you get what I mean).
You have the cruise itself, then each port of call. And where else can you have so much fun while getting there??
I’m telling you, if you have never taken a cruise, I HIGHLY recommend it. And it’s not as expensive as you think it is. When you take in the cost of a hotel room (cabin), WITH food, WITH entertainment, WITH babysitting (the cruise camps are awesome programs for children keeping them busy while you go do your own thing – and this includes programs for pre-teens and teenagers), THEN the cost of traveling TO the ports of call, well … you have one heck of a deal.
It makes traveling places FUN. (Not to sound like an infomercial or anything).
The boys had their own cabin.
Our favorite part about cruising, and all four of us concur on this, is the food. The guys LOVE being able to eat at anytime. I love that the guys can eat at any time. This means, I don’t have to stress about finding someplace to eat, and then getting grumpy about having to pay an arm and a leg for it. If you’ve ever gone on vacation and struggled with the “where are we going to eat” question, then you can appreciate what I’m saying.
This was our third time on a cruise, the boys’ second time. We sailed on the Valor last year, the Glory this year. The Glory is the Valor’s sister ship so other than the (gaudy) decor, everything was pretty much the same – we didn’t have any trouble getting around. (Though we continue to get mixed up no matter how many times we’ve cruised).
Look at the tables. Now look at the seats. (And yes, they were VELVET!) Tacky!
Kevin and I have a theory about the decor on these cruise ships – we think the company must get the rejects or overstocks on fabrics and other items and use this stuff on their ships to save on cost. I mean otherwise, do they really PAY someone to decorate their boats like this on purpose?! Wow.
Though I love everything about cruising (well, except for the seasickness part, but that can be knocked out with a Draminine or two), I think my favorite part is leaving the port. There is something SO EXCITING about being on the deck of the ship and watching the city you just navigated like crazy in order to make the boat on time get smaller and smaller.
But this departure was my favorite, I think. We had a bird’s eye view of New York’s breathtaking skyline.
I'm seriously thinking of blowing this up and framing it, I love it so much.
The only time we actually SAW the Empire State building while in New York.
(In fact, Kevin edited a few of the New York skyline pictures, you can see one here and
0 Comments on Vacation 2010: Cruising the Carnival Glory as of 1/1/1900
(You can read parts one and two here).
If you’re just tuning in, my husband was in a motorcycle accident back in April – a pretty serious accident. He crushed his pelvis, had to have three surgeries and when we went to New York? He had only been up and walking for three weeks. (I know!)
The first day we spent the day riding the New York subways and walking all over New York (okay, not really, but it felt like it), the second day I meant to take it easy on him. I had every intention of letting the man rest.
Honest.
Only, it didn’t quite work out that way.
Now before you go and think I was a cruel and heartless task master and wielded a whip over the man’s head, I didn’t. In fact, I begged him to stay around the hotel and just take it easy. The boys and I would go around the city, take pictures and show him later.
But he refused (just one of the reasons I love him so much – his stubborn streak) and he insisted on coming with us. Since we were only planning on going to Rockefeller Center and Central Park later, I thought, what could it hurt?
Famous last words.
Look at those geniune, relaxed smiles!
We headed out to Rockefeller Center. The highlight of our New York trip, for the boys, was our trip to Nintendo World.
The boys are big-time gamers. BIG TIME. They live for games. They talk, eat, sleep, breathe games. So getting a chance to visit the Nintendo World Store in New York City was a dream come true.
When we finally located the store (we got a bit turned around trying to find it), the boys actually broke out into smiles. Even Kevin got into the excitement and we spent an hour roaming around the store and looking at all the Nintendo goodies. (I confess, I was a bit disappointed with the store. I was expecting something bigger and flashier, but the boys really seemed to enjoy themselves while we were there so …)
I told the boys that they could pick out one souvenir; I’ve never seen them put so much thought into shopping before.
Dude ended up picking this character and Jazz picked this thing. I don’t know man, I don’t even pretend to know who these characters are or try to understand the appeal, but *shrug* to each his own, I suppose.
One good thing about hanging out at the Nintendo store though, it gave Kevin a chance to catch his breath and relax for a bit.
"Pa-PER" (Inside joke)
A dragon made out of Legos hanging from the ceiling at the Lego store. Cool.
We walked across the square and went into the Lego store. Again, I was a little disappointed – I was expecting something BIGGER and FLASHIER! I mean, we were in New York, everything was bigger and flashier. But it was a nice, two-story store with a bunch of
See the boys' serious faces? I think it's safe to say they weren't exactly loving New York.
We slept well in New York, despite the fact that there is an infestation of bed bugs (and many other places, apparently). We were first clued in to the bed bug problem by all of the ads for getting rid of bed bugs on TV. Though we know what bed bugs are (sort of), it never dawned on us that it could become such a problem that an entire city had to advertise to get rid of them. They hang out in hotels and snuggle down into suitcases so that the unsuspecting traveler inadvertently takes them home with them.
You can imagine how that could quickly become a country-wide problem.
But so far, it looks like we left those critters back in New York – at least no one has come forward with tiny little bites all over their body.
One night, we were woken up at 3:00 in the morning by loud pounding. You’d be hard pressed to NOT find any sort of construction going on in New York and our street was no exception. In fact, a few doors down, they had imploded a building (not while we were there), and were working on building it back from the ground up. WHY they were working at 3:00 in the morning is beyond me, but it was very annoying to wake up to. Seven o’clock in the morning I can understand, but three o’clock in the morning?? Listen here New York, YOU may not like to sleep but WE do!
Other than that, Kevin and I slept fine. Dude and Jazz, on the other hand, didn’t get much sleep. One was always kicking the other or hogging covers so they spent the majority of the night trying to find comfortable positions or silently cursing each other.
Heading to the subway.
Because Kevin had only been walking for three weeks and really couldn’t physically handle a lot of activity, we purposefully kept our itinerary low key. I really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and Central Park and Kevin really wanted to see Times Square, so we made plans to try and squeeze those things in.
We decided to go to the Staten Island Ferry first. (If I had known our cruise boat would sail right past The Statue of Liberty [in fact, it got a lot closer than the ferry did] we would have skipped this activity all together. Ah, for the gift of foresight).
But we needed to find a way there. I didn’t want to spend half our vacation budget on taxis, but I wasn’t sure if Kevin would be able to handle the subway, mainly the stairs down into the subway. So, we asked the front desk if there was a handicap accessible entrance anywhere close and luckily, there was one one block away. We used the elevator to get down into the subway, purchased our Metro cards and waited for our train to arrive.
Now, we have some experience with subways from our trip to Washington D.C. a few years back, so we knew what to expect. And to my surprise, the cars weren’t all that crowded (but filled up fast around rush hour). And we easily navigated the subway routes while we were there, though not all of our stations had an elevator for Kevin. So he ended up navigating way more stairs than we thought he would have to. But as usual, he handled his discomfort like a champ.
Standing in front of a forest-y looking divider at a subway station.
The ride out to Staten Island was quite long.
Though I’ve always wanted to go to New York, we hadn’t planned on going to New York quite so soon. All we really wanted to do was catch a boat out of the New York harbor and sail to Canada for a few days.
But, since we were planning on cashing in our frequent flyer miles (not a sponsored link – calm down) in on four free (well, we paid $10 bucks a piece for tax and then we paid $20 bucks a piece for our two bags) flights, our fly options were limited. Even though I understand why American Airlines does this (after all, they’re flying us for free – why would they reserve prime-time money-making flights for us?), it’s still a bit annoying that we only have a narrow window of opportunity to work around.
But hey, I’m grateful they even HAVE this program, let alone still running it after Obama’s “hope and change” crap he’s pulled since being in office, so I am not going to complain; the program has saved us boo-coo bucks over the years. (I mean, you’re going to buy/pay for stuff anyway [groceries, utilities, etc], why not earn points why you do it? Just be sure and pay it off at the end of the month so you’re not paying interest. If you can’t pay it off, then don’t charge it. Just sayin’.)
Check out the reflection in the building.
Anyway, since we were cashing in our points, our options were limited as far as when we could fly out to New York. I have learned, from our 10th anniversary cruise, that I will NEVER AGAIN fly out and try to catch a boat on the same day. It’s WAY too stressful. So, ever since then, we’ve made a point of flying out at least one day ahead of time so if there are any delays, we won’t miss the boat.
So to speak.
The closest time we could get to New York and still make our boat was two days. So, we thought, “hey, we’re going to be in New York anyway, let’s just splurge on a hotel room and hang out in New York for two days.”
And that’s what we did.
We started planning this trip back in January of this year. January has become our “vacation planning” month. We plan, book and by the time vacation time rolls around, it’s paid for. The only money we have to dish out is last minute expenses.
Only this year, Kevin had his accident in April and suddenly, we weren’t sure what to do about our pre-paid vacation. Though we had purchased insurance on our cruise (which sounds like a waste of money, but something you’re REALLY GLAD you have in case something comes up and you might not make it, like we did), we hesitated on canceling it. The accident happened in April, our vacation wasn’t until July – that’s a lot of time to heal and get back to normal. Since the doctors were confident that Kevin would walk again, we remained optimistic.
We oscillated between taking the vacation and canceling the vacation. I had doubts, but I left it up to Kevin on whether he wanted to cancel or not – it all depended on what he felt like doing and what he could handle.
Obviously, he decided to wait it out and we ended up going.
My guys at Times Square.
I was a little worried about getting him through security.
I needn’t have worried. Though he did indeed set off the alarms in the Springfield airport, th
Well. It’s over.
Why do vacations seem anti-climatic? I suppose everything feels that way after you’ve waited weeks (months) for something to happen and then it HAPPENS and suddenly…….
It’s over.
It’s like the day-after-Christmas feeling, I guess.
One thing though, it really makes you appreciate coming home that much more. Don’t get me wrong, vacations ROCK, but it’s sooooo nice to finally get home, back on home turf and surrounded by familiar things and routines.
Traveling used to freak me out. And when I say freak out, I mean freak out. (i.e. bitchy). It’s like if I dared to forget something we were all doomed because God FORBID I would have to go into a foreign drug store and buy whatever I forgot. I used to get so uptight when I traveled, just ask Kevin. I really don’t know what my problem was.
But now? I’m a lot more laid back about things – more so than the rest of my guys, I’d say.
When we travel, it’s like I go into a zone. I’m relaxed, only I’m not. I think I’ve finally learned to just trust God and take whatever happens and just sort of … deal with it. It’s hard to explain. But like when we’re on a plane, and there’s turbulence, and Dude shoots me a terrified look because so much of how he reacts stems from my reaction, (he’s always been that way – he uses me as an emotional radar which is a challenge because I’m, um, emotional), and I’m sitting there with my arms crossed, looking a bit bored on the outside and tightening up on the inside because hello, I’m human and I get just as nervous as the next person whenever the plane bumps and jiggles, and yet, I’m not truly scared because I honestly believe, in my heart, that we’ll be okay.
It just doesn’t occur to me that something bad could happen. It goes beyond confident … it’s more of a deep-seated faith sort of thing, I guess.
Like I said, it’s hard to explain.
Where was I …
Oh yes. Vacation is over. It’s back to reality.
*sigh*
Don’t get me wrong, I like my life, I like my reality, but it’s sooooo nice to get away from every day hassles and do something fun with the entire family. It’s so rewarding to actually have a conversation with my sons at the dinner table instead of them scarfing down their food, answering my questions with monosyllables and then rushing off to get back on their computer / video games.
When we’re on vacation, we’re a family. We laugh, we connect, we bond, we have FUN.
And then we come home and every one is off doing their own thing – myself included. It’s like there are too many distractions when we’re at home but when we’re on the road and on vacation, we don’t have Internet access and there’s so much to see and do that we don’t have the resources to do anything but just BE together – we’re FORCED to interact with each other and though I know that probably sounds lame, it’s true.
I think that’s one of the biggest reasons I love our family vacations – we connect, we laugh, we get to know each other and see sides of each other that we were either too distracted to see or didn’t take the time to see before.
I have a TON of pictures to sort through. We all had our own cameras so we all took a lot of pictures. I always find it interesting to see what the boys took pictures of – their perspective is often times so different than my own. It’ll take me a little while to sort through them and post them to Flickr. Especially now that I’m in the middle of reformatting my main computer, but I’ll get there eventually.
I’ll go into mo
Kevin went to the spine doctor today. We had to wait an hour before he was called back (and just think, this is BEFORE Obamacare).
His spine is fine. His compression fracture, though not to be taken too lightly, was never that serious to begin with. He no longer has the wear the brace (he actually hadn’t been wearing it for the past two weeks), and though the doctor doesn’t anticipate any problems, they did go ahead and take another x-ray, just to be on the safe side. We’ll likely find out the results of that x-ray when we get back from vacation.
Kevin is walking more and more. His stride is starting to even out a bit and though he still resembles a toddler when he walks, it’s getting better.
We went driving in his truck the other day. Yes. Kevin drove. He did well. He’s pretty confident he can get back into the driver’s seat again (heh), and is planning on driving himself to his next band practice. He says it feels REALLY GOOD to be getting his life back to normal.
We’ve decided to take the walker on vacation with us. Though he technically doesn’t need it anymore, it’s nice for him to have something to lean on and he can walk faster and longer distances using it. And since we’ll be walking long distances in New York, well, it just makes sense to take it.
We’ve narrowed down what we want to do in New York:
Day One: Take the Staten Island Ferry so we can take pictures of the Statue of Liberty to the other side of the river, then walk the Brooklyn Bridge back across so we can get some pictures of the New York skyline. Kevin’s boss, who has been to New York several times, highly recommends it and though it will likely be slow going for Kevin, he’ll have his walker and can sit down and take frequent breaks. We aren’t really planning to do anything else as we think this will likely wipe Kevin out.
Day Two: Rockefeller Centre. There is a Nintendo Store there that the boys would like to visit and of course, all of the other cool things to look at at the Centre. We’ll likely end the day relaxing and walking around Central Park.
Nothing too exciting, but enough to keep us busy.
We’ll then catch the boat on day three and sail up to St. Johns and Halifax Canada. We still haven’t booked our excursion in Canada yet, but Kevin and I decided to do the photography tour. A professional photographer takes us around and gives us tips on how to photograph landmarks and the beautiful scenery. I just checked the temps and the weather for Canada – partly sunny and highs around 67 degrees!
WOW! That will be quite the change from the hot and muggy New York portion of our trip.
Hence the reason I will have to pack jackets, rain ponchos and umbrellas for the Canada portion of our trip. (It rains a lot in Canada).
That is my goal for this evening. Pack. I’ve done laundry (I can only do laundry either in the morning or in the evening because the dryer just adds to an already hot house during the day), and will sort through everything and make sure we have everything we need tonight so that if we don’t, I can run errands tomorrow.
Kevin has to go through his old clothes. Dude has outgrown all of his shorts (Jazz now owns them), so if Kevin doesn’t have any shorts that he can give to Dude, we’ll have to make a trip out tomorrow and get him suited up.
So to speak.
Speaking of suits: I don&rsquo
