Highlands, North Carolina

The entire Pflueger clan headed to the mountains of North Carolina for a week of fun and fellowship! We arrived late Thursday afternoon to 6-10 inches of snow! In fact, we had to park on the side of the road , unpack all our belongings (and we brought half of Florence with us), load them into brother Bill's 4WD, and finish the trip to the chalet. This morning we hiked back to the car and took a tour of downtown Highlands, and did the waterfall tour.

Justin, Mindy, and JD arrived this afternoon to liven up the house.

At Sea - Last Day

We spent a very relaxing day at sea. The sun was shining and the weather was getting warmer as we cruised south towards New York. We celebrated our last day together by opening the champagne we'd won earlier in the week.

Happy birthday to Mildred! Thanks for traveling with us and sharing your birthday with us. As another adventure comes to an end, we look forward to travelling to Egypt next spring, but hopefully there will be more to come before then.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

We docked at Pier 21 today. The beautifully restored waterfront buildings boast the old maritime heritage of this area. It was another beautiful day so we walked to the Citadel national historic site and the public park. This is our last port before returning to Brooklyn on Saturday. We'll spend tomorrow at sea. When we returned to our cabin tonight, there was a full moon shining brightly on the ocean. There was a planet right below the moon. We'll have to find out what that was when we get home.

Saint John

New Brunswick, not Virgin Islands. A beautiful sunny day (mid 70's). We had Belgian waffles to start the day then a tour of the downtown area. We were docked near the town, so we made several trips back to the ship during the day. The Port Security officers were unusually personable. Richard offered one his ship pass so that he could go to the buffet in exchange for the officer's uniform. On our last trip we brought him cookies from the buffet.

We walked about 2 miles from the ship to the Reversing Falls which are caused by the rising and falling tides in the Bay of Fundy. Pretty cool stuff. Taxiied back and had a cold beer on the dock before returning to the ship. We enjoyed the sailaway from the balcony and then had dinner on the 15th floor buffet. A pretty unmemorable city, but a great day!

Bar Harbor, Maine

Last night brought about 8 to 12 foot waves as we traveled between Boston and Bar Harbor. At one point, while having dinner, the ship leaned to one side and a huge wave hit the dining room window. This resulted in loud gasps from many of the guests on that side of the room. The rough seas continued most of the night, literally rocking us to sleep last night.

But today arrived with sunny skies and calm waters. We began our day singing happy birthday to Richard's mom and having a nice breakfast in the dining room (eggs benedict)!

Then we headed out to see Bar Harbor. Or is it Ba Haba? I love the English language. Each region of the country gets to change it up a little! Some drop or add consonants and some add syllables. We spent this beautiful 70 degree day in one of the most beautiful cities I've been to.

The downtown area consisted of quaint old shops, mostly selling souveniers, but there were some interesting local crafts to be found, such as hand-made sea glass jewerly.

After lunch we took a tour to Acadia National Park. It was breathtaking! We stopped at the top of Cadillac Mountain, at Thunder Hole, and visited the wild gardens of Acadia.

After returning to the ship, we continued our birthday celebration with a nice dinner of surf and turf and cherries jubilee for dessert. It was a great day!

Boston

A funny thing happened leaving the Newport harbor yesterday. The ship was unable to secure one of its anchors because it had gotten hung up on something under water. Our departure was delayed for about an hour because they had to send divers down to clear it.

We had a great dinner and attended the musical presentation "Do You Want To Dance" in the Princess Theatre. Afterwards, we participated in the game show Jeopardy. The good news is "WE WON!". Not only did we leave with bragging rights, we also received a bottle of champagne, tote bags, and ball caps. Woo Hoo!

This morning we arrived in Boston and the rain continued. We had scheduled an Old Time Trolley tour of the city so fortunately we were able to stay somewhat dry. Boston is a great city. Although quite large, it has a small city feel to it. Maybe its all the history here that makes it so appealing. We enjoyed a fresh lobster roll and lobster bisque for lunch! It was wonderful.

We're back on the ship and its almost time to eat again! More later....

Newport, Rhode Island

Today we awoke in Newport, Rhode Island. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day. However, it didn't stop us from tendering ashore, taking a bus to the Cliff Walk and hiking (in the blowing rain) as far as The Breakers, which was Cornelius Vanderbilt's 70-room cottage overlooking the ocean. We returned to the ship early in the afternoon, to put on dry clothes. We're relaxing in the room this afternoon with a glass of wine, watching the sail boat races in the rain.

The mom and sis came ashore around lunch time. We met them at the tender and suggested they take the trolley tour around the city. We haven't seen them since, but I'm sure they'll make it back before we depart at 4 p.m.

New York Day 4

Our last day in NYC we walked to Grand Central Station, then to Macy's. They still use wooden escalators from the early 1900's. Pretty cool!
We then went to see an off-Broadway play, Avenue Q. Most of the audience was in their mid-20's and seemed to really enjoy it. We thought it was a waste of time and money. Before the play we went to Ted's Montana Grill near Rockefeller Center. Afterwards, although it was 11 p.m., we came across an ice cream truck and treated ourselves to a chocolate dipped vanilla cone before retiring for the evening.
On Saturday morning, we took a subway from Times Square to Brooklyn. A short taxi ride later, we arrived at the Caribbean Princess, docked at the Brooklyn Pier. We were pleasantly surprised at the size of our cabin. They gave us a handicapped balcony room adjoining our travel mates' room. Richard's mom and sister joined us on the ship to celebrate someone's 80th birthday! We had a late dinner, went to the standup comedian's show in the Princess Theatre and called it a day.

More New York

Yesterday was a busy day. We began by taking the subway to ABC to be part of the audience of Live with Regis and Kelly. Unfortunately Kelly wasn't there, but we did get to see Jennifer Anniston and Jordan Sparks, and of course, Regis. It was interesting to see the show from this perspective. There are a lot of people involved in producing a TV show. The studio is very small and it takes a lot of coordination to change out the sets during commercial breaks, keep Regis on track with cue cards, and of course to remind the audience to clap or laugh.

We hopped back on the Grayline bus to see upper Manhattan (Harlem, the Apollo Theatre, Grants Tomb). We then made our way to Yankee Stadium, where a game was to begin at 1 p.m. We determined that it was simply too hot to sit in the stadium all afternoon (and the added fact that the only tickets available were selling for $250 each and were in the grandstand), so after observing the crowds for awhile, we returned to our hotel to rest.

Grayline offers a 6 p.m. tour to Brooklyn, which after taking, we can't really recommend, but the cool breezes from the open air bus were nice. At sunset, we went to the top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) to observe the Manhattan skyline, then took a friend up on a dinner recommendation and ate a late dinner at the Red Eye Grill at 56th and 7th. It turned out to be a great recommendation. We finished dinner at 11 p.m. (yes, this is still me writing...I haven't been kidnapped by aliens), and took a leisurely stroll back to our hotel on 41st street (Hotel 41). Fifteen blocks isn't a bad walk but it seemed that the streets were just as crowded then as they were at noon. It is indeed, the city that never sleeps.

New York, New York

New York City! Everyone we've ever met from another country either wants to go or has been to NYC. I always wondered why they saw NYC as an example of life in the USA. Now I understand. NYC is a little like every large city in the world. Whether you're from Europe, South America, or Asia, you can find something here that reminds you of home and makes you feel comfortable.... unless of course, you're from Alabama. :}

It is extremely multicultural. So much so, that at any time day or night, you can look around and not know what country you're actually in. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Its just not the typical USA, there's simply nothing in this country that comes close to comparing to it.

We typically look for ways to avoid crowds. Here, one block from Times Square, the crowds are unending. Everyone has been very friendly.

We started today by buying a 2-day, Hop-on, Hop-off, Gray Line Tour. It's a good way to see a lot in a short time and decide places you want to return to and spend more time. We took the Staten Island Ferry to see the harbor, Statue of Liberty, etc. Took the next ferry back across and walked around from Battery Park to Chinatown, Little Italy where we hopped on again and continued the tour down 5th Avenue, to the Trump Tower, Wall Street, United Nations, and Central Park. The weather was great (80 degrees), especially after leaving 100 degree weather behind in Alabama.

After stopping for a late lunch, we took a break before heading back out to see "Wicked" tonight. Now we know the real Wizard of Oz story! It was absolutely fantastic, as was the Gershwin Theatre. More tomorrow...