Vacation Sunset

Our three week vacation comes to an end tomorrow. We've had a great time, and really enjoyed the way we did it this year. The first week was spent at our rented beach house in Waldport, the second week in Seattle and Victoria, and this final week has been at home, doing things around the vicinity, and just relaxing. It started at the beach with Marlene's 60th Birthday and ended today with our 6th Anniversary. It feels like it started a long time ago, but then again, way too short.....and speaking of sunsets, heres a couple shots of one I took the other day out our back door.

Ft. Vancouver

Yesterday's vacation activity was a visit to a place right in our own back yard, Ft. Vancouver.

Ft. Vancouver is run by the National Park Service, and is a reconstructed, "living history" fort build on the exact location as the original. The Fort was established by the Hudson Bay Company and was the first established European settlement on the West Coast. It's primary purpose when it was built was to promote and facilitate the lucrative fur trade.

The Flag of the Hudson Bay Company, flying over the Fort.

The front gate of the fort. To get there you pass through a re-creation of the elaborate gardens that existed there at the time.
One of the main building inside the fort was the Chief Factors house.

Inside the carpenters shed, where everything is made without the help of electricity or power tools.

Marlene in the Jail...She got out on bail.

Inside the infirmary

One corner of the reconstructed palisades and bastion.

Me inside the bastion...couldn't figure out how to fire the cannons.

More Best Shots

My Daughter, Molly let me know how to put more than 5 pictures at a time on the blog...thanks Molly....so here are the rest of our best shots from our recent trip (in our opinion). We took lots of pictures of the Stature of Liberty as we were coming and going on the ship from NY. The one above is one of the best, taken early morning on our return. The two geese shots were taken at the same time, as a whole flock flew by the bow of the ship at eye level. And then the sunrise over Manhattan was also taken close to the same time. The final picture is in Intercourse PA, and speaks for its self.

Best Shots of the Trip

Between the both of us, Marlene and I took 789 photos on our recent trip. That's not including the videos as well. Now the fun part of going through all of them and fixing, editing, etc. Out of that many pictures we were bound to a have a few real good ones. Here is a selection of some of our best shots during the trip. Some of these may be repeats from earlier blogs, however the photos have been cleaned up a bit now. From top to bottom these shots are: The Margart Todd, Scooner in Bar Harbor, Lighthouse in Halifax Harbor, a street scene near Time Square, Central Park, and an Amish Buggy near Bird In Hand, Pa. I can only put 5 photos at a time on this blog, so more best shots to come tomorrow.

The last day

Today was basically the last day of our vacation....we do have tomorrow, but that will be filled with travel, and we probably won't get to the blog at all. Today was a day of rest here in Bethlehem. We spent some of the afternoon at the new casino that has been built on the property of the old deserted Bethlehem Steel Company. The Sands Casino company has purchased the entire old Steel Mill, which consists of a great number of acres of land and numerous old industrial buildings including the smelters that heated the steel for over a hundred years. It was steel from this foundry that built the sky scrapers in New York City, the rail lines that went across the United States and much of the steel that went into the American auto industry in the twentieth century. The Casino is just the first step in the company's plans for this land, which will eventually include a hotel, markets and shops, and housing. They plan to save many of the old buildings and part of the land and buildings will be turned into an national museum of industry.

We plan to see Kate and Jon one more time tonight and then tomorrow we will take a bus to Philadelphia and our flight will leave from there in the late afternoon and we will be home around midnight Pacific time. We've had a great time, but are very anxious to get home and back to our family and dogs.

Bethlehem PA.

We had our last night on the ship last night. We were up early, most of our packing had been done the night before, so we went up on deck at about6:30 or so, and watched the ship come into New York City. We got some great shots of the sunrise over the city, and also some good ones of the Statue of Liberty. This time I had my telephoto lens on, which I didn't have when we left NY. While we were on deck we heard some honking and looked over toward the Statue of Liberty and saw a flock of geese coming right at the ship. I got a few really good and lucky shots of the geese flying at us at almost eye level.

After the ship docked we got a taxi to the main bus station and caught a bus to Bethlehem where we are staying tonight. It's only about 7 or 8 miles from Easton, and Kate came over and met us this afternoon and and showed us around the town, another amazing old and historic city. At the moment we're taking a little break in our hotel room, before Kate and Jon come back over for dinner.

Newport, Rhode Island

After a rainy night and a foggy morning we tendered into Newport, RI. We took a walking tour of the cliffs, to view the historic homes here. Think Vanderbilt, Astor, and any of the other wealthy folks who made their money during the industrial revolution. The homes are beyond opulent, and the city reminded us of Cannon Beach on steriods. We veered off the beaten path and found Christ Church which is a replica of the old North Church that we saw in Boston. There was a historic cemetary in the church yard and we could hear the organist inside practicing though we weren't able to enter the church. Brick side walks and historic houses, many of which were saved by Doris Duke who left a trust for the city to maintain many of its historic homes. Prices were much higher than even in Boston, which is understandable as it remains a getaway for the rich and not so famous. Our last night on the cruise, back to New York tomorrow, it has been a fabulous experience! By the way we were finally able to add pictures to our blog on Bar Harbor, so you can scroll down and check them out too.

Boston

Well our string of beautiful weather finally broke today in Boston. It has been sunny, warm and clear every day of this trip until today. Today was cloudy, cool and a little drizzly, however in spite of that we had a wonderful day in Boston. We really enjoyed this city, and we both agreed that it would be a place we would like to come back to and spend more time. We started out the day going through the old Quincy town market, where we had wonderful pastry and coffee, and shopped for souvenirs, you just can't have too many T-Shirts. We then walked over to an area called the North End and Little Italy. This is the area where the Old North Church is, where Paul Revere signaled that the British were coming. It is also has an amazing collection of Italian restaurants and bakeries and espresso cafes. We both wanted to sample them all, but this will have to wait for another trip. We went through the Old North Church and a cemetery that had graves from the 1600's! Later in the afternoon we went on an organized tour and saw more of the city, including Cambridge, and a walk through Harvard which was truly amazing. If our Internet connection will cooperate today, I we will load a few pictures from today. They are of the Old North Church, the main gate to Harvard, Marlene, standing on the steps of the Harvard Library, another building with Harvard flags flying on campus, and finally a picture of a display of Marzipan in one of the Italian bakeries we went into today. We are now on our way to our final stop of this cruise tomorrow, Newport, RI.

Bar Harbor, Maine

Today we spent the day in Bar Harbor. Neither Martin or I have ever been to Maine and it is beautiful. This area is very much like the San Juan Islands and Bar Harbor is on an island as well. The town is home to about 4,000, but swells in the summer as people come to their summer homes to escape the heat of the eastern seaboard metropolis'. It was home to the wealthy until 1947 when a fire burned down 64 of the wealthiest and largest homes on the island. We took a walking tour of the city that was rich with gossip and stories of the wealthy folk that live in the area. When you see me, remind me and I will tell you the story about Martha Stewart! Our guide swears it is true. We saw an Episcopal Church where Louis Comfort Tiffany attended church. One of our pictures today is a window in the church; there are about 7 surviving Tiffany windows still there. We ate at a wonderful funky little restaurant right on the waterfront. I had a lobster sandwich, very good. The harbor here wasn't deep enough for the cruise ship to dock so we tendered in on small skiffs that were on the ship. A picture is enclosed as well as a picture of us on the wharf, a picture of the Margaret Todd a beautiful 4 masted sailing ship, and a picture of the place we ate lunch. We sat for a couple of hours and just watched the sailboats on the bay. We also met a lovely couple from Glasglow with whom we shared travel stories. Tomorrow on to historic Boston.

St. John New Brunswick

Another beautiful day. A little cool in the morning, but sunny and warm in the afternoon. Today we arrived in St. John New Brunswick at about 9:00 AM. There were two other cruise ships in the harbor along with ours, so the town was full of cruisers, but the people were very friendly and welcoming. Every woman who got off a ship received a long stem red rose from city greeters, and the men received a little pin that said St. John on it. We started out with a little trolley ride around the town to get our bearings, and then spent the rest of our time wandering around. The trolley took us to one of St. John's well known attractions, the famous reversing falls. St John is located on the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. At high tide it rises over 15 feet, which is actually enough to reverse the flow of the St. John River which normally runs into the sea like all good rivers, except at high tide it actually flows backwards and an area of rapids and falls reverses direction. Our pictures today are of the flowers in the public square, us posing with a bronze moose, the skyline of the city as the ship was docking, inside a wonderful public market that we spent time in and finally an unusual two story band stand in the public square. Tomorrow it's on to Bar Harbor Maine and back to the USA.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

First stop on our cruise is beautiful Halifax. Spent the day walking around town and shopping! Halifax is a clean beautiful modern city. It is loaded with historical significance and tied to the Titanic where many of the bodies of those who perished were brought to shore. There are many universities and we saw many of their students out raising money for Cystic Fibrosis today. We did contribute and they were very pleased. Pictures are the gazebo in the Public Gardens, the Halifax town clock, a picture of us in the Public Garden, a sailboat in the harbor, and a tugboat moored along the boardwalk near where we docked. Tomorrow on to St Johns, New Brunswick!