Sailing From New Jersey

Up early (well, by 8:30) to get our bags packed, eat breakfast, and get some writing done. When we were ready, it was sit around our room until it was time to check out and meet our taxi to the Cruise Centre at noon.

We were downstairs early, and the driver came in to get us at about 11:45. We loaded our bags, and were getting in when the hotel manager came out and gave the driver some trouble because he had promised another couple a taxi at 11:45 and there wasn't another. We were in the car, so we got it.

World Trade Centre from our Balcony

The ride took about 15 minutes, and the driver was on his phone most of the way, speaking Spanish to someone. I think he was catching some flack, and was trying to get another taxi to the hotel to get the people who were waiting. At the ship, he didn't spend much time unloading our bags. I paid him and he quickly drove away.

Then we had to go inside and get signed in to the ship. It is useful having so many trips on this line (Princess) because we are now preferred customers, and get to go in the preferred lineup whichi is considerably shorter than the regular passengers.

Shortly after getting there, we were checked through, had our documents, got our ID photos taken, and were on our way to our cabin. Of course, I forgot about how they did things, and didn't have our floor and room number handy. I had to call to Guest Services to find it out so the fellow operating the elevator knew what floor to let us off. It took some time, but we finally made it.

Statue of Liberty

The room is considerably smaller than the hotel room we stayed the past few nights, but is the size we know of from our previous cruises. Our bags weren't there yet (we didn't expect they would be) so we went up on the upper decks and watched what was going on and took a bunch of pictures of the New York skyline across the bay. We had the same view from our balcony as from above, but could see both sides of the ship from the 15th and 16th levels.

New York Skyline

After a while, we went back to our room. Our bags had been delivered, so we unpacked, and got things organized. Then we went back up a level to have a light lunch. The Seahawks were playing on the big screen, so we sat in the shade on one of the lounge chairs and watched some of the game. I had a piece of pizza, and Dawn had some iced tea.

We wanted to be on deck to watch as we left, so decided not to go down to the dining room for our dinner. It was getting fairly dark when the ship pulled out, about 7:00. We had hoped to get better pictures of the Statue of Liberty, but by that time, it was too dark. We have to settle for the pictures we took from our balcony.

We watched for while and then headed up to the buffet for a light dinner (well, it would have been light if I had been more careful). We were just going to have salad, but there were too many things that looked real good. We didn't have a lot, but it likely wouldn't be considered light.

From there, we went down to the theatre to catch the late show which was sort of an overview of the entertainment while we were on the ship. A comedian was on for a lengthy part of the show; Tony Daro. We had been on another cruise where he was one of the comedians, but he was still pretty good.

After the show, we walked around a bit, got directions for signing up to the internet, and then went back to our room. I figured out how get online with the computer,and the iPad, so was able to look at my email.

We were heading for Newport, Rhode Island, and expected to be there when we woke up. We had a 2-hour bus tour scheduled, and we had to be ready to tender to shore at 9:15, so we had an early get up. Off to bed we went.

World Trade Centre at Dusk

Gabby Cabby Tour

Peter Franklin picked us up at our hotel at 9:00 am. He had driven from New York to New Jersey, and had to use his GPS to find us, but he got here. Once we met up, we introduced each other, and then off we went in the back seat of his van.  He gave us an overview of what we would see, and told us that we would stop for "bladder breaks" and to eat, but that wouldn't take away from our tour.

Lincoln Tunnel to New York

We visited 2 of the 5 Boroughs or New York - Manhattan, and The Bronx. He took us through many neighborhoods in each of them, telling us stories and giving us pointers about what we were seeing. There are an amazing number of people there, and in each of the neighborhoods, the people and shops are quite different.

Our lunch

In the Bronx, most people live in apartments and/or brownstone type houses, most which are attached. Vertical living is the way things work there. With that many people, it is obvious that is what has to happen. We had lunch at an Italian neighborhood restaurant - pizza slices.  They were very good (and very large) - similar to the type of pizza you get on the cruise ships (New York Pizza).

Pizza Place

Then we went in to Manhattan. This part of the city is richer and where the businesses are located, and the more wealthy folks live. We saw a bit of Central Park, were able to get a photo of the Statue of Liberty (from a long ways away), went down Wall Street, through China Town, passed through Time Square, and went through Little Italy. In all cases, the traffic was very heavy, and I certainly wouldn't want to drive a vehicle there.

Yankee Stadium

We took lots of photos through the windows of the van, but it was difficult to get good shots, even though I had the wide lense on the camera. The streets are narrow and congested, and full of cars and people. Drivers change lanes when they need to, whether there is room or not. People walk across streets whenever traffic is stopped. At intersections, vehicles get mostly through the intersection, most of the time. People walking in the crosswalks, often have to run the maze of cars across the crosswalk. We didn't see any accidents with people or vehicles, so I guess most of them know what they are doing. Most people in the city don't have cars. They use the transit system to get places, and walk a lot.

Julliard School of Music

By the time he took us back to the hotel (around 5:00 pm), we were tired, and had seen enough of New York to get an overview of what it was like. If we go back, we would likely plan things so we could do some specific things and go to specific areas to find out more.

Wall Street

We spent a couple hours in our room, just relaxing, and then decided we better have something to eat. It was dark, and we didn't feel like making the walk to the restaurant in the next hotel (long block, and along a highway for another block in the dark, and what we felt may not be the safest walk). So we tried the restaurant in our hotel. Not knowing what to expect, it wasn't bad. I don't think I would take Dawn out for dinner there, if we lived in New Jersey, but the food was pretty good.

Parking Lot

World Trade Centre

Then, back to our room to watch the hockey game, write some thoughts down, and read emails. We were taking a taxi to the cruise port the next day, and wanted to have lots of time to pack and organize, before going downstairs for a noon pickup.

Night at the Theatre

Our Room

When we got up and looked out our window, it looked miserable. The sky was cloudy and dark, the wind was blowing; it looked cold and blustery. We got up, ate, and then decided to go outside to look around. Put on our jackets and walked out the door of the hotel. Well, it was grey and dark, but the wind was quite warm. We were dressed far to warm, and all we had above our clothes was our wind breaker jackets. It must have been 25 degrees.

We didn't have an idea about what was around our hotel. So we walked around a bit. The parking lot was where the main entrance to the lobby is located. There is an entrance to the parking lot, but the exit is back out the same way, which is interesting because it is a narrow place. However, we didn't notice too many problems with the cars.

Around the other side is a large building that looks empty and unused. Then there is a big, empty field, and then the highway. The next lot beside that field appeared to be another hotel, and this one had a restaurant. Our hotel had a breakfast room from 7 - 10 each morning. It did open up for dinner at 5:00, but we wondered about the food.

Train Station in Newark

Our play began at 8:00, and it was a Broadway show, so we had to get directions and suggestions about how to get there. The lobby indicated it would be about a $100 taxi ride, or we could take he train for $12 each, each way. Then, we could walk, or take a taxi to the Theatre. Not much choice there, in our minds.

One of the helpers

He created a map for us to get into New York on the train. We first had to get the shuttle back to the airport, get on the Air Train for one stop, get off and walk over to get the Newark Transit train. We had to ask for help everywhere we went, but the assistance was great. First we had to purchase tickets on the train to get to Penn Station in New York. Because of the distance (we had no idea) one of the station helpers (there seemed to be one of these people at every location where we needed someone) showed us how to purchase our tickets, and told us we stayed on our train to its' last stop.

Madison Square Garden

Penn Station New York is located under Madison Square Garden, and don't you know that we were travelling at rush hour on Friday afternoon. What a mass of people! We struggled our way up to street level, figured out which direction we had to go, and set off walking. We had to go 10 blocks one direction, and then a block another direction. What an adventure.

Of course, it had started to rain when we got on the train, and it rained all the way to the theatre. We went into a few shops to look for souvenirs, but a lot was cheap junk. An early one we went into had umbrellas for $2.50 that were located near the door. Dawn didn't want one, but I purchased one for me. Couldn't go wrong at that price, and it did keep most of the rain off. Even if we throw it away at the end of our trip, it will be worth having.

Time Square

We walked through Times Square, and saw all the lights, and famous places that show up on New Years Eve and during some shows for the Super Bowl. Dawn says it is like the Strip in Las Vegas, only in a couple blocks rather than a long strip. Tons of people, but again, it was Friday night at rush hour. We had stopped in a place and had something to eat. The price wasn't bad, and we were hungry and tired of walking.

Stephen Sondheim Theatre

Inside the Theatre

We had aimed to be at the Theatre by 7:00, and arrived just before 7:30, just as they started letting people in. Not a bad judgement  in time. We entered the Stephen Sondheim Theatre at street level. Our seats were on the Orchestra level, so we had to go down 2 flights for our seats. We were 2 rows down from the entrance, which was about 15 rows from the stage. Great seats - Dawn could see the whole stage over the little lady sitting in front of her, and I could see it all, too.

After about 15 minutes, the play started - Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The girl playing Carole King even looked like her. What a great show. It was the story of her life, starting from 16 years of age when she sold her first tune. Then it went through her relationship with a lyricist and her marriage to him. Then their life together and all the songs they wrote, their breakup, her move to Los Angeles, her first "gig" with a band who had played one of her earlier songs, and the rest of her career and success.

Time Square

It was an expensive ticket (especially with the exchange rate), but well worth the money. We purchased a CD of the musical on the way out, and look forward to listening to it, once we are home.

Then, we decided to walk back to the train going to Newark. The rain had stopped and it was pleasant. Times Square was still very busy (it was Friday night) with people. We had an idea where we had to go, so felt comfortable taking the walk. Besides, there were a lot of people who appeared to be going the same way.

Once we got to Madison Square Garden, we went down to where the trains were. We asked at a ticket booth, and the lady told us that we were in the wrong place. We had to go back up to ground level, turn right, and walk around the corner to the right station. That was where we got to ground level when we arrived, so we knew we had do go downstairs. Once there, we couldn't figure things out, so asked another one of the employees. He showed us where it said where we were to, and then told us to look at the board to figure out when the train went.

After a couple more tries, we asked a policeman for directions. He looked at our tickets, and then at the big board and said we had to go to Track 4 and the train had just come in. I couldn't see what he was looking at on the board, nor where it said track 4 was, but he didn't seem to want to give good directions, so we carried on.

We finally found some signs that indicated we had to walk this way for tracks 1 - 8. As we walked it narrowed down to 3 - 4, so we knew we were going the right way. Finally, things started to look more familiar, and we found the right track. The train was in, the conductor said which train, and we got on for the ride back to Newark Airport. Once there, we got off, switched to the Air Train, and rode a stop where we could get our shuttle back to the hotel. Got there about midnight, and because we were very tired, we went to bed.  Had to be up early for our tour of New York, with the "Gabby Cabby".

Flying To Newark

Abbotsford Security

Abbotsford Terminal

Got up yesterday and started getting ready for the airport.  We arrived at Abbotsford International at about 9:00 am, for our flight to Newark. The plane left early (10:34 instead of 10:35 :-)). We had the aisle and middle seats in a row close to the back of the plane. Nobody was in the back row on the other side, so we asked if we could sit there.  Not a lot of leg room, but it was more comfortable than sitting in a row of 3.

The flight was about 4 hours, and it was still daylight when we landed in Toronto, but getting dark (it was 5:30 in Toronto, but 2:30 in BC). Our layover was almost 3 hours, so once we got off the plane, and figured out where to go for our next flight, we decided to get something to eat. Didn't feel like much of the offered food, so we decided to have Subway.  It was good.

Coming in to Toronto

Then, off to go through security for going to the States. We were there plenty early, but the line-up soon got very big. They needed more security stations open, but it took a while to get them there. Once safely through there, we had to walk back a long way (on the other side of the glass wall) to the gate where our plane was to leave from. That flight was to leave at 8:55 EDT.

Again, we were close to the back of the plane. For some reason, I got seats across the aisle for us. Not bad, but a different configuration than we were used to. There was certainly more leg room on this plane, and the seats were pretty comfortable.  Plane seats are not made for old folks with bad knees to get in and out of.

The flight was just under an hour, and we got in to the Newark airport at about 10:00. It took a while to find our baggage carousel, but we got there just as things started to move. We got our suitcase, and then had to find where to get the shuttle for our hotel. This was another adventure, taking a train to various terminals before getting to P4 (I guess a parking lot area). There I had to phone our hotel to get the shuttle to come over.  It took about 10 minutes, but was pretty quick.

Our Room in Newark

Our hotel is close to the airport, but it took about 20 minutes to get there.  I have no idea where he took us, but it was on various highways and overpasses. Finally we arrived, checked in, and went to our room. It is a very nice room (a mini suite) with a hot tub (which we won't be using).

This is our home for three nights, so we are quite happy although we don't have any idea where anything is. We have a play to go to tonight, and I can find it on Google Maps, but it appears to be about an hour from here, depending on traffic. Should be interesting.

Best Western Plus mini-suite

I've contacted Peter Franklin (The Gabby Cabby) to let him know we are here, and our hotel location. He has responded, and we go with him tomorrow (Saturday) for a day tour of New York.

We also booked a taxi to the pier on Sunday. The shuttle would have cost us $60 ($30 each), and the taxi is only $53, so it wasn't a tough decision. Now we just have to figure out how to get to the play this evening.

Back to Abbotsford

We were up and checked out of the hotel by 11:00.  Not much to do because the ferry didn't leave until 3:15, so we went driving.  We had visited a cheese farm (Moonstruck Organic Cheese) on Sunday, so went looking for the other one that was on the Island. This one (Salt Spring Island Cheese Company) makes their cheese from goat milk. Stella wanted to pet the goats, so we went there.

It was quite interesting. Big chickens, goats, and they had a walk-around section where you could see the cheese making process as it happened. Best of all, they had a store where you can sample the various cheeses and preserves, and, of course, purchase some. We didn't buy any cheese, but we did buy some preserve toppings for the cheese and crackers.

Rocksalt Restaurant and Cafe

Then, we drove back to Fulford Harbour for lunch at this organic cafe, the Rocksalt Restaurant and Cafe. The food was great and we really enjoyed our meal. The place doesn't look like much, but it is well worth the visit.

Ferry was in already

Then, it was back up the island to the Long Harbour ferry landing. That was where we were to get on our ferry to return to Abbotsford. The ferry was in already, but we had to wait until 3:00 to board, for the 3:15 sailing.

This was the slow ferry back to the mainland. We stopped at Pender Island and Mayne Island before heading across the Strait to Tswwassen. It took a fair while and we were all tired of sitting around. Fortunately, the weather was great - sunshine and little to no wind. A nice trip (although as I said, long).

Parking lot

Long Harbour

It was dark by the time we got to Tswwassen, and the drive back to Abbotsford was uneventful. Now, we wait for a couple days before we set off on our trip to the east coast on Thursday, about noon.

The Apple Festival

Our day started with breakfast at the Inne. It isn't spectacular, but it is not bad.  We had bagels and coffee, which certainly filled the gap.  Then back to our room to get organized before we headed off to the Festival.

The Apple Festival is held in a large hall at the south end of the island.  There is another ferry terminal at that end of the island which has service from Sidney.  Entry into the hall was $10 each, and that also got us a brochure and map of various locations around the island where there were more exhibits and sales.  The hall was packed with people, and there was a series of tables set up in the middle of the floor in a large rectangle. These tables were set up with the different varieties of apples that are grown on the island. We had no idea that there were so many different types of apples. This is a link to a time lapse video of the hall - setting up, people viewing and taking down - Apple Festival Setup.

Here are a couple websites that have information on the Apple Festival.

• The 16th Annual Salt Spring Island Apple Festival
• Salt Spring Island Apple Festival

After that, we went down to the ferry terminal at Fulford and walked around there. At this terminal, you don't have to pay to get on the ferry. I don't know if they come around and charge you while on the ferry, or if they charge when you get off, but getting on here is free. Maybe they figure if you got on the island, you paid enough to get off. We watched a ferry come in, and saw a huge number of walk-on people get off, along with a herd of bicycle riders. These guys were in our way for the next hour or so, as we drove around to various places.

We went east on the island and took a different road back to Ganges. Then we continued north, on the east side of the island, up to Vesuvius. This is where the other ferry terminal is, which is the small one from Crofton. We had a drive around, and then headed back to Ganges.

Lunch at El Loco Taco, a food truck on the side of the road that is supposed to be very good.  I had chips and salsa (got guacamole instead, but it was good), and Dawn had a shrimp taco. It wasn't great, but we ate on the wharf, and fed the seagulls and the Salt Spring alligator.

Then back to the hotel for a rest before looking for a place for supper later on in the evening. Things are pretty quiet in Ganges on Sunday evening. Most places were closed so we went to the pub for a bite. Service was not great (I think the waitress forgot us), and after eating, it was back to the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow, on the ferry and return to Abbotsford.

Heading to Salt Spring Island

We left Tsawwassen at about 12:15 after arriving at the terminal at about 11:00.  A beautiful day, with a slight breeze blowing, we decided to hold off  on eating until on the ferry.  Once on, we went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. Dawn and I have decided that we really enjoy their Caesar salad with grilled chicken, so both of us ordered that.

On the ride to Salt Spring, we encountered some whales who were off the port side of the vessel. They were a ways away from the ship, but were still able to be seen. I was only able to see the splash after a jump, and a couple sprays as they came up to breathe, but it was still exciting for all those on our level of the ship.

We went through Active Pass, and sailed by the house we had stayed at on Galiano Island. Then we made a few more turns, and entered Long Harbour on Salt Spring Island.  The ferry terminal is there.

Seabreeze Inne

Once off the ship, we proceeded to our hotel - Seabreeze Inne.

Grounds at the Inne

Our rooms had just been finished, so we checked in, dropped off our bags, and went to explore the Salt Spring Market. It is very big, compared to some we have seen, and there were lots of crafts for sale, along with some farm items. We couldn't escape without making a couple purchases, so I had to find an ATM to replenish the supply. Then, off to another shop where Dawn had seen a bunch of nice baskets. Of course we got one of those, too - to store some of the yarn in, don't you know.

Our Room (open door in front of car)

No Room at this Restaurant

After that, we headed back to the hotel so we could rest up before going to dinner. At 5:30, we got together with Stella and Doug, and off to find a nice place to eat. The first place we stopped at didn't have any room for about an hour. I guess we should have made some reservations.

Dawn having a coffee

So, off to another place. We decided to stop at the Oyster Catcher Restaurant.  It was a nice place, upstairs in a building, right on the water overlooking the harbour. There were lots of boats of all kinds there, and we enjoyed looking at the goings on while we were there.

View from restaurant window

Had some clam chowder (excellent). I should have had a cup, but didn't realize that I was asking for the larger bowl. However, once it was delivered, it had to be completely eaten. Then halibut and chips came along.  It was excellent. Dawn had that, too.  Doug had the Oyster entree, and it looked very good. Dawn misunderstood the waitress when she described that meal, so wished she had ordered that. Stella just had the clam chowder. We were pretty much stuffed by the time we finished.

Then, back to the hotel to check emails, watch football/baseball, and head to bed. We'll have breakfast at the hotel in the morning.