Live from the Zuiderdam - August 24 to August 31- Maine and Canada

[Rubyfisch]

Views from Baddeck:

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Food time - starting with iced lattes, a bagel sandwich, and an amazing blueberry muffin from Bean There:

 

 

And then key lime pie ice cream at the Frozen Spoon - which was amazingly good and cheap - it was $7.00 Canadian for both our ice cream:

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We saw a pair of bald eagles (sorry the photo isn't great):

 

 

And some sort of loon or cormorant:

 

[Rubyfisch]

A few more pictures from Baddeck:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Seal Island Bridge from the bus:

 

[Rubyfisch]

I swear, the ride back to the ship on these shore excursion could aptly be called "how everyone on this island died in the past 300 years ..." Things we've heard about so far - bootleg coal mines collapsing, coyotes attacking, childhood cancer caused by the steel industry, naval battles, etc .... 

 

It felt the same way on the ride back from Peggy's Cove in May.

[Rubyfisch]

Overall, this was an enjoyable excursion and was on the cheaper side. My one complaint is I'm not sure anyone actually wants to listen to two plus hours of narration ... Like, I don't think most of us care about the controversy about whether or not the community college is building a parking structure or when the road is getting resurfaced or the tour guide's family quibbles ...

[Grandmaanne7]

27 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

Overall, this was an enjoyable excursion and was on the cheaper side. My one complaint is I'm not sure anyone actually wants to listen to two plus hours of narration ... Like, I don't think most of us care about the controversy about whether or not the community college is building a parking structure or when the road is getting resurfaced or the tour guide's family quibbles ...

Tour guides can make or break a tour. We've had ones that gave interesting and informative talks and others that just wanted to vent their unhappiness or talk about themselves with a bit of boring history thrown in. Hopefully, the scenery helped you get through it. 

[Boston proper]

38 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

Overall, this was an enjoyable excursion and was on the cheaper side. My one complaint is I'm not sure anyone actually wants to listen to two plus hours of narration ... Like, I don't think most of us care about the controversy about whether or not the community college is building a parking structure or when the road is getting resurfaced or the tour guide's family quibbles ..

We stayed in town today and loved it!  Visited a few historic sites and met some genuinely friendly locals who provided great information about Cape Breton history.  

[Rubyfisch]

Just now, Boston proper said:

We stayed in town today and loved it!  Visited a few historic sites and met some genuinely friendly locals who provided great information about Cape Breton history.  

We were going to do that in May, but our port call got cancelled. Maybe next time ...

[Rubyfisch]

I don't think you can actually have a Lido line system that works perfectly, but I kind of hate the self-service bread/cheese that apparently bleeds into the hot food service. I wanted a single piece of fish as a snack and the hot service people weren't assisting anyone, so I walked up, to be somewhat harshly told by someone the line started twenty feet of empty buffet ... Like, it's not particularly efficient for service to stop because someone is spending five minutes looking for the perfect poppy seed roll from the stack of identical ones ...

 

To be clear, I don't really fault anyone and I'm not sure it could be better ... But the self service into the served line is just awkward...

[Rubyfisch]

MDR menu:

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Dinner in the MDR definitely finished stronger than it started...

 

Sad, sad tomato crostini....

 

 

Salmon chowder (definitely better):

 

 

Eggplant Parm and asparagus risotto (probably the best entree so far):

 

 

Stroppenwaffle cheesecake (fantastic):

 

[Rubyfisch]

Sunset after dinner:

 

[Rubyfisch]

Northern lights!!!!

 

[oakridger]

16 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

Northern lights!!!!

 

How exciting!!  Can't see them in your picture but capturing them in your memory with your own eyes is fantastic!

 

~Nancy

[Rubyfisch]

Just now, oakridger said:

 

How exciting!!  Can't see them in your picture but capturing them in your memory with your own eyes is fantastic!

 

~Nancy

I think the compression on cruise critic loses them .... But it's still really cool. I've never seen them before 

[Ken the cruiser]

29 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

I think the compression on cruise critic loses them .... But it's still really cool. I've never seen them before 

They are pretty awesome! We saw them on our recent Alaska cruise on the Grand Princess in May and on a Celebrity Summit cruise going from Iceland to Greenland.

 

Here's a helpful NOAA link to see if the Lights might be visible where you’re at in the next couple of days as well as the next 30-60 minutes.

 
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental

 

[Rubyfisch]

It's pretty choppy and pretty windy ... One downside of a balcony is the wind noise ....

[Rubyfisch]

Sunrise:

 

[Boston proper]

Really looking forward to PEI!

 

[Rubyfisch]

Lido breakfast .... I do love crepes...

 

[Rubyfisch]

Cormorants and the ship:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We went on a lovely walking tour that I booked independently through Walk the Walk PEI. It met at 9:30 effectively at the pier and lasted maybe 2:15. It was 29 CAD a person. I would definitely recommend it to others. Jamie grew up in PEI and is a retired veterinarian. I get the sense these walking tours are his passion project.

[Rubyfisch]

The first main stop was St. Dunstan's, which is made of sandstone from Nova Scotia (you know it isn't from PEI because it isn't red). It was built around 1913: