CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, USA-WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2013

The Market Place

The historic Rainbow Houses

Our driver

Beautiful old homes

Beautiful old homes

The Campbells with the horse drawn carriage

As America’s most beautifully preserved architectural and historic treasure, CHARLESTON is steeped in a 300 year past.  Hundreds of significant and lovingly preserved structures from the colonial and antebellum periods grace the Histroric District’s narrow streets.  The city population today is 659,000.
We enjoyed all of this in a one hour tour with a horse drawn carriage and driver.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, USA-MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4. 2013

BALTIMORE is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland and the 26th largest city in the country.  This deep water port, nestled at the north of the huge Chesapeake Bay is 190 miles from the Atlantic and has always been a busy commercial crossroad and its still one of the principal Atlantic seacoast outlets for coal, grain and spice.
We went on a half-day outing introducing us to this charming city.  We went to the Baltimore World Trade Center, a structure designed by I.M. Pei and is the world’s tallest equilateral five-sided building and went to the 27th floor “Top of the World” Observation Deck.  The views were incredible.
Next was historic FORT HENRY, a star-shaped fort situated at the harbor’s entrance.  It was here, during the War of 1812, that Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key saw the American flag emerge intact in the September dawn after a continuous 25 hour British bombardment.  He was so moved that he wrote the poem, The Defence of Fort McHenry”, which would later become the United States’ national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  We saw a reenactment of the war and then the screen disappeared and we saw the FLAG outside.  It was quite moving.

Our great guide-Chris

Baltimore World Trade Center

View from the 27th flooe

Don

Nancy and Don wirh schooner behind

Historical church

Reenactment of was with Francis Scott Key seeing the American flag and writing The Star Spangled Banner

Fort McHenry and the flag in the background

The actual cannons used in the skirmish

Our  “NEW ENGLAND CLASSIC “ CRUISE from Montreal, P.Q., Canada to New York City, New York, USA ended and we are still on board CRYSTAL SYMPHONY  for the next leg “AMERICA’S FIRST CITIES” CRUISE from New York, New York, USA to Miami, Florida, USA- November 2-November 16, 2013.

Formal night

Don getting ready for formal night

Vice Captain Tonchi

Our table

Butterscotch Pudding

Don with The Bakers

Our table of 12 @ the Formal Dinner

SEA DAY-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2013

A delightful day at sea with bridge, lectures, Team Trivia, Bingo and of course, 3 wonderful meals!!  Our first formal dinner was this night and we are at the vice-captain’s table and 9 of our “new best friends”.  Tonci Hladilo is the Vice Captain.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK-FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2013

A ride on a horse drawn carriage through NYC and Central Park

NYC

Nancy and Don

Central Park

Driver of our carriage

In Central Park

View of New York City from Verandah

NYC is the capital of the world and one of the world’s most famous and exciting cities.  Broadway, Times Square, the Empire State Building and Central Park are just some of the celebrated spectacles this bustling city has to offer. NYC is located halfway between Boston and Washington, D.C. and much of NYC is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island.
We took a horse drawn carriage through Central Park and enjoyed the sights.

Don on our veranda looking at arrival in NYC

The STATUE OF LIBERTY

The Campbells with the Statue of Liberty

The NEW YORK skyline from our verandah

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND was supposed to be our next port and due to high winds in the vicinity of 60 miles an hour and heavy rain the captain chose to by-pass the port and continue sailing to New York City with a day at sea.  The best part of this was that we docked in New York @ 6:00 PM instead of 8:00 the next morning and had the most INCREDIBLE view of the STATUE OF LIBERTY while sailing into the Harbor @ 5:00 on a bright sunny day.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013

Boston- the old and the new.

In the water on the "duck"

The Charles River

Our amphibious vehicle!!

Campbells getting on The Duck.

Union Oyster House

Enjoying our clam chowder.

Halloween Decorations of the ship.

You just can’t say enough about BOSTON.  Its got everything.  Baked beans, Celtics, clam chowder, The Tea Party, Paul Revere, Harvard, the Symphony, the Bruins, the Pops, Fenway Park and don’t forget THE BOSTON RED SOX who just won the world baseball championship!!!!!  Basically, if you can’t find it in Boston, it just simply cannot be found.
BOSTON is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and it one of the oldest cities in the United States.  It was founded in 1630 by Puritan colonists from England. 
Our shore excursion was a “duck” discovery & New England Fare.  We boarded our “duck”, a military vehicle developed during WW2 to bring men and supplies from ship to shore.  Today these amphibious vehicles have been outfitted with seats, yet remain equipped with wheels and a propeller, allowing it to traverse both land and water.  We traveled first on land seeing the historic sights and then entered the waters of the picturesque Charles River for a delightful river tour.
After returning to dry land we went to the UNION OYSTER HOUSE, which is the country’s oldest operating restaurant, for a cup of their renowned New England clam chowder.

BAR HARBOR, MAINE, USA-OCTOBER 30. BACK IN THE GOOD OLE USA!!!!!!

We had a private 1/2 day tour with a driver/guide and Arlene and Bill Barris from Michigan.
Bar Harbor is a quaint little town with a population of 2,500.  It was the summer retreat of millionaires and had magnificent estate homes in the early 1900’s.  The biggest national attraction is ACADIA NATIONAL PARK which consists of more than 47,000 acres/73 square miles, most of which was donated by the Rockefeller family to the US government more than 100 years ago.  It has CADILLAC MOUNTAIN which is the highest peak and has breathtaking views of the rocky coast and many offshore isles.

On the tender going ashore in Bar Harbor

Our driver/guide meeting us for our tour

At the top of Cadillac Mountain in the Acadia National Park

 A Tiffany glass window in an Episcopal church