We were picked up at 6 am for our first of 3 AA flights from SMF to LAX. \240We arrived LAX on time which was goof since we only had about 40 minutes to transfer by bus from the AA commuter terminal to the main terminal for our flight to ORD. Afain, on time, we made our last flight to Quebec City, arriving at 9:45 pm. \240After not being able to get a Uber, we took a taxi to Auberge Saint Antoine in the old city of Quebec. \240The Auberge is owned by Jon Boy’s cousin. \240The building is very old but the rooms have been nicely updated and we were upgraded to a full suite. \240By MN we were ready for sleep. \240

The day began bright and sunny and gradually warmed into the upper 50’s. \240We met Paul, our guide for a walking tour of the Old City of Quebec. \240He led our group of about 12 tourists on a historical tour of Quebec. The Old City is divided into a lower half and upper half which are connected via a funicular railway. Many of the buildings date to the 17th century and have been faithfully restored. We transited from the lower city to the upper city via a funicular RR. The upper city is more commrtcial with much more traffic.

After our tour we had lunch in the sunshine at a bistro in Place Royale. \240Then back to the Auberge for nap and chores. \240Dinner was at L’Orygine, an upscale organic and local bistro near the Auberge.

After cruising all night we arrived in Sanguenay, a small city on Sanguenay Fjiord, a tributary of the Saint Lawrence at about noon. \240We learned from the cruise director that our upcoming stop at Prince Edward Island has been canceled due to damage sustained when Hurricane Irma, the strongest storm to ever hit Canada, came through last week. \240I’m quite disappointed as PEI was one of the anticipated highlights of the trip for me.

After lunch we went ashore for a bus tour of the “Makers” during which we visited the studio of a glass blower and stone sculptor and an alpaca farm. \240 Overall, only mildly interesting. \240I hope upcoming stops have more to offer. \240

We had a nice dinner with Ray and Sally, a water treatment engineer and attorney from Cranston RI, and Rick and Lynne, a retired corporate attorney and bond trader from Atlanta. \240

We arrived Sept Îles around 1:00. It’s a small city of around 25,000, supported mostly by iron mining. \240As we didn’t have a tour booked, we did our own walking tour, going about 1 mile from the port towards town. It was quite underwhelming. \240There was a small park along the waterfront but nothing else of interest. \240At least it was a nice walk on a cool but sunny day. \240

Another unexceptional day. \240We were tied up at Havre Saint Pierre by 9 am. \240After spending the morning on board we left the ship after lunch for a walking tour of the town of about 3500. \240Established as a fishing village, \240it now exist to support a nearby titanium mine. \240The tour took us to the Catholic church, bank, dry goods store and other equally exciting sites. \240We did stop at a local restaurant for pie and tea. \240Then back on board to sail for Gaspé.

The ship anchored off of the city of Gaspé from where we transferred to shore via tender. A 1 hour bus ride took us to the town of Percé, at the eastern end is the Gaspé Peninsula. \240The town of 2000 is a popular summer vacation spot but now was pretty quiet, save the people from our ship. \240Some of the tourist-oriented shops had already closed for the season. \240 it is still very retty and we wandered around for an hour or so before returning to the ship. \240

Today was the nicest weather yet. \240Bright sunshine, temps on the 60’s and light winds. \240We arrived Îles de la Madeleine after noon and went ashore via tender. \240This is a group of 7 inhabited islands with a total population of about 12,500. \240The main industries are fishing (but much less than previously due to overfishing which has wiped out the herring fishery which used to yield over 1,000,000 pounds/year. \240Now tourism, especially in the summer is making up a larger part of the island’s economy. \240We did a bus tour which visited a local cheese factory and a fish smokehouse which has transformed from smoking herring to scallops, mackerel, and salmon (from New Brunswick). The islands have vistas of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence from virtually everywhere and are very scenic. \240

By 8:00 we were anchoring in the harbor of Sydney, \240Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. \240For the first time on the trip we had less than good weather. \240It had rained overnight while we were underway and it was overcast upon our arrival. \240 After breakfast we did a tour to Baile nan Gàidheal a recreated Scottish Gaelic village about 1 hour from Sydney. \240They have buildings and actors who recreate life in the village at various times including the 18th century when immigrants from Scotland founded the village, 19th century when the. I’ll âge was established and the residents were prospering, and early 20th century when times were more difficult and many villagers migrated to the Boston area in search of work. \240The actor-villagers have learned to speak Scottish Gaelic which adds to the authenticity of the experience. \240Despite threatening all day, it never did rain so we consider ourselves fortunate.

We had a somewhat rough passage after leaving Sydney and transiting south in the Atlantic to Halifax NS. \240The scopolamine patch allowed us to eat dinner and keep it down. \240When we awake at 7:30 we were already tied up at the port of Halifax. \240 We had a leisurely morning aboard before leaving at noon for a tour of the city of Halifax. \240The city has 400,000 residents with 1,000,000 in the metropolitan area. \240Near the port there are many buildings which date to the 19th century which have been preserved and updated. \240Our tour took us to Halifax Public Gardens which was still in bloom well into Autumn. \240It did sustain some damage from Hurricane Fiona last week. We then visited the 19th century Citadel which was first a British fort defending Halifax, then a Canadian fort, and now is a National Historic Site. \240 Final stop was the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. \240 The main exhibit is the paintings of Maude Lewis, a local NS 20th century painter. \240Her style was very simple landscapes, people, and objects. \240Not that impressive at she did all her work while significantly crippled from the joint erosions and deformities due to Juvenile RA. \240

We arrived Bar Harbor around 8:00 after a pleasant overnight sail and anchored out in the harbor. \240It was overcast in the morning but, by afternoon, it was sunny and getting warm. After a quiet morning aboard, we tendered ashore after lunch. \240We wandered about the town on our own before joining a small group walking tour. \240 The town of 5500 is a complete tourist destination and the streets were mobbed by people from 2 ships as well as many who are driving New England during Fall foliage season. The town is extremely picturesque, with its setting on the harbor and mostly restored old buildings.

After a calm overnight cruise we arrived Boston at 8:00. \240We hurried through breakfast in order to be off he ship for an 8:30 bus tour. \240We first stopped in Cambridge to walk through Harvard Yard. \240Then back on the bus to the town of Lexington where the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired. \240By now it was warming up to a beautiful sunny Fall day. \240The leaves were starting to turn, resulting in beautiful red maples. \240We continued on to the town of Concord, site of the first battle of the war. \240 Both towns are beautiful examples of New England with well preserved colonial era buildings and homes, parks and forests, quaint shops, etc. \240Then back to Boston to walk through Old North Church before returning to the ship for lunch which we were Abe to eat on deck in the warm sunshine. \240For dinner we went back on deck to dine at the Grill with hot rock. Poking at the table. \240However, by the time we finished it had become very cold so we were happy to get back to our cabin to warm up.

After passing through the Cape Cod Canal in the evening, we awoke anchored in Newport Harbor. \240This is clearly a sailing community. \240The harbor was full of beautiful boats on moorings and in the marinas. \240We tendered ashore and then did a bus/walking tour of The Cliffs and mansions. \240During the late 19th century, the Gilded Age, wealthy industrialists built huge and ornate mansions along the waterfront which were used only during the 3-month summer season. \240No expense was spared as they d with each other to build the most elaborate mansion. \240We had a self-guided tour of The Breakers built by Cornelius Vanderbilt. \240On the way back to the harbor we passed by the Touro Synagogue (now Convregation Jeshuat Israel). \240It was founded by Sephardic Jews who came to Newport in 1763 and is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the U.S. \240It is now the home of about 175 Orthodox Ashkenazi families. \240After the tour and a quick bite of lunch in town, we went to the brand new Sailing Museum. \240It had well done interactive displays, highlighting the history, physics, and equipment of sailing and it was very well done.

We were up at 7:00 as Silver Whisper steamed into New York harbor at sunrise, affording nice views of Lady Liberty in the soft morning sun. \240It took another hour to get the ship into its berth and then we had to wait almost 3 hours as CBP cleared the ship, allowed passengers to begin disembarkation, and finally got to our disembarkation group. \240From the port we had a 25 minute taxi ride to go the 2 miles through New York traffic to Sonder Chambers hotel on W 56th St, just off 5th Ave. \240 An excellent location, just 2 short blocks from Central Park. \240Since our room wasn’t ready, we walked around the park in the warm (70’s) sunshine. \240There was a lot of activity with residents and visitors enjoying the day biking, walking, sitting in the sun, or watching various performers and artists try to eke out a living. \240By 3 we were back at the hotel to check in and nap. \240

We were planning a nice dinner at a nearby brasserie, but just as we left the hotel Donna became nauseated and we returned just in time for her to vomit into the toilet. \240This is on top of the URI she has developed in the past day (but fortunately COVID negative).

After a quick breakfast we took the MTA bus to the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side. \240Our visit was brief as much of the museum was closed as they were installing a new exhibit. \240There was a nice permanent Impressionist exhibit including works by Picasso, Van Gough, Degas, Monet, Gaugin, etc. \240There was another exhibit of Eva Hess, a German refugee who escaped before the Halocaust. \240It was strange, consisting mostly of sculptures from unusual materials (e.g. latex).

We then walked back about 3 miles to the hotel along 5th Avenue and then Madison Avenue. \2405th Avenue borders Central Park and is lined with very high-end apartments and mostly ground floor physicians’ offices. \240Madison Avenue is home to an almost endless string of designer fashion boutiques, health and beauty stores, jewelers, opticians, and restaurants. \240It’s easy to see the synergy between the 5th Avenue apartments and the Madison Avenue shops. \240As it was again a beautiful day, we had lunch outside at a small Italian restaurant.

After a rest at the hotel we Uber’ed to a small Off Broadway theater in Chelsea to see Titanique, a parody of the movie set to Celine Dione music and hosted by a convincing Celine impersonator. \240The music was great but a lot of the humor was lost on us. \240We think much of the humor was New York centric and certainly there was much gay humor which the audience loved but we missed. \240And the theatre was so overly A/C’ed that it felt we were swimming in the frigid North Atlantic. \240It was still a worthwhile experience. \240We returned to the hotel and, since we didn’t have dinner we walked 1 \240lock to the Peninsula Hotel for desert in the lobby bar.

The weather finally turned bad on the last day of our trip. \240Morning overcast gave way to rain in the afternoon and evening. \240We took the subway downtown to the Chelsea neighborhood where we did a 3-hour tasting tour of \240Chelsea Market and the High Line. \240 The market was formerly a Nabisco factory and the birthplace of Oreo cookies. \240 After Nabisco left for NJ and, eventually Mexico, the building was empty for many years until developers in the developing hip Chelsea neighborhood and turned it into a high end marketplace with unique food vendors and stores. \240Our tasting included a fusion Mexican-Japanese taco, pizza, bao buns, small doughnuts, and an oat-based pseudo ice cream sundae. \240All were unique and tasty. \240

By the time our tasting was done we stepped outside Into the just starting light rain to walk the High Line. \240This is an elevated railroad platform, built in the 1930’s to transport meat from the nearby docks to the many butchers and meat packers in the neighborhood. \240The platform also fell into disuse when the packers moved out of NYC. For many years it was just an overgrown piece of urban blight, surrounded by poor housing. But, as Chelsea developed into a hip neighborhood, other developers turned it into an urban park which totally changed the neighborhood. \240It spurred the construction of multimillion dollar apartment complexes in the adjacent properties and is now a highly used \240urban oasis. \240We ended the walk at an exclusive Belgian chocolate shop in the newly constructed Hudson Yards complex. \240

After our afternoon rest we walked 10 minutes to La Grande Boucherie, a huge restaurant which seats 600 guests. \240Despite its massive size, the service and French cuisine were very good (for $195).

On our way home. \240Taxi ride to EWR, then AA flights to PHX and SMF. Both flights on time and happy to be home and see our boys.