New England/Canada Cruise. Day 4. That's Why They Call It a Foghorn.

We woke up this morning in Bar Harbor, Maine. We had a quick buffet breakfast and made it off the ship around 10:45. Unlike the previous day, we had to tender to the shore (the ship anchors in the bay and you ride a small boat into the harbor).

Once ashore we split up. Me, my father and Austin were scheduled for a bike tour of Acadia National Park. Tzvi, my mom and Hallie were scheduled for “An Intimate Look at Acadia National Park” (i.e., a bus ride through the park).

Tzvi: we boarded the bus and started making our way up into the park. Our driver/guide gave us interesting pieces of information along the way, though who knows how much of it was correct, as she started out by telling us that Acadia National Park is the only National Park east of the Mississippi, which is completely false (there’s about a dozen of them). She also said at least one person dies hiking here each year. We made one stop for 15 minutes to look at some rocks, and then another stop at the top of Cadillac mountain to look at the ocean. Cadillac mountain is apparently named for the same Cadillac who started the car company. All we learned about was how much money there was in Bar Harbor. Apparently one woman was so rich that at the end of her dinner parties she would have guests throw the china into the ocean. We saw Dick Wolf’s house (creator of Law and Order) and she told us how he’s currently renovating (actually, he’s dead). After a while we got back on the bus and headed back to the port. Hallie was pretty good but she was starting to lose it and seriously needed a nap. At one point she pulled out the mat from her diaper bag, lay down on it and said “change me grandma.” So she did. Then she started yelling her favorite big word – “flatulence.” After that the driver told a story about Fred Savage – the architect, not The Wonder Years star – and we were done. We got off the bus, put Hallie in the stroller, walked about 2 feet and she was sound asleep.

Steph: Our bike tour was pretty good. We all piled into a van that had no air and headed to the park. We got to a parking lot where there were 17 bikes set up. We each chose a bike and a helmet and did some practice riding. Then we were off. The first part of the ride was the hardest part – a steep hill that we all basically walked up. From there we biked for about two hours, stopping frequently. It was kind of annoying because we’d get into a good bike groove and then stop, but it was still nice. We saw some dams made by beavers and some bridges. That’s about it. We ended around 2:20, the same time as Tzvi and Hallie’s.

We all met up and walked to a restaurant called West Street Café that both of our tour guides had recommended. I ordered a salmon Caesar salad and Tzvi and my father both ordered fish and chips. Tzvi also got a local Maine beer. Tzvi said he had a nut and shellfish allergy (not just a kashrut thing, actually true). After five minutes the waitress came back and said that the chef said he couldn’t have the fish and chips because it’s fried in the same oil as the shellfish. The same is probably true of most restaurants, but once she said it, there was no ignoring it (either from a kashrut or an allergy standpoint). So Tzvi changed his order and got a baked (instead of fried) haddock sandwich. He wanted French fries, but again, same oil. After hearing all of this my father was less than enthused about the prospect of his fish and chips so he asked to change his order. He went over the menu again, but the only thing he could really eat (because he’s picky about fish) was the spaghetti with marinara sauce. “All I wanted was my fish and chips.” Sorry Pop Pop.

Lunch was fine. Tzvi enjoyed his sandwich, and the best part was probably the warm blueberry pie we had for dessert (blueberries are a local specialty in Maine). Hallie woke up just as the pie arrived – she has excellent timing. As we ate dessert we started talking about what time the all-aboard was. We couldn’t remember whether it was 3:30 or 5:30. Pop Pop started getting very worried that we were going to miss the ship. “We don’t even have our passports, we couldn’t even meet the cruise at the next port [in Canada]. The trip would be over.” Tzvi quickly googled the itinerary and saw it was a 5:30 all-aboard. Crisis averted.

we ate the pie so quickly we almost didn’t get a picture

After finishing we walked a few blocks to an ice cream shop our tour guide had recommended called Mount Desert Island Ice Cream. I had two scoops – one sweet cream and one “The Dude” (a white Russian flavor named for The Big Lebowski) and Tzvi had a cone with The Dude and coffee-oreo. Hallie had a scoop of sweet cream. All was delicious. Really strong flavors – The Dude was almost like drinking a white Russian.

From there we walked back down the main street toward the dock. We went in and out of some stores and I bought a cute sweatshirt. We got on line for the tender, and had to wait about 15 minutes before actually boarding, then had to wait another 10-15 minutes before leaving. Tzvi fell asleep on the ride.

We got back on the ship and got Hallie ready to go to dinner. Tzvi and I were going out just the two of us and my parents and Austin were taking Hallie to dinner in the dining room. They left for dinner around 6 and we took our time getting ready until 7ish when we went down to the promenade to talk to the shore excursion desk.

my parents found this in the dining room

Tomorrow is Saint John, New Brunswick. The tour planning for Saint John has been a mess. Originally we were booked into an 11:30 tour that was supposed to be basically a 2 and a half hour bus ride. I guess they didn’t sell the minimum number of seats for that, because we got a notice on our second day that it had been cancelled and that we had been rebooked into an 8 am tour. That seemed too early so we cancelled that and booked a different tour at 9:30. Then they cancelled our 9:30 tour and Pop Pop rebooked our original 8 am tour. Then Tzvi realized that since there’s a time change in Canada, 8 am is really 7 am, which means we would need to be off the ship by 6:45, which means we’d need to be up before 6 am. That wasn’t happening – Hallie never would have made it through the day – so Tzvi went back to the desk and rebooked all of us into an 11:15 hour-long trolley tour, which was about as much sitting as Hallie would be able to do. We’ll see how it works out.

At 8 pm we went to Chops Grille, one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. Actually, it’s the specialty steakhouse that’s on every Royal Caribbean ship, but it’s really the only choice we had for our dinner alone. We checked in and were taken to a massive table in the middle of the room that was set for 6. When they told us this was our table we laughed and the man said “aren’t you six?” Apparently the reservationist had screwed up the reservation and booked for the whole family. Luckily it wasn’t a problem and we got a nice table for two. We started by ordering cocktails. Tzvi got a new fashioned, which was an old fashioned except there was something different that made it new, and I ordered a Tom Collins, mostly because of the character from Rent and not because I knew what it was or thought I would like it. We got our drinks, and about 23 minutes later they came to take our food orders.

Well, we ate everything. Actually, Tzvi ate everything. I started with a salad and Tzvi had a mushroom soup and tuna tartar. For the mains we both had salmon, which had a nice grain mustard sauce. For side dishes, we ordered jumbo asparagus (they were normal sized), mashed potatoes (too cheesy for me), cheesy tater tots (there was cheese mixed in with the potato, Tzvi enjoyed), truffle French fries (solid) and mac and cheese (Tzvi ate the entire thing and then complained that it was missing an additional element, like truffles). For dessert we ordered the chocolate cake (good), key lime pie that had a huge merengue (a little too sweet for my taste, but solid), apple pie (warm, solid, Tzvi ate the whole thing) and a cream cheese red velvet cake (Tzvi ate it, but interestingly it was a white cake died red rather than the standard coco cake died red). We also got free cappuccinos for being platinum members. Very nice meal. At the end of the meal the manager came over and asked us if we had steak. We told him no, that we don’t eat meat. He asked, “is it diet, or religion?” Nice how everyone here knows.

After dinner we went looking for something to do, but there just wasn’t that much. We sat a few minutes in the piano bar and sang along with some Billy Joel. We took our free spins at a slot machine in the casino. We took a walk outside around deck 4, which was really scary – it was super foggy, rainy, and felt like you could just fall overboard and no one would know. Almost felt like a scene from a horror movie. This whole day has been so foggy. When Tzvi was in Bar Harbor standing at the top of Cadillac Mountain he could just barely see the top of the ship. The whole night all we heard was the foghorn going off every 2 minutes. I finally understand why they call it a foghorn.

Eventually we found ourselves in the Imperial Lounge for adult karaoke for our last event of the evening before going back to the room and going to sleep. Some of the people at karaoke were actually pretty good. Some of the people were awful. Some people chose songs with really long instrumentals. The last singer of the night was an older white gentleman named George from St. Louis. George got up and sang Proud to Be an American. It was a touching moment. As we cruise north into Canada a room full of mostly white people sang “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.”

And you know what, I am proud to be an American, where at least you know you’re free.

You know, unless you’re a child at the border.

Or a woman.