We were awake at 5am, which offered us the opportunity to observe from our balcony as the Queen Mary 2 cruised under the Verrazano Narrows suspension bridge, past the Staten Island Ferry terminal as well as the Statue of Liberty and into the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  We ate our final cruise breakfast in the dining room and were soon vacating our cabin. We waited briefly in the Wintergarden until disembarkation color was called. Within 20 minutes we had walked down the ramp, retrieved our bags, passed through immigration and customs and were seated in a Town Car on our way toward the Battery Tunnel then along the FDR Expressway into midtown Manhattan once again. It took one hour to travel the distance, but the town cars all charge a flat rate into mid-town, so the slow downs were not a worry.

Once we arrived for the second time at the Marriott Marquis, Mom and I were able to check in early, and again received a room with a Times Square view, though this time on the 31^st floor – the concierge floor with free snacks, lounge, and breakfast. After relaxing for a while we had lunch in the hotel café, then rode the subway uptown to the Guggenheim Museum. It had recently reopened after more than a month of renovations to the main gallery. Unfortunately, some of the most desirable galleries were still closed. Yet I enjoyed it because it was a fresh experience.

By the time we returned to the hotel at 3:30pm, we were sweaty and tired. A shower, some rest, relaxation and reading rejuvenated us for the evening. We enjoyed a cocktail and hors d’Oeuvres in the concierge lounge before we walked across the street to the Booth Theatre for a performance of “Thurgood” staring Laurence Fishburne. 

The play was excellent and enlightening – an informative and entertaining dramatic piece about an unsung American hero, Supreme Court Justice and civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall. Truly, it was a history lesson and filled with insight to the determined character of the man. Laurence Fishburne did a fantastic job bringing Judge Marshall to life.

When we returned to the hotel, we ate a room service dinner and hit the sack.

Tomorrow we will awake very early for our flight home. I’m looking forward to settling into my new house again and I miss my furry children.

The weather throughout this cruise has been pleasant – not too hot, nor too cold. And so it was today when we arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

This is Canada’s largest city on the Atlantic coast, yet the metro area is only about 350,000 people. The harbor is very large and beautiful. The town was founded in the mid 18^th century by General Lord Cornwallis who later went on to American infamy for his defeat at the battle of Yorktown during the war for American independence.

Mom and I took another bus tour this morning - and this time we arrived on time. After a short drive through town, the bus cruised along highway 3 for forty five minutes toward Saint Margaret’s Bay and the small picturesque town of Peggy’s Cove. The tiny fishing village wraps around a narrow cove carved into the Canadian bedrock by glacial action over tens of thousands of years. The weather worn little houses and shacks are supervised by a tall white lighthouse resting on a large rounded granite outcrop. The foliage in the area is stunted by the salt air and a virtual lack of topsoil. It’s a foggy little burg that has long been admired by artists and tourists alike. Lobster fishing boats are still the prominent business. Today, the area around Peggy’s Cove is protected from any new development.  We enjoyed our time there and were impressed with the worn but well preserved town.

We ate another lobster lunch at 1:30pm, and as of now I can truly say I’ve had my fill of lobster. The meal takes a lot of work and is messy, though fun. I think I’ve had enough fun and will voluntarily limit myself to lobster tails in the foreseeable future. Once we returned to the city of Halifax, we stopped briefly at a graveyard where more than 120 passengers from the Titanic are buried. Then the day finished with some more drive time and commentary about the history and neighborhoods of this sea faring city and the historic home to Cunard Lines.

Tonight is the second and final formal night in the dining room. I’m getting tired and looking forward to my return home, though tomorrow’s day cruising back to NYC should be relaxing. The bus crowds and personalities can be overwhelming for me.

The evening cocktail party was especially fun tonight. Those who attended mostly sat in a large circle and our conversation was stimulating and enjoyable. I discovered that more of our Pied Piper tour group are teachers, including a fellow first grade teacher from Philadelphia.

The show we attended after dinner concentrated on dance, and it was fabulous. The dance team is from the Ukraine and they were one of the best I have seen on a cruise. The show was exciting, fast passed and included Russian folk dance, swing, ballet, and waltzes. Mom and I both found the performance outstanding.

Mom has, of course, been a terrific travel companion. She and I mesh very well and I appreciate her social nature – especially when I am feeling anything but. Today has been an emotionally tough one for me. I’m again missing Gene very much, and the sadness makes me long for home, my puppies, and my new house. I’m coming to the conclusion that travel, one of the great loves of my life, will never be the same without my other great love.

Today we visited a resort colony for the wealthy and famous: Bar Harbor, Maine. It’s a beautiful coastal town on Mount Desert Island. The rocky archipelago also includes Acadia National Park. Our tour for the day started poorly when we were 15 minutes late to the bus because we didn’t receive the transfer schedule in our Daily Programme. However, after that fiasco, things went more smoothly.

We spent five hour touring the park, stopping at beautiful view points and historic sites. Lunch was included – clam chowder, slaw, a fresh lobster and blueberry pie. Unfortunately, half way through the tour my video camera stopped working. Still photos will have to be sufficient for my travel records.

Dinner was in Lotus, a specialty restaurant within the King’s Court Buffet. It included a five course tasting menu and proved to be a pleasant change for the normal fare in the dining room.

Mom went to bed early while I took in the evening entertainment: Emma St Clair, an operatic singer. She had a beautiful voice though it was a little light-weight for my taste, her music selections were weak and her banter seemed insincere and childlike. Overall, I was disappointed. I’m coming to the conclusion that I prefer the entertainment available on Princess over that on Cunard.

We awoke early and soon had procured a taxi which drove us to the Budget car rental site at Logan airport. We drove down to the Adams National Park first, touring the birthplace homes of both John and John Quincy Adams. Then we toured the very beautiful and large Peacefield – the home of the Adams clan after John and Abigail Adams returned from England – just prior to his election as Vice President. All the homes were lovely but the first two were very simple.  They represented a family of growing prosperity, but always securely in the middle class. Peacefield, however, marked a turning point for the family.

The very large home was purchased from a Torrey family after the war. They moved to England. Abigail set about remodeling the house and enlarging both floors. She wanted to assure it suited her husband’s status as the first Vice President, and the second President of the new United States. Peacefield was well maintained by the Adams descendents into the 20^th century when it was turned over to the government as a museum.

The most spectacular part of the estate was a separate stone library structure, built by Charles Frances Adams, son of John Quincy. The interior was two stories tall and virtually every wall space was filled with bookshelves, including the second story balcony that wrapped around the entire second floor. The room served as further inspiration for me to embellish my own library at home. I look forward to working on that project when I return to Seattle.

We completed our tour of Adams National Park by visiting the First Parish Unitarian Church where both John and John Quincy Adams and their wives are buried in the church crypt. From there we had lunch at a local McDonalds and then, using the GPS system in our rental car, found our way to the John F Kennedy Museum and Presidential Library.

Located on the campus of the University of Massachusetts, it is a landmark modern building that looks out from Dorchester point toward central Boston Harbor. The exhibits were enjoyable and flowed nicely. The tour starts with a movie about JFK’s boyhood and ends with his election in 1960. From there, the exhibits tell the story of his time in office ending with his assassination in 1963. I found all the exhibits stimulating, and especially the videos movies. I had forgotten how well spoken he was. He seemed to fully grasp the complex nature of the global relations in 1960.

We returned the car and a taxi again brought us back to the cruise terminal. A nap was followed by another lovely dinner. After our time in the dining room, we ventured out on deck to watch as the Queen Mary 2 departed Boston Harbor just as the 4^th of July fireworks brightened the skyline of this modern but 300 year old city.

Our morning started with a room service breakfast. Mom had a large fruit plate while I had the traditional English breakfast with eggs, beans, grilled tomato, and potatoes. The coffee was weak, but hot and plentiful.

Our morning was filled with two lectures. The first was presented by a former forensic doctor who addressed the human fascination with grisly crimes, both in fiction and reality. He was an enjoyable speaker who often injected humor into his presentation.

The second speaker was a former ambassador who took the audience through the last 100 years of American diplomatic history. Though his lecture was less humorous, I none the less found it to be engaging.

Soon after, I had lunch in the buffet while mom enjoyed a light repast in Sir Samuels, a sophisticated pub with light lunch fare. We met again at the art auction which was presented in the Winter Garden. Attendance was moderate, but I managed to do my share of buying. I purchased an abstract piece by an artist named Sarah Dominquez, a Puerto Rican Artist. I plan on hanging the work over the fireplace mantel in my new home. I also bought an etching my Alexandra Nichita – an artist and prodigy whom I have been monitoring for years. Unfortunately, I can no longer afford her original works since they have long since passed into the five figure realm. But, the etching is unique – part of a run of just 100 and signed by the artist. The nice thing about etchings is everyone owns an original, and the smaller the run, the greater the value. I believe I made a fortunate deal.

Late in the afternoon we had tickets to see a movie at the planetarium – an exclusive venue on the Queen Mary 2. We enjoyed that very much, but I think the following nap was even more appreciated by both Mom and me.

Dinner was once again in the Britannia Club with our new dining mates. We partook of a delicious Italian wine along with lamb and risotto.

The next morning we visited the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on the upper west side near Columbia University. Unknown to me, the Cathedral had suffered a devastating fire in 2003. The interior is now stripped of most art and artifacts. Large sections of the nave are closed off. The circumstances dictated that we enjoy what we could. Then we road back to the hotel, quickly packed and grabbed a taxi bound for the cruise terminal in Brooklyn at about 2pm.

Traffic was already in a nasty mood. It took an hour to get to the terminal, yet the cab ride cost only $20. I was amazed. Check-in went quickly and our arrival in our cabin was rapid and sprinkled with formal white glove salutations  from a variety of Cunard personnel along the passageways.

Our cabin is a standard balcony size, but with a more refined décor. A half bottle of sparkling wine was waiting for us. The usual lifeboat drill marked the beginning of our adventure. When that was over, we sailed out of Brooklyn, passing the Statue of Liberty with the Manhattan skyline rising in the distance. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

At 7:30pm, we attended our first travel group cocktail party. We met a few nice people while we enjoyed the open bar in a roped off section of the Commodore Club. That soiree was followed at 8:30 by our first dinner in the Britannia Club dining room. It’s quieter, smaller, and slightly more exclusive than the main dining hall, but certainly not as snooty as the Queen’s Grill – the ultimate in dining aboard a Cunard Ship.

We are a table of five dining mates. Three of us are teachers (what a shock!). I am the only one that is not yet retired. The travel group is, in general, older than I – though that is exactly what I expected.

The service in our dining room proved to be slightly better than on a Princess ship, but only slightly so. In my opinion, the food has been virtually identical in quality and only slightly better in presentation.

Our first day of cruising on an old fashioned ocean liner was a success.

Tuesday morning, our first full day in Manhattan, we awoke late and enjoyed breakfast in the lobby café. Then we rode the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We spent about five hours exploring Egyptian, American, European, modern, and medieval art. Our wanderings were interrupted only by a brief light lunch in the Balcony Café overlooking the Grand Hall.

After our time in the museum, we rode the subway south toward the Cathedral of Saint Patrick. Apparently, while making our way to the church, I misled us onto an express train. When I realized we would miss our stop, we got off early and walked about 10 blocks to the church.

Of course, the cathedral was beautiful despite the facts that some areas were covered with scaffolding during a renovation. We dropped into the cathedral shop then wandered through Rockefeller Center passing all the traditional landmark statues and the Today Show studio. We returned to our hotel room tired, sweaty, and satisfied at about 5pm.

After a shower and a change of clothes, Mom and I walked two blocks through the pressing crowd to the Walter Kerr theater.  For 90 minutes we both thoroughly enjoyed A Catered Affair staring Tom Wopat, Faith Prince, and Harvey Firestein.  It was not a typical happy musical. In fact, is was a rather heart rending character study of normal people caught in difficult circumstances. The acting was superb and the staging simple. The music added atmosphere and helped the characters express their inner thoughts, but none of the tunes were memorable. There was no dancing either. The producers have therefore christened it a play with music, rather than a musical. I thought it was one of the best plays I have ever seen.

When the performance was over, in a manner unlike me, I was one of the first to offer my standing ovation. I am usually one of the last to stand because too many people appreciate flash over substance. This particular show has substance and almost no flash. Unfortunately, we heard later that the play is already planning a closing date for late in July. The production doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional musical, and therefore isn’t attracting the hoped for crowds. Thankfully, it has garnered some excellent and well deserved critical reviews.

After the show, we hailed a cab and set our course for a small restaurant the hotel concierge recommended named Square Corner in Greenwich Village. It was a wonderful dining experience - continental/American cuisine artfully presented in a small, quiet, and intimate atmosphere located on the northeast corner of Washington Park. Now Mom can say she has eaten dinner in a wonderful Greenwich Village eatery. Everyone should have such an opportunity in life.

I left very early on Monday morning. The United flight to Chicago took off on time, which is always a blessing. A Bloody Mary and a nice breakfast in first class didn’t hurt either.

Once I landed at O’Hare airport, I soon met mom at the gate for our shared flight to LaGuardia. Though that flight took off a little late, we made up some time in the air – landing only 15 minutes later than expected. Our car service was waiting in the baggage claim area with my name on a placard.

We crossed the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan, following our route on my iPhone. Soon we were in the heart of Times Square at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. It was almost 7pm EDT when we checked in. Our room overlooked the northern end of Times Square. It was clean, comfortable, and cool.

The hotel is very large. Its two towers are linked by a large atrium that rises about 15 floors. Mom and I changed into fresh clothes, had our first cocktail in the Broadway Bar, looking out at the mob scene below crawling with pedestrian tourists and snaking lines of yellow cabs issuing forth their mating calls known commonly as honking horns. Then we headed up to the 47^th floor for dinner in The View a very pleasant rotating restaurant on the top of the hotel. We both enjoyed appetizers, salads, and an entrée of filet mignon.