First, allow me to apologize to our Canadian friends and to all of Canada for failing to mention that yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving Day! We knew it was coming up and Diane, our guide for the day, talked about it and how she would celebrate later with her family, but I simply forgot to mention it in my eagerness to describe the wonderful sights of the day. And so, I wish a most happy, though belated, Thanksgiving, O Canada! It is celebrated every year on the second Monday of October.
Today, we got up very early. We were scheduled to dock in Bar Harbor, Maine and we had signed up for a 9:00 AM excursion out of Bar Harbor to Acadia National Park and Jordan Pond. After the excursion we would have time to walk around Bar Harbor and maybe have a lobster roll for lunch. But before we could board the tender to take us from the ship to the pier, we had been instructed to queue up for our face-to-face individual meetings with US immigration officials on the occasion of our re-entry into the United States. I am sure we aren't the only ones who were a bit confused about how long all this would take.
Additionally, we had to change our clocks back or forward an hour, having entered and then left another time zone over the last two days. It was written somewhere but we couldn't find it in the mountain of paperwork that we have accumulated. Combine that "untimely" confusion with a night spent rockin' and rollin' because of high seas and roaring winds and you have a bunch of bleary-eyed people who didn't get much sleep last night. It never occurred to me that the weather could interfere with our plans.
And so by 8:00 AM, we were dressed, breakfast finished, and ready to go--a major feat especially for Beloved. But instead of the announcement that Immigration had boarded the ship and was ready for us, the Captain announced that because of the inclement weather the ship would not be docking at Bar Harbor after all, that no tenders were available to transport the people and we would hear at a later time what Plan B would be. Thus my dreams of finally seeing Maine will go yet again unrealized. And I cannot begin to tell you what we might have seen in Acadia National Park and Jordan Pond.
Here we sit, cooling our heels, in Seabourn Square, one of the public meeting places, drinking Cappucino--Tom going over the final bill with a microscope and me burdening you with all of this extraneous information. The shop has just opened and I am going to pop in and see what they have.
Nada.
It has been confirmed that we are on our way to Boston--Bar Harbor an unattainable ideal--but it's okay. One could do worse than be stranded on the Seabourn Quest. There is actually a lot to do aboard ship and the staff is scrambling to provide even more in the wake of our change of plans. In a half hour we will wobble our way to the Grand Salon where our new friend Mei Trow will be lecturing about the history of Boston, how it all began with tea and snowballs (the title of his talk), which then escalated into "the shot heard round the world". We had dinner a few nights ago with Mei and his wife Carol, delightful Welshmen who now live on the Isle of Wight and amuse themselves in their retirement by hiring on as historical lecturers on cruise ships like the Quest. Mei is a true historian and we've attended a couple of his stimulating talks--one on the history of whaling and one about the first all-black regiment in the Civil War (the movie Glory was made about it)--but I believe he actually makes his living by writing crime novels. I googled him briefly and he has written at least twenty of them.
We learned on our first Seabourn cruise that you can sit at hosted dinner tables with various members of the staff and crew if you want to. We let it be known that we like that, and so every evening we receive a written invitation to have dinner the next night with one or another of the crew, ranging from the Cruise Director, to the numerous entertainers on board. Two nights ago we sat with Fred Klett, a stand-up comic who performed two shows during this cruise. He markets his brand of humor as "clean comedy," an interesting concept to me. I didn't know a comedian had to specify such a novel idea. He truly made us laugh at both shows and we never missed the off-color or downright dirty references and filthy language which apparently is much more mainstream at comedy clubs. At dinner he told us how difficult it is to "make it" as a clean comic in a world of f-word laced routines and sexual innuendoes. The term "Late Night Comedy" apparently is code for just that brand of humor. Fred's particular type of humor, on the other hand, revolves around growing up in a family with eight kids, traveling the world and interpreting the cultures of foreign lands (his imitations of Brits and Italians are priceless) and truly original wit and delivery.
We've had dinner with the Cruise Director who we remember from our first Seabourn cruise, The Assistant Cruise Director, and even the Purser (or is it Bursar?). He's the guy that handles the finances for the ship--a big job. When Tom introduced himself, he said to the Purser "You must be the Count de Monnaie" (a reference of course to Mel Brooks' History of the World). The Purser actually got the joke and laughed heartily at it. Conversation was spirited throughout the rest of dinner. Of course, in addition to the host, there are two or three other couples at the table which invariably makes for an interesting mix.
There are lots of ways to be entertained aboard ship, most of which we don't take advantage of. Mere steps from our stateroom is the pool and patio bar (closed at the moment of course lest someone be blown overboard) where most evenings there is a 45 minute musical show featuring the multi-talented and enthusiastic entertainers on board. After dinner there is another show which can be musical, or in Fred's case stand-up comedy, and one night they had a magician but we didn't go to that one. There is a Club that features a trio before and after dinner where you can have a drink or just enjoy the music. Two of the trio are Darlene and Raleigh, a married couple that we befriended during our first cruise. They have been entertaining on Seabourn for many years (eight months on, four off), and their home base is in Colorado Springs. She is as blond and fair-skinned as a Norwegian and Raleigh is a Satchmo look-alike who sings with that same throaty rasp. Together they are a devoted and beautiful as well as talented couple.
And now off we go to listen to Mei's talk...
It was entertaining and informative and for the first time I think I understand what the Boston Tea Party was all about and the part it played in the American Revolution.
And now we are relaxing with a glass of wine in the room, having packed our bags (ugh) except for whatever we need for tonight and tomorrow morning. We disembark no later than nine, wrapping up our third Seabourn cruise. We are going directly from the ship to the Seaport Hotel on the Boston waterfront where we will stay until we come home on Friday.
Right now the sun is streaming through the window, the sea is fairly calm (although the ship was rocking and rolling all day), and we can expect fine weather from here on in I hope. The captain has just announced that we are presently waiting for our spot at the pier to be vacated by its previous occupant so that we can dock at Boston Harbor. We weren't supposed to arrive after all until tomorrow morning. The logistics of the whole process are mind-boggling. The Queen Mary II and the Viking Star were in Halifax Harbor with us and I assume they were diverted by the weather as well. What in the world does one do when one is unexpectedly hosting the Queen Mary II?
See you in Boston!
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