thank goodness that first day is at sea so we had time to rest! here is the passage from my journal of that first day:
august 7th 2011
i am currently on a boat/cruise with my mom's family- like 30 of us. so far we have slept and eaten a LOT of food. we started in new york and are now on our way to canada- halifax- this morning we had breakfast and ended up sitting at the same table through lunch and didn't leave till 4 pm to get ready for dinner- after dinner we went to the dance show... it was really bad!! after that sam, james and i sang in a karaoke contest and neither won... we were definitely the most entertaining but whatev... the guy hosting didnt like us for some reason... lame. but we really were awesome! i was a little sad all day cause chris wasn't here with me-- he didn't get to come because he has finals this week- super sad- but its been fun talking to all the cousins and eating fancy food.
fancy dinner night
karaoke awesomeness!!!
August 8th, 2011:
today we visited halifax, nova scotia canada- it had really neat history. this is where they buried those that dies on the titanic- they also had their own disaster when 2 ships collided in the harbor and one caught fire and exploded because it was carrying gun powder and what not. it killed 2,000 and thousands more were blinded and maimed by glass shards and other shrapnel. the whole town had gathered to watch the fire... hence the high casualty. crazy! we did our usual favorite "hop on hop off bus" we discovered in europe... it took us all over. we saw this OLD graveyard and had a contest of who could find the oldest or most interesting tombstone. sam won because he cheated and made up some poem and acted like he was reading it off a grave... i laughed pretty hard at that one.
then we went to the merytime museum. it had all sorts of ships and stuff about titanic. i had an awesome moment when i was passing out our tickets and thought i had an extra and was yelling out "who doesn't have their ticket" till i realized it was my own... haha!!! then we visited this old fort... it was fun people dressed up in costumes... and then it poured rain on us!!! like crazy!!! once back on the boat the rest of the night we just hung out and had dinner. it was a fun day and interesting to learn about canada.
august 9th 2011:
today we were in st. john, new brunswick canada. it was way smaller then hallifax. the only really cool thing about it was the reverse rapids where the river meets ocean... high tide reverses the flow of the river... we also walked around the little town... meesha and i went into this little candy shop and stocked up... it had the weirdest candy! like this extra salty black licorice.. i had to spit it out the second it hit my tongue... gross!!! once back on the ship we ate dinner and then everyone just sat around talking forever! i was way more lonely today.. missing chris badly. sometimes i want to go explore the ship or something but don't have anyone to go with me. and not having any form of communication is bizarre since my phone doesn't work in canada or at sea. tomorrow hopefully i will get to talk to him in maine!
august 10th 2011:
today i got out of bed and fell back in!!! the boat was way leaning to one side- the harbor in bar harbor, maine was having a crazy rain storm with winds at 60 mph which meant we couldn't get off the boat because it wasn't safe to get off the boat by tender... so instead it became an "at sea" day. we ate breakfast and sat there till lunch and after lunch we went to karaoke... sam sang and meesha, nicole and i sang neil diamond song and emily and i ended the show with her amazing version of the 1990's song "bust a move" which she raps in opera... and i sing back up chorus... in opera... it was awesome haha. then we hung around till dinner and did some line dancing... during dinner the fog horn was sounding every 3 min! it was so foggy you could hardly see the water below. the sea was pretty rough all day... and night... we also went to the employee talent show.. it was actually pretty good! we spent the whole day just laughing which is good for being stuck on a boat... and i never did get to talk to chris but sent him a quick text saying i'd call him from boston.
August 12th 2011:
i missed writing yesterday cause i fell RIGHT asleep when i got in bed... i was soooo tired from walking a million miles around boston! in boston we rode a trolley all around and got off to see fenway park- home of the red socks- and then when the next trolley was coming by we tried to flag her down by waving our arms and she would wave back and not slow down at all so we'd wave again and she would wave back at us with a smile on her face... we were freaking out.... till she finally stopped and said "sorry, i was just messing with you" ha!
after that we walked the "freedom trail" which is this red brick line that goes for 2.5 miles all through town marking all the famous historic sites... it was really neat... graves of a couple guys who signed declaration of independence... paul revere's home... the place/balcony where the declaration of independence was first read to the public... etc. we also got to see the 2 locations that represent the show cheers. the one they filmed for the outside shot and the bar that has been redone in the exact way the show had it.. it was neat. i also finally got to talk to chris!!! it was so nice just to hear his voice... and because i'm pregnant and hormonal i cried for the first 3 minutes we talked... haha we had wanted to see the "uss constitution" but ran out of time and had to rush back to the boat... the rest of the night we ate (cause thats what you do on a cruise) and sat around and talked. i went to bed early from complete exhaustion...
august 13th 2011:
today we were in newport rhode island. beautiful!!!! harbor and coast line filled with summer homes of the rich and famous.. we decided to see 2 mansions of the vanderbuilt family. the first one was "the breakers" named because the ocean breaks right on the rocks of the coast line. massive mansion!!! 4 stories including one just for the help.... it had like 20 bathrooms... built in the 1890s. the play house in the backyard was 1200 square feet!!!! bigger than the apartment i live in now!!! and totally extravagant! neat to see how people lived back then. we also visited "marble house" so named because the entire first floor is covered in marble... they say it would cost 300 million dollars to build a house like that now... it belonged to the crazy wife of one of the vanderbuilts... she was a woman's rights activist and just crazy! she built this chinese tea house in the back yard... and collected weird art and what not... my favorite part of newort was the beautiful giant mansions on the coast line.. my favorite being this one white one... its giant but so pretty!!!
that night we dressed up one more time for dinner... as the boat headed back to new york...
august 14th 2011:
the trip home... was... bad! we had to be off the boat by 11:45 and then our plane didn't take off till 4 or something. so we sat around the airport... and when we finally got on the plane there was something wrong with one computer in the cockpit and we sat there for an hour while they tried to fix it... decided they couldn't and made us get off the plane and told us it may be a while before they find another plane... so we sat around for a while till they had us change gates and get on another plane... and once on the plane we sat there for another 40 min while we waited in line for our plane to take off... then it was like a 6 hour plane ride.... i wanted to die!!! i coudn't sleep... of course. and by the time the plane landed my feet were sooooo swollen i could hardly get my shoes back on. this is of course the reason why when chris pulled up to pick us up... he came right up to me and gave me a hug and i BURST into tears... and cried the whole way home.... glad to see him.... glad to be off the plane.. and just so tired!!!!
the trip was so fun and an amazing memory to share with grandpa and the family!
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