Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Clay was up too early today. Marina had its outside decks
closed because they were too wet. It was very foggy, but for some reason they
didn’t start blowing the fog horn until we were at breakfast. Halifax is the
world’s 2nd largest port, so although we’ve spent 3 days and 2
nights here before we were really looking forward to the sail in or even the
sail out. No luck. Halifax was completely socked in by fog. You couldn’t see
the Citadel up on the hilltop or that there was a hill. You couldn’t see
Dartmouth across the harbor, nothing. A block away and you couldn’t see the
Marina. It would have been very sad if this was our only time in Halifax.
Clay had to kill a half hour or so waiting for the fitness
center to open to get his walk on the treadmill. He says from here on out, he’ll
just plan to arrive at the gym when it opens to walk on the treadmill and give
up on track walking outdoors.
I was sound asleep and didn’t wake up until he came back in the
room. That put us at Terrace for breakfast after 8am. Well there was nothing to
see and nowhere to go, so why not. Clay had his usual. I had the raspberries and
blackberries again with Greek yogurt. They haven’t had vanilla again for past 2
days so I had plain. I heard complaints today about the missing blueberries so
I guess tomorrow by berries will be gone again. I have looked for Swedish
pancakes every day since I saw them the first morning and didn’t have them, but
they haven’t come back yet. Eggs Benedict has been available every single day though.
We docked on the port side today so we couldn’t watch the docking
process. We had a card on our bed last night that our balcony would be cleaned
and painted today so to plan to keep off it. (We don’t think anyone worked out
there today though.) Today was also fuel bunkering and they were right outside
our balcony (no smoking!) and we could smell fuel through the closed door when
we were in the cabin briefly. We saw the bunkering barge or whatever the call
it leaving as we came back from Terrace at lunchtime.
The weather here was predicted to be 65F and partly cloudy.
Not even close. I don’t think it got above 50F all day while we were here. It
was cold and rainy when the ship cleared about 10:15am. We had been waiting in
Horizons for our cabin to be serviced when it was announced. Clay called in the
rainy day backup plan which involved not leaving Pier 21 where we docked. Pier
21 is the home of the Immigration Museum. It has been voted one of the 7
wonders of Canada. I wonder what the other 6 are, cause it was interesting enough,
but honestly it was just to stay out of the rain and cold and because there
were no views with the fog. So, I cannot report how the complimentary shuttle
to the Public Gardens went. The museum cost about $20 for the 2 of us to enter.
Half our time there was spent watching a film of living immigrants talk about
their experience and Clay slept through that. They had a family research center
and we went in and asked about my father’s Friia cousins who had immigrated to
Canada. They had pages of Friia and Frijia names that had come from Naples but
not Sebastian or John Batiste. He could also search New York and did not even
find Peter though we know he entered through Ellis Island. Oh well.
We came back onboard for a light lunch. I asked the customs
guard that checked us back to the building if he thought the Beavertails kiosk
down the waterfront would be open this afternoon and he acted like I was crazy
to think it would not. He answered that there is a cruise ship in town, they
are in business to make money, so of course they’re open. (You must already
know they’re not! I was sure they weren’t and that is why I asked.) We had to
go outside between the ship and the cruise terminal each time and it wasn’t
rainy when we came back. We decided to eat something in case Beavertails was
closed. Then walk down the waterfront this afternoon and have a poutine and
Beavertails. Clay stopped again at Foxhill Cheese House and bought curds again.
It was a long cold boring with no views walk all the way down there and every
one of those kiosks was closed up tight. The good news was that I had my delicious
hot Beavertail yesterday. The bad news is that now I was cold and miserable and
a mile from my comfortable home! The fog dissipated enough on the walk back that
I spotted Alexander Keith’s and Clay didn’t remember much about it and he
wanted to stop and have a beer. I agreed to go in hoping they’d have poutine
anyway. He got a Keith’s Red Amber Draught and I asked for a menu. There was no
poutine on the menu and only sweet potato fries were listed. Clay asked the barkeep
if they served poutine and he said yes we do. So, they made them up al a carte
according to Clay. I don’t think that actually means off menu ordering. The
bill said potato wedges were 3.99, cheese was .99 and gravy was 1.99. His beer
was 6.52 so about the same price. It was more than we could eat. A little poutine
goes a long way.
We got back onboard about 3pm. For some reason, we were
heading against traffic as we left and thought we must have to be back onboard
at 3:30pm instead of 4:30pm.
About 4:10pm the fog opened and there outside our balcony,
maybe a football field away, was a lighthouse on an island with a fort on it!
We hadn’t been able to see anything out there all day! We could see all the way
to the other side of the harbor. As I type this, the land on the other side has
disappeared again though the island and lighthouse are still dimly visible.
We have dinner reservations at 6:30 tonight at Polo Grill,
the steakhouse. Clay is really looking forward to it. Tonight at 9:30pm is One
More for the Road, a Jean Ann Ryan production of the Las Vegas Strip. I liked
their last show, so I will try to go. I might take a nap this afternoon!
We’ve just received a message from Alla Tours that there is
a bridge in Germany that has been found structurally unsound and deficient to
support our tour bus northbound from Berlin. Because of the detour route our
tour to Berlin has to be shortened by an hour. If we also deduct an hour from
the departure time that O has been routinely doing so far, this tour will soon
be a nonstarter. We’ll keep you posted.
Back from Polo Grill. This was by far our favorite
restaurant so far. We have yet to try Red Ginger, that’s on for tomorrow
though. That will complete all our allowance of specialty restaurant
reservations. People say it may be possible to get extra reservations once
onboard, but I don’t think we’ll be doing that. I had French Onion Soup that
was 1000x better than that served in Jacques. How does a French restaurant
screw up onion soup? Tonight I could taste sherry and butter as well as onions
and beef broth. Jacques was just a huge pile of onions and a little beef broth
with bread and cheese on top. I had a 7oz filet mignon that was butterflied and
cooked well done as requested. I got potatoes au gratin and green beans, both
good. I had 2 desserts after they brought out a little tray of apricot and
black currant jellies which we also really liked. I had a trilogy of handmade
vanilla marshmallows in caramel, strawberry & chocolate sauces. Nothing
like the chocolate fountain marshmallows from Terrace. I also had 7 layer
Belgian chocolate cake. It was cut in a triangle, so it had 3 points and no
back! Magic! Very good. Clay had 3 oysters Rockefeller, the 32 oz. Porterhouse
(he ate it all!) and the chocolate brownie with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and the
brownie was a round cylinder enrobed in molten dark chocolate. He liked all of
his as well. Now we just have to try to stay awake for another hour and a half
to make it to the show tonight. Unfortunately, in addition to the now thick fog
and foghorn, we have a rough ride. I’ll wait until tomorrow to report on the show
if we go.
