St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, September 5, 2017

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, September 5, 2017

Last night the captain said we should be up and at 'em in the morning as we approached St. John's to see all the whales and as we entered the harbor through a very narrow pass. The good news was that our arrival was scheduled for 10 am which meant being up and at 'em was fairly painless. Bad news? No whales, just rain as we approached. The pass was very narrow as advertised and by then the sun was peaking through.

In contrast to tiny St. Anthony, St. John's is big and bustling. It's both the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador and the province's largest city. The harbor is packed with fishing boats from dinghy to "Deadliest Catch" size. Once again the Seabourn Quest is sharing the port with us but this time we got the good parking place at the dock right smack dab in the middle of the city.

We'd cancelled a trip out to a lighthouse and planned to just meander around the town. Oh, my. We kept hearing that the city was built on the side of a hill with steep streets that rival San Francisco's. For once, the description matched the reality. Just standing on the deck looking up, up, up we could see a series of streets than run parallel to the waterfront connected by streets that are so steep that the sideWALKS are sideSTAIRS. Dozens, nay, HUNDREDS of stairs to get from the dock up to the museums, cathedrals, gardens that all seem to be up top. And wouldn't you know it, no Hop On, Hop Off bus system.

At the foot of the gangway was a duo playing fiddle and guitar and singing what I gather are provincial songs but the big stars were Gabriel and Odessa, two of those wonderful Newfoundland dogs. They were both sporting kerchiefs of the Newfoundland tartan and were  just magnets drawing everyone over to pet and photograph them. I chatted with Odessa's owner a bit. Another one of those incredibly NICE Canadians. I told her I'd love to have a Newfie but I'd have to get a bigger house and a bigger car. She laughed and said they'll fit into the house just fine, it's the transportation that's the problem. She said she has a vintage Honda Element with no back seats to accommodate Odessa. She called it a rolling dog house. Now about the ever present drooling....

I had $4.10 Canadian in coins just burning a hole in my pocket so off we went to shop on Water Street, the next street up that only had a few steps to aid in the climb. There is a lot of fur and leather sold in the Maritime Provinces. The garments look beautiful but would definitely be too much for Georgia and then there's that PETA issue. We debated over some local artwork and then remembered our old-people-who-should-be-downsizing mantra: no decorative stuff crosses our threshold so I ended up back on board with that same 4.10. One more stop in Canada, Halifax, to use it or lose it. You can exchange foreign bills back into US$ but not foreign coins.

I have not told you about some of the entertainers who are now on board, specifically Latin harpist Shirley Domingez,  Bernie Fields Harmonica Virtuoso and Devlin, Matador of Magic. At one time you would have seen them and their ilk Sunday nights on the Ed Sullivan Show but now it seems they've all migrated to the cruise ship gigs. The harpist. Shirley plays a small, shiny red harp with individually amplified strings and flashing lights. She either attaches it to a tool belt harness thingy around her waist or to a spinning stand on stage. Now Shirley can play the strings off of that thing but it's just so strange to watch. Devlin wasn't that magical and I must confess I did not go see Bernie. Gotta draw the line somewhere. As on all the ships, the house band is great, ditto, Adagio, the piano/violin duo that we hear every night walking to and from the dining room. The Piano Man at the piano bar seems to have the best gig...maybe an hour or so after dinner. The other night a Motown cover group from England actually got everyone up in the main showroom and singing along to Reach Out. (Love me some Four Tops) After the four guys from Liverpool who tried to sing Four Season songs and failed miserably everyone was a bit dubious that three young guys from London could do the Motown catalog justice but they were great. We saw them at the coffee bar the other morning and told them how much we'd enjoyed their show and they couldn't have been more delightful. Lots of handshaking and thank yous. Rumor has it that these acts get paid well, but it can't be easy going from ship to ship and country to country. It seems that they're always getting off in little Podunk ports and taking itty bitty prop planes to their next gig.

Sea day tomorrow and our turn for the Mariners' Brunch. On each cruise the captain hands out medals to those who have sailed 100, 300, 700 or 1400+ days with HAL. There are so many multiple Mariner's star people on board that they've had to divide up the group and do four of these productions. It's a pretty tedious ceremony, like going to a school play when you don't have a kid in the production, but they keep passing around the wine and Bloody Mary's to dull the senses until it's time to walk to the other end of the ship for brunch. More wine and everyone gets another HAL blue and white tile coaster featuring a drawing of the ship. I've seen them turned into trivets and cheeseboards. I just keep tossing ours into a drawer at home until we have enough to tile wall.

Halifax is our 21st (22nd if you count Boston) and last port of call. We spent last week watching the flooding disasters in and around Houston and now are keeping an eye out on Irma. LOTS of people on board live in Florida and are wondering if they'll be able to get there. We have a morning flight Saturday from Boston to Atlanta which is looking good at this time. If Irma should head into Georgia we can always rent a car and drive to NJ to stay with Jay and Claire. And that sentence was a test to see if either or both or them have been reading this blog!