Last night the video was a work in progress because it isn’t
finished yet. Clay and I were both in it, though the videographer Kevin Freeny
must have really worked to get us since we both avoid photographers. It is just
a few seconds each and you’d have to know it was us. I have a parka hood up and
am shot from the back and side but you can see my tremor. Clay has his camera
over his face with a big lens and he is cut into footage of a fishing trip that
saw whales when his whale watching cruise was changed to a fjord cruise. Maybe
we won’t make the final cut. They will either deliver DVDs or flash drives to
our homes one per booking number after the cruise. The big surprise of the
evening was Edie Rodriguez onstage before and after the video. She held a
drawing at each showing for the commemorative gold pendant they are taking
orders for onboard. She also talked about a North East Passage cruise with the
new polar expedition yacht Crystal have ordered. You have to wonder what it
takes to bring her on in Bar Harbor and off in Boston. I mean ordinarily people
can’t get on and off foreign-flagged ships between US ports. Anyway, she said
she was jealous of us all and had to come when she could and this was when she
could. She thanked us all for the success of this inaugural sailing. She said
Crystal was going to put out a photobook through Amazon and other online
outlets made up of shared photos by passengers because she had been so thrilled
with what we were posting online through social and other media. She said all
profits from sales would be given to the NWP communities as part of their
voluntourism charity effort. It was a nice touch.
We both slept through the night and I didn’t think it was
too rough. I woke up before 6:30am to find Clay out of the cabin as we were
entering Boston Harbor. We docked at Black Falcon Terminal where we were with
Oceania last year. What a difference! Well done Crystal! The complimentary shuttles
were well handled. The ship was announced cleared at 8am. The shuttle schedule
said the first one left at 9am. If that was true, then we were on it. Through
laziness or disinterest or something, no one had a plan here. Our cabin wasn’t
ready so I went into the computer room and used their much faster connection to
do some research. It turned out that we had done a good chunk of the North part
of the Freedom Trail when we did the US Park Ranger led free tour last year. We
could try for the 30-person group on the South portion at either 10am or 1pm.
So, we went back to the cabin and changed our clean up light to do not disturb and
got ready for the day. It was almost 70F already with a forecast high of 82. I think
it got hotter! We were first in line at 9:30am at Faneuil Hall when they
started handing out tour tickets for 10am. It was a small group. The south side
tour did not cover as much of interest and did not cover as much ground and we
had a pretty poor ranger/guide. Last year the guy we got was much better.
Today, the girl just read from the backs of her prop pages. In her defense, she
didn’t have as much to show us as the North side. Just sayin’.
We walked past a place called Cheeseboy that had a S’mores
Melt photo in the window. Nutella, marshmallow and graham crackers on cinnamon sugar
bread. At 11:10am when the tour ended, we checked out the Boston Irish Famine
Memorial and then crossed the street and shared one. It was very messy. Then we
walked back to Quincy Market and to Durgin-Park for lunch after 11:30am.
Through a lack of imagination and research we returned to Durgin-Park. I had my
cornbread and Boston baked beans. Clay had a baker’s dozen of raw oysters and we
shared a warm Indian pudding with vanilla ice cream. Clay had a red brick
Samuel Adams beer. It was good and filling. Back out into the sun and heat we
walked through Quincy Market to the New England Aquarium. It was about $25
each. That seemed high for a compact 4-story aquarium. We thought it would be
cooler in there. It wasn’t and it was even more humid. It was fine though. They
had 3 kinds of penguins. You could see the harbor seals from outside without
even paying and they were in the shade with a breeze so that would be a
bargain.
We walked past a dancing fountain that people were playing
in and sat in the shade to watch for a bit. It was surrounded by Chinese zodiac
head sculptures. Walked back to the shuttle bus about 2:30pm and took an almost
full bus back to Serenity. I was so drained from the sun and humidity that I
stripped off and took a nap. I slept a couple of hours and missed a big thunderstorm.
I was glad we came back early since we hadn’t carried anything for rain as
there was not a cloud in the sky all morning.
We had our last of 4 complimentary dinners in Silk Road. We
had dishes we’d had before and it was all good even though I had to send my steak
back to get it well done. That is the first time that has happened. We plan to
go to the Billy Joel show tonight. It will be only about our 3rd or
4th time in the Galaxy Lounge at night.
A couple of other notes. Our cabin window was washed today!
Hurray! Better late than never. I was sure they had to wash it before the next
cruise began anyway. Tonight on our bed we found a North West Passage certificate
on our bed for each of us, so there’s that. We traveled 7273 nautical miles. Still
nothing for becoming bluenoses by crossing the Arctic Circle. Oh well. We also
got a printed copy of the words to the song Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers.
They have played that a lot on this cruise as our sailaway music otherwise they
play Louis Armstrong’s It’s a Wonderful World.
photos
photos
