Cherry Pie Lady Seven: Cruise up the New England Coast/Lobster and Seafood Chowder

I told you I would be doing some more travel and food posts and true to my word here is another one.
This is my second travel post there probably will not be another for a while because I am starting school in a week so I won't be traveling for a while.

I am going to break the post up into a couple starting with the first few days. On this trip I went on a cruise with my sister, daddy and step mother. We traveled up the New England Coast and into up Canada at New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. You might be thinking how did she afford a cruise when she just parted from her job and is going back to school. Well my sister paid for everything, she had planned this cruise to celebrate daddy turning 80 and she turning 50. Her husband couldn't make it as planned so I filled in in his place. I am so lucky to have such a sweet and generous sister. Thank you sister Lisa for giving me such a wonderful vacation.

The cruise was with Royal Caribbean on the ship Grandeur of the Seas. The ship was beautiful an older (20 yrs) grand style with a majestic feel. Most of the passengers appeared to be older and very laid back; but I later found that they partied into the night way past my bedtime.

The first day was a sea day and we all decided to get to know the ship so we went exploring. We found where pretty much everything important was and then we dressed for dinner and made our way down to the dinning room for an early dinner. Upon entering the restaurant (The Great Gatsby) I immediately noticed the white table linens and sparkling place settings. But most noticeable was the statue of a 1920's style woman dressed in an elegant ball gown remenecent of the late great Josephine Baker.

We were taken to our table and promptly greeted with a smile by our waiter Arturo from the Philipines. It turned out that on the ship all of the staff were from some exotic location, only one turned out to be from the US, the head chef.

We had another day at sea then we arrived in Boston to begin our first day of shore excursions. This was the first of four total that were planned. In Boston we went on a Trolly tour of the city. The tour guide was quite the history buff and went on and on pointing out every historical site there is in Boston. It was very informative but a bit too much information for a one and a half hour tour. The city was beautiful however and we did enjoy some wonderful chowder at the market in the downtown area. I think if I did Boston again by tour I would select the Ghost and Grave Yard tour. I love grave yards and I bet there would be a lot of great stories on the grave stones to read.

At the second excursion we got off in Portland Maine. We took a bus tour from there to Kenny Bunk, there are actually 3 parts to Kenny Bunk; Kenny Bunk Port, Kenny Bunk Beach and just plane Kenny Bunk. We saw all three which were beautiful and then ended up in Kenny Bunk Port for Lunch. We ate at the Pilot House a busy little spot where I had a delightful clam chowder that was flavorful and full of clams. Daddy had fish and chips and Anette and Lisa had fried oysters. Everything was delicious and we were able to eat outside which was a treat because the view was beautiful.

Kenny Bunk Port is a quaint little village with lots of gift shops.

This day it was crawling with visitors trying to get in their last shore visit before falls chill filled the air. It kind of reminded me of a Cabots Cove from that Angela Landsbury show "Murder She Wrote". The tour guide assured us that it was not filmed there but she did get questions about it often. We could have spent some real time shopping; but we had to keep moving in order to get back to the ship before it left us. In fact we were literally the last 4 people on the ship that day, they closed the door behind us. I enjoyed this trip but felt like we should have had more time for shopping and less time seeing President Bushes compound. I didn't really care about seeing his house.

On the ferry headed to Bar Harbor

Next we stopped in Bar Harbor which doesn't have a port so we had to be ferried over to the island by boat. We discovered that back in Boston some of the crew jumped ship so there were home land security guys on shore when we arrived. We got on a bus and were off to Acadia National Park one of the many parks that President Theodore Roosevelt created. This was a scenic ride on winding roads through beautiful forest filled with many different types of trees, many that I did not recognize. We stopped at the Bass Head Light House and had time to walk around and get some really great pictures. This was a treat for me as I am an avid light house enthusiast. I have a whole wall in my living room filled with paintings, sketches, and photo's of them.

View of the shore from the light house

Next we were off to Thunder Hole where the waves come crashing in on the rocks that protrude high above the shore line. As it crashes into the rocks it sprays high into the air delighting its audience but watch out for the spray that catches those that get to close.

We then ventured up to Cadillac Mountain the highest point on the US East Coast. Again we were able to get some very pretty shots. It was beautiful up there.

Top of Cadillac Mountain

For Lunch we stopped at a great little place for a lobster bake "Bar Harbor Lobster Bakes". We had lobster and green mussels with corn on the cob and baby red potatoes dripping with butter. The lobster was sweet and tender and the mussels were delicious as well.