New Brunswick and Nova Scotia part of the Cruise

To continue with our trip up the east coast:

On day four of our cruise we landed in New Brunswick and got off in St. John. NB is a Canadian Provence still part of the British Commonwealth.  St. John is an unassuming little place with one real tourist attraction. Its actually a natural phenomenon that takes place where the Bay of Fundy meets the St. John River. When the Bay of Fundy is at low tide the St. John River flows normally and there are rapids in certain areas. Below is a picture of the river rapids at low tide.

The picture to the right shows how strong the rapids are headed down stream. This was in the morning around 10:00 am. Later in the day around 4:30 when the tide had started coming in the water rose about 14 feet and caused the river to slow down and actually start going in the opposite direction. 

Take a look at the pictures below. The tide has come in, look at how still the water is now. 

Pretty crazy huh!

In the middle of the day before we returned to the river we ventured off to a little place called St. martin. A tiny fishing cove on the Bay of Fundy where fishing boats sit silently waiting for the tide to roll in and take them back out to harvest the catch of the day. One of the things that the locals harvest is seaweed. They harvest Dulse and lay it out on the rocks to dry. 

St. Martin is also dotted with adorable little gift cottages where the owners sell locally made gifts and the Dulse that they harvest form the Bay. 

Halifax Nova Scotia was the last excursion we went on. Interesting fact Nova Scotia is actually a Scottish Provence under British rule. Our guides wore their tartan plaid kilts. We headed out to a sweet little winery where we toured the vineyards then went in side to taste several of their wines. I have to say they were all very good, smooth and fruity even the reds which although dry still had a pleasant bold flavor. They also make ice wines, and a special little dessert wine from the marchel foche grapes. They allow them to freeze then thaw them and make this amazing wine that I know will be phenominal with chocolate cake. Marchel Foche is one of my favorite wines with chocolate but this one is going to blow everyone's mind when I serve it for the holidays.

The vineyard at Grande Pre winery

View of the surrounding area

 We went back into town and had lunch at Rosies Dinner. I had a lobster roll and have to say I wish I had had the seafood chowder it looked great but my lobster roll was just so so. Lisa and Daddy had onion rings and they were great as was Anettes Beet burger. I wish we had had time for shopping there were several shops that I would have like to gone into. Later back at port we were able to check out some of the shops and I found my Greene family crest on a coaster so I grabbed it. It was cool to see it, Jeff had told me what it was years ago but to see it on something was pretty great. They also had our tartan but they are so expensive that I could not afford to buy that. 

We spent the last two days at sea heading back to Baltimore. We layed out by the pool during the day, went in the hot tub and ate. We saw shows at night and danced our feet off. The shows were good and the music and games were great fun. We played this one game the last night called Quest. It was hilarious, it would take to long to describe it just take my word for it it was crazy. All in all the trip was so much fun and it was great to get away from the stress of everyday life. 

Bon Voyage