Wednesday, October 5, 2022 (Happy Birthday, Maren!)
We are in Canada! Keith was startled to find out that Tom and Louise have not been to Canada, because when they told him previously that they had not been to Canada, he thought that meant this Canada, not all Canada. That is still making me laugh.
We experienced the Bay of Fundy today – the highest tide (28 feet) pushes the river backwards, then when the tide goes out, the river reverses. We saw it gently going one way in the morning, then roaring the opposite way in the late afternoon. Hearing about it is interesting; seeing it is quite amazing.
We went to a market built by ship builders. The ceiling of the building looks like the inverted hull of a ship (because that is the only way they knew how to build things). As with all of our stops, we were on a time schedule and I spent most of our time waiting to use the restroom. As I zoomed along the row of vendors, I saw a guy explaining candy to a customer. I was intrigued. A local candy? I should have that. I paused and looked. It said FUDGE AND PEANUTS FONDANT & ARACHIDES What? Arachnids? Spiders? I know what arachnids are. I have taken 7th grade science a lot of times. Oh my good, this is spider candy. I ran away. Back on the bus, our guide told us about the inventor of the candy that was inspired by treats he took fishing with him, and he wanted to name it after his fishing buddy. His friend was not interested in having his name on a candy bar, so it ended up being named Pal-o-Mine. It turns out that (like everything else in New Brunswick) the label is in both English and French. Fondant & Arachides is French for fudge and peanuts. I could’ve gotten one of those. At the end of the cruise, our guide (a former teacher) was asking quiz questions – and we could win a Pal-o-Mine bar. Her first question was why were right whales named right whales? I immediately raised my hand and repeated what she had said when she told us about right whales – Right whales are named right whales because they were the right whales to hunt. She said No to my answer (with the expression that she had no memory saying that earlier). She did not ask, nor let me just answer, what right whales were hunted for, which was whale oil (just like virtually every other whale). I immediately suspected she hadn’t been a very good teacher (BUT she was very nice and she was really, really, really, really better than the trolley guy from Boston, so I should haven’t said not nice things about her. But I did).
We went to St. Martins Sea Caves in-between that river watching. We enjoyed the bouncy bus ride through Canada. Once at the beach, we enjoyed scouring the rocks, looking for wish rocks – beach rocks with a continuous line, usually a band of white quartz, circling the rock. When you find your special rock, you make a wish. When your wish comes true, you pass your rock on to a friend. They have recently changed the story to say make a wish and toss the rock into the ocean, because the cruise lines were complaining that people were hauling great big rocks back. I am sticking with the real legend – I took my rock. I also took a lot of pictures of rocks. How can looking at rocks be so much fun? We were there at low tide, so we could see the rocks. During high tide, the sea caves and the beach are under water. Whooosh.
When we got back to the port, Keith and I decided to walk up the hill to a particular store to buy a birthday present for our friend, Maren (see the date above. If you can’t give someone a present on their birthday, you can buy one on their birthday). The hill had been mentioned as very steep when our bus went up it, but whatever, right? Wrong. It caused a lot of heart thumping and then a lot of resting. It was really pretty funny. We secured the birthday item and headed back toward the boat, entirely sure that walking down would be easy. Wrong again. It was so steep that my toes were screaming at me to stop stomping them into the front of my boots. I walked the last 20 feet backwards because it hurt so much. We are so old (and chubby and round). I could have gotten her a rock. NOW I think of that.
Tom and Louise went to dinner to enjoy lobster (and they did), while Keith and I napped in our room. We enjoyed the production show, Spotlight Bar, which is new to the fleet and was really good. The dancers are just terrific. We ended up up on deck, cuddling in covers in comfy chairs. Louise and I ate popcorn, and Tom and Keith sampled pizza, burgers, and desserts. We were in a very good location for that (I guess that location is just called a cruise ship). Louise said she thought this would not be their last cruise – they are having that much fun.
Win!