My sister and brother-in-law agreed to take me with them on a crusie along the east coast of the United States and Canada. We flew to Boston and then sailed the Atlantic Ocean going north to the ports of Portland, Maine, Bar Harbor, Ma., Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our trip package provided for a shuttle-bus ride from the Boston airport to the pier where our ship, Jewel of the Seas, waited. We boarded the ship about 2:00 p.m. but were not scheduled to sail until 5:00 p.m. It was a big ship, or so it seemed to me. It was said to hold 2,500 passengers plus the crew and was 12 decks high. We explored the ship while waiting for our baggage to arrive at our room. There was a nice dining room called the Windjammer that had tables lined up along the windows so you could look out at the sea as you ate. There was a beautiful ice sculpture that stood about 5 feet tall, along with some intricately carved watermelons depicting flowers and other scenes carved into the rinds and flesh.

In the evening there was a mandatory safety drill where we were instructed on how to wear a life vest and were to go in the event of an evacuation. After that we went to the theater and enjoyed a comic act. I could not help but notice coming out after the show that there was a gambling casino right next to the theater. How convenient! We stopped in there briefly and I managed to win around $35 in the first few minutes on the penny slots. I had the good sense to quit and go back to our cabin for the evening.

The next mornig I saw that we had docked and so we ate a quick breakfast and went to see some of Portland. There were the usual gift shops and tourists traps to browse through. I took several pictures around the pier area and then we walked several blocks further from the pier to explore more of the surrounding neighborhood. We passed a man dress up as a lobster, all in red, and I asked if I could take his picture. He obliged and posed with his claws (hands) held up. Then I asked him to turn around so I could get a shot of the back of the costume, which read "Eat Me!". I then put a dollar in his tip can and we continued on our way.

Back on the ship, we signed up for a whale watch tour in Bar Harbor, which was to be our next port. I had hoped we could have taken a horse-drawn ride through Portland but we tried to get on that too late. As it turned out the trip was completely booked, so we learned to get there early to sign up for something that looked good to do because everyone else also wanted to do the same thing.

Stay tuned for the next blog which will cover the whale watch and go from there.........