Arriving in Halifax, Canada, Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Stern of the CSS Acadia, a wooden boat used as a rescue ship launched in 1913 and is oldest artifact owned by the Mariner's Museum. Was used as recent as 1960s. Two cats live aboard and pay for their keep by being official mousers. One of the captains found a mouse left as a gift in his shoe one morning, left by one of the cats.

This flag of Canada is located at the Mariner's Museum located on the wharf. We stopped here on our return to the ship.

Located in Fairview Cementary, about 20 minutes from downtown Halifax, are some of the many tombstones in Halifax of victims from the Titanic. Two other cementeries have fewer burials. This has the most.

More Titanic tombstones. See details below.

This is one of many tombstones in the cementery dedicated to Titanic victims. Many are unmarked but more have been identified by various means. One woman was identified because of the initials J.C. embroidered on her undergarments. She happened to be the only woman with those initials. Below this photo is a tombstone of a mother and names of her four children, the youngest being two. Someone had place four stuffed animals around the tombstone. Needless-to-say, this was a very sad place.

This is an original deck chair from the Titanic. This chair and the object below are located in the Mariner's Museum located on the wharf.

This is an original wood carving which would have been in the grand dining room.

This is located above entrance to the narthex. This was the first church of British origin built in Canada and became the first cathedral of the Church of England outside the motherland.

View of pipes and organ with pulpit in foreground. The organ was installed in 1908 and restored in 1947 and 1960, is the fifth at St. Paul's Church. The original is said to have been purchased in 1765 from the cargo of a captured Spanish ship. We would love to hear it played but we depart early Sunday before services. More than 12,000 worshippers have gathered here to celebrate Christ's death and resurrection, to read God's word and to hear it preached from this pulpit. Nearby is the Royal Pew, reserved for her Majesty the Queen and her appointed representatives.

Front of St. Paul's Church, the oldest Protestant place of workship in Canada. Founded by proclamation of King George II in 1749, the building was erected in the summer of 1750 and first opened its doors on 2nd Sept of that year. The original timbers of St. Paul's were cut in Boston (still a British colony at the time) and shipped to Halifax. Everything else was made locally.

Interior of St. Paul's Anglican Church.

This is the Citadel or clock tower located in the center of town. It's located on the tallest hill in Halifax. Rachel and M.F. climbed the steps to the top. Our hips were screaming by the top and LaVahn stayed behind. We continued up above the tower to a fort which was used in the 1700s to defend the port from the French. Great view of the city but I forgot to take a photo.

George's Island Lighthouse as seen from the wharf. You may have to click on the photo to enlarge.

Devil's Island Lighthouse as seen from the ship as we enter the Port of Halifax, 8:00 AM Tuesday, June 20. M.F.'s and her brother are interested in lighthouses and this one is new to us. Ok, Bones here's a new lighthouse. There will be another one later in this blog.

LaVahn standing on the starboard side of MV Explorer; dock in background. This was taken just after a reception in the faculty/staff lounge. When classes begin, this area will be off limits to students. Once students come aboard on Sunday, there will be approximately 1,000 people on board not including the crew and captain’s staff.

George’s Island Lighthouse, a working lighthouse, we passed on the way to port Monday.

A closer view of George’s Island Lighthouse as seen from port side of our deck.

Another view of George’s Island Lighthouse from the wharf taken yesterday as we returned from our tour of downtown Halifax.

This ends the first blog. So far the ride is smooth and the weather is cool and clear.
MF: A study in Black and White!!! Just like Whistler's Mother.

Rachel (in the pink) is our traveling companion and the lady next to her is the dean of the voyage Karen Ryan. We are enjoying the views of NY harbor and pending thunder storm as we leave.

Here's the dinner with view. Great shot of her with sun reflection between her and our ship. We are officially leaving New York. Now to dinner.
Passing the Empire State Building.

This is our view as the ship leaves the NY harbor well after the embarkation time of 5:00 PM. Dinner was served at 6:00 PM and we wanted to take a picture of the Statue of Liberty. We decided to dine on the stern so we could be outside and see the statue.

Moving out of hotel and leaving NYC

View of our cabin from balcony entrance. We were amazed and considered ourselves lucky because we were on the top deck with very large cabins. Our traveling companion, Rachel also felt lucky as she too was on deck 7. Then we discovered from the pursor that she was not to be in that cabin for now. She was moved into a student room with twin beds supposedly until Sunday. She can't unpack until Sunday in Halifax, CN. So we all moved her things to her tiny cabin.

Finally arrived after haggling with longshore men. They didn't want us to move our stuff on carts. Once we convinced them that we were boarding a ship, they wanted us to put ship luggage tags on. We tried to convince them we were not taking a cruise ship. They finally came up with tags for the QE2, Cunard Line. For those of you who don't know what QE2 is, it's the Queen Elizabeth 2. Wow! We tried to explain that this wasn't the QE2 but the MV Explorer. Finally, I suggested to Rachel she should call our dean. She did and Karen and others arrived to our rescue. Much more haggling took place and then, we were finally allowed to go forward. We arrived on ship around 1:30. We rec'd our cabin assignments and entered with what luggage we could carry. The remaining luggage arrived just before 4 PM. The delay was caused because our ship's crew were not allowed to leave the ship as they were foreign nationals. We could see our luggage on the dock from deck 7. Were we a little nervous???? You bettcha! Here we go again! Packed on the carts again and waiting for Tony to call two cabs! Rachel takes off in one with stuff and we take off finally in a van with more stuff. There was a parade on Fifth Ave. which could take three to four hours so we were lucky to get anything as the parade was beginning two blocks from our hotel, The Roosevelt.

Prologue continued, NYC

Rachel struggling with luggage. We loaded three hotel carts. Tony, our new best friend (after hugh tip) helping. Tony saw the van and said "I'm going on my coffee break." Then we convinced him we had "plenty of money" he wanted to know whether we were moving in or in NY for a Trade Show?" I told him to stick with his day job and not try stand-up comedy!

Prologue continued

This one is self-explanatory-- still loading the van

Prologue

This is the first post of our voyage, June 7, 2008, 8:15 AM from Charlottesville. Packing the rental van. Three of us traveling together -- Mary-Frances "M.F. Hoh, LaVahn Hoh and Rachel Most. We're still disbelieving we're going to be away for three months!