On Thursday we docked in Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. We took a bus that drove about an hour away to Elmhurst Outdoors which is run by husband and wife team, Gig and Denise. They have lots of land and tap about 300 trees a year for maple syrup. Gig is a retired teacher, so he gave us quite the interesting history lesson as walked around the property. He showed us how indigenous peoples started the process of making syrup then how settlers advanced the technology to approximately what we use today. Now we just have bigger and faster machines that can do what they were doing. He taught us about the five different types of maple and which ones are best for sap. He explained how they actually get the sap out of the trees too and what an impact the weather has on this process. It was pretty interesting information on a topic that I previously knew nothing about.
We got to inside the little sugar shack (pictured above) which is where they have their equipment. It's all wood burning so they had a huge stack of cut logs outside too. On the wall was a little display that shows it takes about 40 small pails of sap to equal 1 little pail of maple syrup! The rest of it just evaporates out along the way. This is what gives it the condensed intense flavor.
When we came back down the hill, Gig set up a really cool demonstration for us. He has a little trough that he put snow into. Then he poured maple syrup on to it, and showed us how to roll the syrup onto sticks in it to form a little candy.
We all got to participate and try this out.
This was made with a dark, late season, syrup. Mia didn't love it, but Ryan, Lily and I certainly did; we were happy to back for seconds! It did have a pretty intense flavor to it.
Next up, we went inside their little cabin and Denise had prepared a pancake breakfast for each person to enjoy (along with a sausage from a nearby farm, orange slices, and apple juice or coffee). We got to try their lighter, early season syrup with this. We were all really big fans of this one which led us to buy a lot of syrup to bring home for ourselves and others. This was a delicious and fun outing!
On Friday we docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We left the boat and immediately got on a tour bus bound for Peggy's Cove. It was an absolutely beautiful drive there and back; thankfully we had another gorgeous day. Peggy's Cove was actually really crowded as it was a national holiday in Canada, so a lot of people were out and about. That didn't stop us from enjoying the beautiful scenery all around.
You can't go inside the lighthouse, but you can walk all around it.
There's a small town right around here, but unfortunately, we didn't have too much time to explore. I wished we'd had another hour or so here. It seems like a cute little area!
We enjoyed the bus ride back to Halifax and decided to spend some time walking around downtown near the water. It's such a well developed area for tourists. We found a great area with lots of little food stalls. I couldn't resist getting another lobster roll; this one was called their "so fancy" one because it's warm in a butter, garlic, herb sauce. It was definitely tasty. Ryan and Lily shared some cheeseburger poutine since poutine is a Canadian favorite. Mia went with a good 'ole hot dog. We were about to get some ice cream for dessert when Ryan and Lily noticed the ladies at the table next to us had something that looked really good, so they asked for more info. They told us about Beaver Tails which is along the lines of a flat, thin funnel cake with different topics. We couldn't wait to try these! Lily tried "the classic" which has cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. Mia went with "apple pie" which has apple pie filling and a caramel drizzle on it. Ryan and I both got the "mehple" which has a maple flavored spread and maple sugar crunch on top. Oh my goodness, these were so good; I would love to try all the different flavors available!
Saturday was spent sailing at sea as we headed back towards New York. It was actually a rainy day which was the first day of poor weather we experienced. The Breakaway had several fun parts to it, so we enjoyed a day onboard. Here's some of the fun we had, both on Saturday and on other days of the week.
Mia and I had a great time on the ropes coarse. They had lots of different lines to try out which was really fun. This cruise was made up mostly of older individuals; we only saw a few other kids on the boat. This made an adventure like the ropes coarse not crowded at all which was awesome.
You can even zip line across the boat!
Lily tried out some basketball skills while we climbed.
They had an oversized chess board on one of the decks which drew the girls in. The played two games with Mia winning one and Lily winning the other. Sounds like we need to go back for a rematch.
We had fun trying out hand at mini bowling...yeah, we're not very good.
There was quite a bit of good food onboard too. The Bake Shop was one of our favorite areas. They had cupcakes (regular size and mini for tasting), macarons, chocolates, and gelato. We may have gotten a scoop of gelato just about every day it was so good!
We had two specialty dining experiences while here. One was in an Italian restaurant which Ryan and I loved on our Mediterranean cruise last fall; this one didn't quite live up to that. We also went to the Brazilian restaurant which we all four loved. We ate O'Sheean's pub several times, and we tried out the American Diner and Savor restaurants. The girls enjoyed a movie with room service while Ryan and I went to the main dining room one evening. Of course, we ate at the buffet most of the time which was pretty good. Any place that gives this pretty and yummy of a dessert (passionfruit cheesecake slice) will get a good review from me!
We had a ton of fun in the arcade! Again, with so few kids onboard, we pretty much had this to ourselves!
One of the coolest things we did in more ways than one was visit the Skyy Vodka Lounge. This lounge is kept at 17 degrees and everything in it is made of ice...the bar, the seats, the table...everything. They give you a warm(ish) parka and gloves to wear. They serve drinks (alcoholic or not) in a cone shaped ice cup. We stayed in about 20 minutes before we had to step back out and warm up!
Not too surprising, the entertainment was some of our favorite part of the time onboard.
The Breakaway had two incredible shows going. One was called "Burn the Floor" which is a Broadway show that says it's about the evolution of ballroom dancing. This hour long show was so incredibly energetic with awesome dancing. We all really enjoyed it.
The Breakaway was also featuring the Broadway musical "Six." The girls had actually asked about seeing this while we were in New York, but since we knew it would be onboard, we decided to go see the other shows and wait to see this one here. It was a lot of fun when we boarded and got to tell the girls we had one final surprise for them because Six was the headlining show onboard. There were four performances, and we reserved tickets to see the first and last ones. Of course, now we're all going around humming and singing these songs. I loved that at the end of the show, they allow the audience to take pictures of all the Queens. This show was amazing!
When it came time for the last show, the cruise director came out and told the audience that one of the performers had injured herself in the last show and had not been given medical clearance to perform. We later learned that the original performer was injured and it was actually her swing that was injured which is why they couldn't perform; they simply didn't have anyone else and with six main characters, you kind of need them all. We were all so disappointed because we had loved the first performance so much. We were delighted the next day when we had a note delivered to our staterooms saying they would be performing a "Queen's Cabaret" on the last day of sailing to help make up for the missing performance. This was about an hour long performance, and each of the ladies performed several different solo songs. Some were Broadway while others were pop or country. Not as great as Six but still a very fun show, and we really appreciated Norwegian pulling this together.
While we ate lunch on the last day, we realized the table just down from us were some of the stage crew for Six. Lily went up afterwards and asked if it was possible to meet the Queen performers. They told us that they would be eating at the buffet at 8:30 that evening, so you better believe that's where we enjoyed our final meal onboard. The girls (and Ryan and I if I'm being honest) were so excited when they came in. Lily went over to tell them what a great job they did and ask if they would mind taking a picture. The ladies were so gracious to do so. We got to meet four of the Queens we saw performance plus one of the Queens who performed at the cabaret. It was great to meet these lovely performers!
This was such a fun trip! I'm so thankful for my family, and I will treasure all the time I have with them. We visited some beautiful areas of the US and Canada, ate a ton of good food, saw lots of amazing entertainment, and had fun and laughed a whole lot together. It gave us all memories that will last a lifetime.