And ending in ... Portland

 Today we pulled into Portland, Maine. The weather was rainy. The port was foggy. We got some neat pics on the way in.

We were told that since Portland was our first American stop after all the Canadian trips, we all had to get off the ship and go through Customs, even if you didn't have plans to get off the ship, everyone had to. So we were in group 21, and we're waiting. As we're waiting, I get a text from my sister.

My mom had had a medical emergency and had to be rushed to the hospital. We didn't have an idea of what was happening yet, so I was like, okay, let's just wait a sec and see what's happening. Within an hour, we found out, things were dire. She wasn't going to wake up. So now, Husband and I had to get off the boat fast and fly over to Utah. PJ and I quickly threw all of our stuff into luggage as Adam rebooked our flights from Boston (our final cruise location) from Portland and we were rushing. We got all of our luggage packed and then decided to make a run for the airport. On the way out, I was crying of course, and we're on a ship of old women (Holland America is definitely an old persons cruise) and I got a lot of hugs from a lot of grandma's. It took a while to deboard (because we had to sign paperwork saying that we were getting off here of our own accord) and then we rushed to the airport. We had an hour or so to wait and then got on the flight. We switched planes at JFK (after a 3 hour layover, good lord) and finally made it to Utah at around 10:00 PM. We had been up for such a long time at this point and we were ready to rest. 

Halifax!

 Guys, finally, to a good location! We got to Halifax today and we had a LOT on the to-do list. We kicked it off by going to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which you know is our jam, especially since there's a Titanic section!

They have the deck chairs modeled after the deck chairs on the Titanic, so of course I had to sit in it.

Then we went to the Citadel in Halifax, of course.

What a lovely day!

Sydney

 Y'all, Sydney was a boring, boring stop. There was nothing to do here, its such a small town that nothing is here. There's a giant cello. That was fun.

Shoutout to the lady who took this picture who cut off the top of the cello, smh. 

And of course ... a church.

Would not recommend Sydney. Boring.

Prince Edward Island

 Yesterday was an "at sea" day, so nothing really of note happened. We had afternoon tea on board and played games, so not much to report.

Today, we got to Prince Edward Island, which people should recognize as the location of the filming of the 80's movies/series Anne of Green Gables. The island definitely leans into that, and it's fun. We went to a church, of course, and then went and did a tour of a house (I can't remember why it's a famous place but it was cool also)

This wreath is in the house we toured ... and it's made of dead people's hair. Yeah. 

Pretty cool house, at least. 

Quebec City

 Today was the first day of our cruise - and it was just staying in Quebec City haha. We took the day to really explore the area, and we got to take a full on tour of the citadel. Here's the Citadel at night from our ship:

And there it is during the day. The tour was so great, and the whole island was so nice.

And there's our ship! Isn't she a beaut? 

Cruise Time!

 Today, we kicked off another cruise and this time, we went to the other side of Canada. We flew into Quebec City last night, and we're going to kick off a week of cruising down the Canadian coast and finishing in Boston. We did the overnight flight from LAX and then went right to the cruise ship. We spent the day walking around Quebec City, and had a nice time in this warm weather. 

We went inside this church, and then walked around the fort. There are approximately 1 million cannons surrounding the island, as this was their fortress and protection. 

Johnny 5 Is Alive!

 I got this Lego set for my birthday, and there's nothing I wanted more. Its a knock off set, not "real" Lego but its so fantastic. This is definitely one of my favorite movies as a kid, Short Circuit 2. It's...Johnny 5.

This was insanely hard but its so great. And it moves around and everything like a tiny robot!