Onboard this morning I watched a man carve heads into the insides of golf balls. He usually leaves a little of the white on the top and bottom and puts a small suction cup on the bottom. He said he's made thousands and gives them away-many to golf tournaments for fundraisers, etc. He does the same thing with baseballs.
We walked around the small town of Sydney a little bit-saw old houses and 2 old churches. One was the St. George Anglican Church, built in 1785 for the Army garrision's engineers who laid out the town. A man who was there representing the church said now they can't afford to heat it every Sunday. Tom went to a small military museum that holds a lot of military vehicles now.
The traditional music of Nova Scotia features a lot of fiddle accompaniment.
Today the Nova Scotian sisters played on one of the decks while we ate crepes and traditional Canadian breakfast foods.
Tonight we watched some of the crew perform a show and then went to one of the bars to hear a band play Motown for an hour and miscellaneous songs the next hour. Were very good and the female singer sounded like Etta James, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, etc.
14th:
This is the 250th anniversary year of Charlottetown. This is Anne of Green Gables territory. A couple of tours to the farm that influenced the books was offered at $125 each. I never read the books and Tom certainly wasn't interested, so we passed on them. (I bought 8 of the books recently to read).
This is Canada's potato country, which grow well in the reddish soil. We saw them advertised for 75 cents for 5 pounds. There is an 8 mile long Confederation bridge. Other tours were very expensive, too. You could rent a car and driver for 2 people for 4 hours for $700, or 8 hours for $1300. We walked around instead! Tom's photo club assignment for October is to photograph church doors, so it's been fun to find some. He shot the one on St. Dunstan's Basilica that was built 1897-1907 and is high Victorian Gothic architecture.
A couple and their young twin boys were in town and I asked them if them if they were from the ship because I had heard there were twin boys onboard. They said yes. I asked where they live and he said Couer D' Alene, Idaho, and were so surprised when I told them our daughter and family live in the town 3 miles away.
Saw an olive oil factory that had Tex-Mex blend, smoked jalapeno, and sells Mexican rub. At a café 4 cups of clam chowder, 2# of mussels, and a bottle of blanc was $95-no we don't like mussels. We ate in a restaurant that used to also house Reddin's pharmacy. (friends were named Reddin). Maple mustard for sale. Anne of Green Gables shop makes chocolate covered potato chips. We saw these in New Hampshire, too.
Each corner in town has a small garden which has been adopted by a business or organization. The currency in Canada is coins, like much of Europe and the British Isles.
On the side of a building was a large blackboard entitled "Before I Die". I wrote that I want to do a lot more traveling.
Last year was the worst winter here in 50 years, with 17' of snow. A shop owner told us he has a 13' sign in his yard that he didn't see for 4 months.
Back onboard ship we watched huge mansions on the shore. Thirty percent of this crew are Filipino. Tonight they performed a 30 minute show featuring their traditional dances and music and dress. It was nice.
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