I’ll Do Again…

In my previous post the web gal and I were really looking forward to a cruise on Holland America line from Ft Lauderdale up the east coast, down the St Lawrence and concluding in Montreal. But first a little preamble. Way back in 1996, Harper’s Magazine commissioned a hack writer by the name of David Foster Wallace to go on a Caribbean cruise. The result was a boring, overlong, piece of snark, called A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again which had me utterly mystified why these nerds found it so funny or amusing. 

Unfortunately, I was in the minority opinion on that piece of snark, because it set off a predictable series of anti-cruise articles, culminating with another dirge by this morose drip, Gary Shteyngart, who went on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas debut cruise last January. Another 10 plus pages of interminable prose of why he had such a miserable time on the cruise and spent his nights weeping and mewling into a pillow. Near the end of this painful article, Gary seems to realize all his whining is beyond tedious, when a fellow writer posits on Reddit, “when Gary is done, I think it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.” Amen to that. Again, I’m absolutely and utterly mystified why these life-hating, people-despising, miserable drips would ever have any fun on a cruise ship in the first place. 

I guess I’m lucky in that I love life and I like meeting new people. Also, Holland America must attract a better clientele than the cruises DFW and Gary S went on as I found none of the grotesque morons they found on their cruises. In fact, it was a real pleasure to dine at breakfast, lunch or dinner and meet intelligent, successful, mostly retired business people who had great stories to tell and were excellent listeners themselves. Now I’m not saying every cruise is for everyone. For instance, I have no interest in going on one of those huge, behemoth ships. Why? Well, I don’t have any interest in mall shopping, bowling, golfing, etc. on dry land, so to me, it would be doubly ridiculous to do it on a cruise ship. But give me a ship with under 2,000 passengers, some fine restaurants on board and some interesting stops along the way, which HA’s Volendam did, and hey, I couldn’t walk up its gangway plank fast enuff. 

When we departed Ft. Lauderdale the flat sea gave way to some rock and rolling Atlantic waves for the first two days at sea and I found myself trying to reassure the web gal, who doesn’t like to sail, that it would cool out eventually. Thankfully by the time we pulled into our first stop, Newport, Rhode Island the waves had decreased by a lot. Not a lot to do in Newport, but we did have fun at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum. And the web gal loaded up on pullovers and sweatshirts with Newport on the front as it was a little nippy.

Next day’s stop in Boston was fantastic. First stop was its Museum of Fine Arts and the Art in Bloom event was on. What a great time we had. Easily one of the best museums in the US. The web gal had to sit down, after taking in three rooms of incredible paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, etc. “It’s very beautiful, but it’s almost too much. I can’t take it all in. We’ll have to come back.” After all the art, we took the Green Line to the TD Garden where I got to get my pic with the statue of my childhood hero Bobby Orr. Then it was off to one of our best dining experiences ever at Ma Maison restaurant. It all came together with exquisite food, terrific service and atmosphere. Such a great experience, it deserves its own post which is soon to follow. 

Portland Maine was next day’s stop. Beautiful sunny day to walk around, which we did. Man, if you like pubs, Portland, Maine is the town you need to be. Before getting back on the ship we found a nice wine tasting shop, Cellardoor Winery, where the web gal bought a bottle of 2019 American Rosé to enjoy.

On into Canada and our first stop was the coastal city of Halifax. Web gal loaded up on some more T-shirts and a nice dark navy Halifax sweatshirt. I was happy to pull up a couple of chairs at the Bicycle Thief restaurant where we had a fine meal of seafood. The web gal was thrilled with her crab cakes and I enjoyed my grilled seafood and pasta. Another post on that experience to follow. 

Next day’s stop in Sydney didn’t have a lot to offer, but I did get lucky in finding this little shop that had these fantastic silk-like shirts with all the world’s countries and oceans printed on front to back. Definitely an eye-catching piece of clothing that I’ve been getting lots of compliments on and a good reminder I still got to see the other half of the world.  The Web gal scored some tasty fudge at Cape Breton Fudge Co. on the dockside market.

Charlottetown, PEI was a fine little town, tons of seafood places that looked good but I made the mistake of going to a steak house called Sims. Ordered the steak sandwich and it was awful, acrid burnt steak in a horrible sauce that I sent back after a couple of bites. And the web gal wasn’t too impressed with her chowder or burger for that matter. Grilled oysters with bernaise sauce were decent though. Oh well, one bum lunch out of a two week trip isn’t too bad. 

A two day stop in Quebec City was fantastic, with the web gal climbing up the roads and stairs to the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac hotel and complaining all the way LOL. But once in the hotel lobby she was happy as their beverage director, Zsombor Mezey, was a fine host showing us around the three restaurants and bars on the main lobby with perfect views of the harbor. Another post on that experience to follow. 

Montreal concluded our cruise and we had fun walking thru the city streets with our bags, before taking a bus to Schwartz’s famous deli where we got a couple of great smoke meat sandwiches for our train trip to Toronto. City streets were deserted as it was game 7 with the Leafs playing my Bruins and when we checked into our hotel, found all was right with the world as my Bruins had won and Leaf fans were bummed for another year.  Cheers