Praying for the Fog to Clear at Peggy’s Cove near Halifax

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I set my phone to wake us at 5:30 AM; but, must have left with roaming on and somehow it decided the actual time was an hour ahead of what it was. When I got out of bed at what I thought was 6:00 AM and planned to head for the gym, I realized what happened. Instead of going back to bed, I finished yesterday’s blog before going up to work out in the gym, concentrating on legs today. When that was done, Sharon and I went up to the Lido for breakfast. We had an early tour that needed to be ashore at 9:15 AM. I had a couple of bowls of Muesli and Sharon had some French Toast. Afterwards, we checked out the menu for the Dining Room, where it is the second “Formal Night” featuring their “Surf and Turf”. We stopped by the library to pick up today’s Sudoku; which, I was pleased to see was already available. If I recall correctly, on previous cruises the day’s new puzzles didn’t appear before 10:00 AM. I made a minor blunder on the Easy puzzle, but wasted too much time realizing that I’d caught the mistake before the “waterfall effect” made recovery impossible. Sharon finished a minute ahead of me. On the Hard puzzle; however, I finished quite a bit ahead. It’s no wonder that I consider the Easy puzzle as the warm-up for the main event.

We went to our cabin to wait for our planned departure (and for me to watch a bit of Wimbledon). We then heard seven short blasts of the emergency alarm, and Officer on watch soon came on over the sound system to announce that smoke had been detected in the engine room. We decided that maybe it was a good time to walk ashore, with the gang plank just a few steps down our starboard hallway. Before we got off the captain announced that it was a false alarm and thanked the crew for their prompt actions.

We had a large bus to take us out to Peggy’s Cove today. The visibility at the port concerned us, as the fog was restricting visibility. It took about one hour to drive out to Peggy’s Cove, a coastal outcropping of rocks and boulders. Approaching Peggy’s Cove our guide noted how the trees were disappearing and eventually the terrain was covered with boulders deposited from the last ice age. We could see the light house; but, the fog made the surrounding surf and coastline disappear into a white haze. Before we were released to explore the lighthouse on our own, our guide gave us a live lobster demonstration by an old British style red phone booth in front of the restaurant. We were shown how to tell the difference between male and female lobsters, the two types of claws, the big one for crushing and the smaller one for grabbing. These two claws on the two 24 ounce lobsters that we got to handle were both secured so that we wouldn’t get pinched; but, mainly they secure them so that when the lobsters are in the lobster tank that they don’t damage each other. Those who wanted to, had a chance to hold one in each hand and get their picture taken: one with the guide decked out in his tartan kilt and one alone with the lobster. Peggy’s Cove is in Nova Scotia; whose, translation is “New Scotland”. Sharon and I both took turns taking each other’s picture holding the lobsters. We took some pictures up by the lighthouse, walked around a bit, and then assembled for our lunch at the busy restaurant which was also providing meals for tour groups from the Queen Mary 2 that was berthed in front of us at the terminal. We were seated at a table for four and Sharon got a Coca-Cola; while, the rest of us asked for water. The waitress brought each of us a bowl of seafood chowder. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the soup was, with plenty of seafood and shrimp and quite a few large chunks of lobster. The chopped up potatoes, were the right size and the meal came with a fresh roll and crackers. People had the choice of the seafood chowder or a vegetable bisque, which Sharon didn’t think that she’d care for, so I got 2 bowls of chowder. We also got some fresh gingerbread for dessert, with the choice of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or a lemon sauce topping. I got the ice cream and Sharon the whipped cream, and she was happy to get some gingerbread. I enjoyed the ice cream and a couple of bites of gingerbread, and I think Sharon was happy to get a second helping of my gingerbread. After lunch we walked down into the small hamlet of Peggy’s Cove with its year-round residence of 35 and out onto a wharf where the operation of an old style wooden lobster trap was explained. Lobsters are lured into the trap by bait, such as cut up mackerel. Our guide informed us that a lot of people wouldn’t consider eating lobster if they knew what lobsters ate! Lobsters crawl up a funneled netting and fall into the “kitchen” part of the trap, where the bait is secured on a vertical spike which is capped to keep the bait from floating away. Because lobsters can’t swim, they can’t get out of the entrance. They will likely crawl up another funneled net that drops them into the “parlor” part of the trap, a larger area where they hopefully will be found by the fisherman who pulls the traps up within a day or two. While on the wharf it began to rain briefly, and many sought shelter in a nearby gift shop. The rain stopped as quickly as it started and we finished the walking tour around Peggy’s Cove, a sleepy village inlet framed by craggy boulders that looked to be a step back in time. More than once our guide assured us of all the beauty there for us to see; except, of course for that fog. Sharon calls these the “trust me” guides, like the first one of these that we had in Sicily on our honeymoon when visiting the volcano Mt. Etna and everything was blanketed with a thick morning fog. It was a sleepy winding road back to the ship, and hours’ drive during which someone kept poking me in the ribs, I guess to see what couldn’t be seen in the fog, and I could hear the guide just fine, even with my eyes closed. We did get back to the ship at 2:45 PM and had just fifteen minutes to make it to the Crow’s Nest for Team Trivia. Our original team mates were already assembled; but, the newest ones including our sports expert were nowhere to be seen. We asked a couple that we’d had dinner with the previous night to join us. They were very good and knew quite a few of the answers to the early questions. We now know what the tallest waterfall is, and had even considered it as the answer, but we didn’t write down Angel Falls so we didn’t get that one right. “Who was the singer in Phantom of the Opera married to Andrew Lloyd Webber?” Another team suggested Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Webber, but we didn’t think that one would fly. Our new teammate knew the answer (which I’ve already forgotten). “What country produces the most rice?” Should be obvious, wouldn’t you think: China, or Japan, or maybe the U.S.A.? We went with the obvious, and were right. Of course, when it comes to beer, Germany is not the biggest producer of that national product. It is still the U.S.A., followed shortly by China. Now, here is a tough question: “Where would a proper eighteenth century French gentleman kiss a woman he was meeting for the first time?” If you thought, the hand or wrist: Sorry, no! A popular choice was cheek: Again, sorry. Nobody suggested French Kissing, and nobody guessed “necking”… that’s right, the neck! I did manage to come up with the first European city to have electric lights. My teammates were pushing for London, which was my first thought as well, but I stuck with my gut feelings (besides, I had the pencil that was writing the answers) and went with “The City of Lights” (Paris). And everyone missed the only thing that might have saved us: “What is the Italian Pasta that means ‘Tiny Turnip’”? We went with tortellini. Another suggestion was linguini. Who would have guessed “Ravioli”? Okay, maybe we should have; because, I think that was a former trivia question on our Honeymoon Cruise!

We went to our first bingo (which we had to pay for) with a $25,000 jackpot. They were slow getting started and Sharon had to leave after the second round to rush off to mass. This bingo caller was more of a ‘no nonsense’ type and didn’t regale us with any “stinky jokes”. We didn’t come close, except on the final blackout bingo, when Sharon’s card got down to needing just one more number on the last call. Unfortunately, over half of the room was already standing (needing just one number) and someone who wasn’t standing called “Bingo”. There were calls for her to be disqualified by over half of the people in the room. We’d already endured one player calling what our emcee called a “Bongo”. It took over ten minutes for the emcee to find the number on the player’s card that had not yet been called. Sharon joined me after mass, just as bingo was letting out.

We went back to our cabin to get dressed for the formal dinner. I was wearing my dark suit and Sharon her dressy teal dress. It’s much easier to button up a shirt when not fooling around with those tuxedo do-dads. I ordered the half-lobster appetizer prepared with some salad fixings; and, Sharon ordered me the puff pastry mushroom appetizer. Both were very good. Sharon had the cold sour cherry soup, and I had the butternut squash, corn and crab soup; and, again were both pleased with our choices. And for once we agreed on our entrée choices: the Surf and Turf (small filet with a small lobster tail). I’m getting my fill of lobster today, and so far, it’s been a pretty good trip for lobster. The filets were delicious, cooked a perfect medium rare for me, and medium plus for Sharon. Sharon couldn’t find a chocolate that was just chocolate dessert (they had chocolate-pumpkin and chocolate-coconut and white chocolate with berries) so she had the crème Brule again. I got the coconut Napoleon with chocolate mousse filling (but should have asked it without the berries). It said that it came with fresh berries, which is okay, but what it really came with was a berry compote or cooked berry mush, and that, I don’t much care for. The Napoleon was composed of thick hard pastry layers with the chocolate mousse smeared in between, and not exactly the light icing coated pastry delicacy one normally associates with a Napoleon.

The show started shortly after dinner, and we enjoyed the singing of the two lead tenor and sopranos of the HAL entourage. Both of their voices were very good and complimented each other in the melodies that they sang. After dinner we made our way to the casino, which was already bustling having opened earlier this evening at 5 PM. My normal table was bustling, but the one on the end had just one player at it… perhaps that should have been a clue. I sat next to the lone player and sat down next to him at my favorite first base spot. I proceeded to lose the first three hands before winning a double down. I then lost the next three hands and my partner at the table decided to go have dinner up in the Lido. I was happy to have the opportunity to play one-on-one with the dealer, and I started to win some hands. But before I could get into any type of rhythm another player meandered over along with his entourage of four or five women. He bought in and proceeded to play… badly. Then one of the women in the group decided to charge $20 in chips to her room, agreeing to the 6% service fee the casino charges without batting an eye. She at least mostly hit when she should hit (except with “16”) and stood when she should (but evidently hadn’t discovered splitting or doubling). I just decided to “play for fun” making minimum bets and not worry about the way that they were playing. And of course, their erratic play seemed to actually help me; although, it didn’t do much for their results. I played quite a while, and expected them to either tire of playing or run out of chips, but someone seemed to be continually subsidize her play and he managed to hang on. Eventually I tired of the extremely slow pace of play, and decided to call it a night, and was up about $50 at the table. I never won more than three hands in a row, but got my share of the blackjacks to just one for the dealer; but, most importantly, I was winning mostly when doubling down or splitting.

Returning to U.S. waters tomorrow, we had to set our clocks back one hour to Eastern Time.

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