Shunning the Sun in Sydney Nova Scotia

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We were late getting up and Sharon went by her phone for the time, and it hadn’t been set forward to Atlantic Time. We were a bit rushed and headed for the Lido to catch a quick bite. I allowed myself a poppy seed hard roll and made myself a cold-cut and cheese sandwich. Sharon grabbed a couple of potato cakes and a chocolate croissant; but, this one looked really wimpy.

It was back to the cabin, grab the camera and off to the pier; except that there was a huge line in the hall of the Dolphin Deck… and everyone was wearing jackets and rain gear. Here we are dressed for a balmy day in Las Vegas in short sleeves. What’s wrong with this picture? Somebody mentioned, “It’s pouring outside.” Sharon had checked the weather yesterday for Sydney and the forecast was for sunny skies; or, so she said. I asked Sharon, do you want a jacket. “Nah,” she says, “We’ll be fine… are you going to get yours?” “I think I am.” And then Sharon changes her mind, “Well, bring mine too.” So it’s back to the other end of the ship for me, pickup our jackets, and back in line. They were still not letting people off the ship. Standing in line I noted, Linda is asking a lot of flag questions, and also “Alice in Wonderland” questions. I may have to read that. It was drizzling when we exited the ship, enough so we were damp by the time we got on the bus.

Our tour was “Baddeck, On Your Own”. We had a driver and a guide who took us out to Baddeck, Nova Scotia on this very foggy day that had promised great sightseeing along the way. We stopped once for pictures at a very misty gray overlook, and the guide, “We can stop here for a few minutes if anyone wants to get out and take some pictures.” I don’t move; but, Sharon nudges me. Nobody else on the bus is moving towards the door. “Do you want to take some pictures?” I ask. “No silly. I want YOU to take some pictures.” So, it seems that I will be taking some pictures and I headed for the door, and I guess three other husbands in a similar situation followed me, them no longer having the excuse of not wanting to be the first one to be thoroughly whipped. I took some scenic shots of the fog to the right of the lookout spot, some shots of the fog straight ahead, and some shots of the fog to the left. I got the whole panorama covered.

We arrived in Baddeck shortly thereafter. We cruised down the main drag, took a detour down by the water, and then up the hill to the Alexander Graham Bell museum to drive through its parking lot, before heading back to the main drag. The bus driver found a place to park and promised that the bus would remain here until we left in a little over three hours. First, we took a restroom stop and the visitor center; and, then we headed on foot to the other end of town to a restaurant that we’d picked out for lunch when we were back in Las Vegas. We popped into every souvenir and gift shop along the way to get a brief respite from the rain. We popped into a bakery/café which was bustling with others like us trying to stay dry; but, this wasn’t what we were looking for right now. Back out into the rain which was now much more than a drizzle. My jacket was soaked through and through. Sharon’s fingers were all shriveled as if she’d been soaking in a bath for the last hour. That’s when Sharon spots a Catholic Church across the street, and like a moth drawn to a flame, we just have to cross this main drag. The rain was coming down and I step out into the street in a crosswalk. Sharon says, “Wait for that car.” Right! Like I’m going to wait in the pouring rain for a car going 25 MPH and who is over one block away. I don’t think so. Sharon follows me across the street and the car barely had to slow down. We go into the church for some sanctuary from the rain, and we sit a while (I guess Sharon got some prayers in), and we leave. We get outside; but, my prayers haven’t been answered yet. It was approaching 10AM and we reached the restaurant at the other end of town and on the other side of the street. It’s still raining. It doesn’t open until 11:30AM. I suggest, “I guess we’re going to The Yellow Cello across the street.” The sign in front of it proclaims, “The best pizza in town!” Sharon’s not thrilled with this idea; but, there are quite a few cars out front and it is OPEN and it is dry inside. Sharon relents, and we go check it out. As it turns out, they were open for breakfast and were doing a booming business. I asked if they were serving anything besides breakfast and received a lunch menu. Sharon ordered a hot chocolate and some cinnamon toast and hash browns. I ordered a Pizza Sub sandwich, which was very good. They had several tempting sub sandwiches to choose from.

We took a leisurely stroll back to the bus after eating, and mercifully the rain had subsided. Thank-you Lord! It was another 90-minute ride back to the ship. I went straight to the cabin; while, Sharon looked at the various port-side vendors for fudge and jewelry. She found some chocolates she and her sister had tried 2 years ago (and even got me some dark chocolate) but no sign of the wonderful maple fudge we’d gotten here in the past. She also didn’t find the glass jewelry maker she was looking for and had purchased from on previous trips. She did find some sea glass earrings she liked so bought those. I went up to the Exploration Café to get bottles of San Pellegrino which they now had in stock. That hadn’t been the case up until then. Being a 4-star mariner, I get a 50% discount from non-alcoholic drinks purchased there. Sharon had already returned when I got back with my water. She soon headed up to the Dive-In and had a burger for lunch… I’d already had my lunch in Baddeck.

Sharon had to change into some dry socks and shoes (the socks were dripping) before heading up to Trivia; so, I went up first. We found our team and had a chance to update each other on our day. We went out to Baddeck, walked around in the rain, got something to eat, and came back wet. Pam admitted their day was likely even worse than ours. Duncan elaborated, “We had reserved a rental car so we had to walk twenty-minutes to the rental car lot in the rain. When we got there and the agent said, ‘I have some bad news for you. We don’t have your car for you.’” Duncan replied to him, “Any car will do.” “No, you don’t understand. We don’t have ANY cars!” They got to walk twenty-minutes back to the ship in an increasingly heavy rain.

Linda was ready to start asking questions. “These movies from 1956 were nominated for Best Picture at the 1957 Academy Awards: (a) Giant, (b) The Ten Commandments, (c) Friendly Persuasion, (d) The King and I, and (e) Around the World in 80 Days. Which won Best Picture?” Some on my team wanted something else, but Sharon convinced them that I had all of the Best Pictures on DVD, so we went with my answer: “Around the World in 80 Days.” Linda asked, “What country had to abandon its currency the Inti in 1991 due to inflation and began using the Nuevo Sol?” Jim was sure he knew this because they’d just been to Peru, and we got that point too. I was waiting for a flag question but got an “Alice in Wonderland” question instead. “What did Alice do to become large or shrink; and, who told her to do this?” Sharon blurts out, “Eat mushrooms.” I want to know how come my wife knows so much about mushrooms: Erin (Sharon’s sister), help me out here. Not having read the book yet, we wrote down Mad Hatter. Unfortunately, it was the Caterpillar. The bonus question worth three points was to name the top three golfers for having won the most majors (any order will do). We came up with the two obvious ones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Arnold Palmer made our list of three; but, a much earlier golfer had that distinction. No, not Ben Hogan (although he does come in tied for number 4). The right answer was Walter Hagan. When we got our answer sheet back we only had 9 out of 19 points. Yikes! Not even 50%! The winners were tied with one other team at 13 points. After reviewing our answer sheet, we saw that we had lined out our first incorrect answer; and, followed that with the correct answer. Our strike-out went through the question number, and ultimately, the scorer put lines thru the incorrect question numbers and so we really had ten points. This doesn’t really matter; except of course, now we have over 50%!

We showed up for dinner and Duncan and Pam were right behind us and asked the seating manager “May we dine with them.” We were seated at a table for eight, and one other couple joined us. After last night’s bottleneck at 5:15 we both had decided to wait until 6:00 PM and there was no line. They asked Duncan and Pam how their day went. Pam assured him, “We’re not talking about THAT.” Duncan followed that with how they hadn’t been able to rent a car, adding, “I didn’t believe the feedback on Travel Advisor for this car rental place. I figured, it’s July, it’s summertime, it’ll be fine.” I asked if they were going to get more feedback on Travel Advisor. “Oh yes,” Duncan admitted. Tonight’s menu is from HAL’s Culinary Council featuring the specialties of the various chefs. I started with the Sushi Roll Trio; but, I wasn’t thrilled with the pea-sized dollop of wasabi that had been smeared on the plate in some artistic presentation attempt. For me, wasabi is not about subtlety. I also had the Crab and Daikon Cakes which I did enjoy. The lady that joined us last was wondering “What is the Green Apple and Mustard Goat Quark?” Nobody knew. She then asked if anyone had ordered a second appetizer. I was the only one who had; but, that was enough for her to order a quark… just to find out what it was. When it came, it looked an awful lot like the zucchini soup that Pam had ordered; but, still she insisted, “I knew it was a soup!” But she did check with the waiter, and he evidently had mis-heard what she had asked… although I don’t know how that is possible: Everyone had heard her order the quark and we all wanted to know what it was. When it came, I’m not sure that we know yet what it was. There were three petal-like things which I suppose could have been crispy thin apple slices made to look like flower petals with a small dollop of goat cheese… but I’m only guessing. Clearly, this dish was all about presentation and nothing about substance. I was tempted to order the halibut; but, the Roast Spice-Crusted Prime Rib with horseradish mustard mousse was something that I thought I had to try. I knew Sharon would let me try some of hers; but, in the end I decided to get my own done medium rare. Sharon ordered hers medium-well with a baked potato. When the entrees finally did come, Sharon noticed that she didn’t have a baked potato but the waiter was no longer around. About half-way through the course the other lady said “This really isn’t medium… It’s more medium-well.” That’s when Sharon spotted her baked potato already half consumed on the other lady’s plate. Sharon noted the other problems that we’ve been having in the Dining Room; and, from various parts of the Dining Room. For dessert, Sharon ordered the Chocolate Puff Pastry Craquelin; while, everyone else had the Athena Fig and Almond Baklava. Sharon’s dish was delicious. She had agreed to let me try a small bit of hers to save me from needing/wanting to order both desserts for myself. The baklava was served as two pieces, both wafer thin and appeared to have sesame seeds on top. These were light, crispy and tasty and nothing like the heavy, gooey, honey-laden, puff-pastry one normally thinks of when you order baklava. The presentation on the plate gave us the impression that perhaps this was a “deconstructed baklava”. Again, all about presentation and not enough about substance. When I order baklava, I expect to get a sugar-high and not left thinking, “Is that all there was?”

We arrived fifteen minutes early for the show featuring Greg Rodman – Guitar on Edge. The theatre was almost filled to capacity. We found two chairs against the wall on the upper balcony towards the front of the stage on the right side. There were a couple empty seats; but, they were soon taken. There are a lot of early diners on this cruise, that’s for sure. Greg played various tunes featuring some very challenging guitar arrangements and alternated between his acoustic and electric guitars. If you want to hear some lyrics, this is not the show for you. He did tell one joke about his girlfriend. He said she once challenged him with, “Do you know the difference between a bond and a guitarist?... The bond matures and pays dividends; but, the guitarist just plays guitar!” Ouch! Sharon left just before the end of the show to get a seat in the piano bar which is now filling up early to see Barry From Boston. She enjoyed his evening featuring music from the Carpenters and Carole King.

I briefly checked out the casino but the table I prefer wasn’t open. I headed back to the cabin. When I got my cabin key to open the room, I notice that I also had Sharon’s key. She’d given it to me because she had no place to put it. I figure that I’d just let her in when she got back to the cabin. I guess I was just missing the point that she also wouldn’t be able to order anything to drink or play any slots. Hmm! Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

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