Drive to Indianapolis, Fly to NY, Cruise to Canada

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Our first port was Saint John, in the Bay of Fundy, home of the highest tides in the world. We took a 6-hour tour of the Saint John and the surrounding area and stopped both first and last at the Reversing Falls. The first picture is of the falls in the early morning, when it looked like rapids rushing to the open sea. Six hours later the water was running from the ocean back up the river and looked rather calm. If you look at False Island, you can see that the morning shows much more of the island and also a rocky point on the shore in front of us. In the second shot the island is much smaller and the point is completely covered.

The reason this tide is so much higher than in, say Halifax, is that the Bay of Fundy is geographically located so that the Atlantic Current, which flows in a counter-clockwise direction, is forcing water into a funnel which is growing quite a bit smaller. The same amount of water comes out the smaller end of the funnel - where Saint John is - as goes in the larger end. This means more water in a smaller area, thus the tide rises and falls a greater number of feet.

Here the three of us are posing in front of the river in the morning, near low tide.

North of Saint John is the small fishing town of St. Martins. The quaint covered wooden bridge is no longer in use, but it is kept for tourists like us to take pictures of.

Fishermen have to take their boats out on the high tide, because this is what the river looks like when it is near low tide. 

These sea caves are just north of St. Martins and are flooded at high tide. We stopped here to have some of the best lobster soup we have ever tasted. It was expensive, but it sure was good.

Returning to Saint John, we stopped at the City Market in the center of town. It is one of the oldest farmer's markets in the western hemisphere.

Inside it was like a huge barn, with a ceiling like an upside down canoe. We found tourist trinkets, all types of foods, and even restaurants inside. We did purchase some maple syrup butter at less than half the price we later found in New York City.

The City Market fronts on King's Square and off this square is the Loyalist Burial Grounds. This is resting place for many of the people who sided with the British and fled the Colonies during and after the Revolutionary War.

The fall colors were in full flower and the entire area was very calming and beautiful. Patty pauses a moment here.

Our next stop was the first museum we visited on our trip - The New Brunswick Museum. Here we see Patty posing outside with the colorful fall flowers and Patty & Craig inside the museum standing next to a full-sized moose.

Before our return to the Reversing Falls, we passed the Careton Martello Tower. These towers were originally erected to resist invasion. Because they were round, there were no weak areas and could resist being overrun, as long as the food held out.

The reason for erecting them here is this location overlooks the Saint John harbor and this area - from here to Halifax, Nova Scotia - was a key part of the British shipping and defense industry in the new world. After the Revolutionary War this entire coast had to be carefully defended against the colonists to the south.

Below is another shot of the first and last stop on our Saint John tour - the Reversing Falls. Here you can easily see 'rapids' are no longer rapid and, in fact, the river is running backward in a very languid fashion.

On returning to the Regal Princess we took this picture of a crew member cleaning the hull with a long pole. When our tour left in the morning, the letters were resting on the red curb on the dock.

This comparison really brings home just how much water flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy every 6 hours.

Now it was time to say goodbye to Saint John. This picture from our stateroom is not spectacular, but neither is the Saint John skyline.

Another all-day tour; but this one included a lobster dinner at the Shore Club in Hubbard, Nova Scotia.

Since lobster is Nova Scotia's largest export, it was notable that the owner of the Shore Club has a license plate on his car that read 'LOBSTER'. I asked him who he paid off to get that plate and he assured me that he asked for it the first thing, the first morning that people could apply for a personalized plate and was simply extremely lucky.

Here we see Patty and Ellen at the long table where all the tour was fed their dinner. It was a one-pound lobster, the tastiest size, and we all learned a thing or two about removing lobsters from their shell.

Day two started late - why get up early on your vacation if you don't have to - and with another subway ride. This time to 79th street and Central Park.

Here we see Patty & Ellen starting off in Central Park.

After a bit we reached Bethesda Terrace. Again, the fall colors simply dominated the greenery.

Ellen getting her Diet Coke

After leaving the Bethesda Terrace we walked the short way around to the Loeb Boathouse and had lunch there. We have seen this view in any number of movies.

After lunch we walked into a more secluded section of Central Park.

Pausing in this gorgeous glade, we had to take pictures of each other and the autumn foliage we were walking through.

As we circled around, we wanted to find the Alice In Wonderland statue.

Finally we happened upon it and waited until most of the children were finished climbing all over the statuary before taking this picture. 

Our ultimate objective this day was to visit The Met - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This museum is actually located in Central Park, off 5th Avenue.

The weather was turning rainy when we got there and we took a guided tour before wandering around on our own.

The walk back across the park to our subway stop was dark and wet and we were glad to have umbrellas.

We took the subway down to 50th Street and walked east to visit our last stops of the day.

We walked by Radio City Music Hall and the girls simply had to have a picture in front of this brightly lit icon.

Then we proceeded though Rockefeller Center and - while the ice rink was being cleaned - we had fun pressing through the people looking on.

Our final stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral - we arrived shortly before it closed. We were able to get in and Patty & Ellen paused to pray for Harry.

Our last day in NYC we set out to have brunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner on 51st Street & Broadway. Wanna be Broadway actors work here and the deal is they get to perform for the customers. All the waiters sing and dance and there is even a runway in the middle of the restaurant. We even saw people singing and performing from the 2nd story balcony.

After this great fun, we walked all around Times Square. It is not an exaggeration to talk about the canyons of New York.

Patty climbed steps made for people who want their pictures taken with Times Square in the background. Following this we took a cab to the airport and evening flight back to Indianapolis.

It was a spectacular area and here we see Patty & Ellen walking down a hill, leading to another 100 acres of park that was recently linked to the IMA.

This 'new' park had an entirely different theme from the museum on the hill. The art was to be played with and on and there was a great deal of space between everything.

First we see a swing set made from a tree sticking out of a small outhouse like building.

The human bones exhibit where Patty & Ellen are sitting was used in a scene from the movie 'The Fault In Our Stars'.

The Drive Home

City Museum, St. Louis, MO

This museum was recommended to us by our daughter Danielle. She said this was a 'must see' place to visit, so we planned the first leg of our journey home for a relatively short day from Indianapolis, IN to St. Louis, MO.

We weren't disappointed. We planned up to two hours in the morning of the second day and had a hard time keeping our visit to three hours. It was a totally unique place.

With the exception of some of the more conventional exhibits, the entire place was constructed from discarded items repurposed for use in an abandoned 10-story industrial building.

It is a touchy, feely place where kids go 'nuts' and some parents might worry. The common advise is to bring a flashlight and kneepads - they sell them in the gift shop. You will be crawling everywhere and lots of dark places.

As you can see from the pictures below, many walkways are really crawlways and the loops of supporting steel are sometimes the only thing between you and a long drop.

Craig climbed to the plane shown, out on the wing, and across to the walkway through the loop of steel. He also moved from one isolated room to the main area through the tight loop shown below.

There are lots of additional pictures of this museum, but we decided to put them on their own separate page, which you can reach by clicking on any of the pictures here.

Route 66 has some interesting signs, none more unique than this one. While we didn't stop - this was our longest driving day - it does seem this sign probably brings plenty of business from travelers who had no intention of stopping when they started their day.

Remember the movie 'Cars' - well, who doesn't remember. Now there are several Cars movies and Disneyland even has a Cars section in California Adventure.

This is the actual Conoco station used to model the station in the movie. They have superchargers in the back, so this is a guaranteed stop for all Tesla drivers using I40 as their way to travel the U.S.

It is located in Shamrock, TX, between Amarillo and OK City.

A Maynard type truck is parked at the side and the gift shop sells everything Cars and Route 66 for the discerning tourist.

Here we see Patty - the U Drop Inn is a simulation of a 50s Roadside Diner.

Santa Fe, NM

Now this is a border crossing. New Mexico doesn't want you to have any question that you are passing from Texas into New Mexico - Land of Enchantment.

Following Route 66, Santa Fe was a place we had never been to and we decided to spend part of a day there. We arrived around noon and headed to the central square all Western Towns tend to have.

The Palace of the Governors building encompasses one entire side of the square and houses many street vendors selling anything authentically native - I hope.

Here is a picture of the square - town businesses all face this square - and Patty is barely visible by the garbage can, in front of the tree trunk

This time we were told by both our daughter Danielle and our niece - artist Danielle Wood - that we had to stop at the Meow Wolf Museum in Santa Fe. Since they were open until 10PM, we got there about four in the afternoon and wound up spending more than four hours in this bizarre, colorful, fun museum. Just like the City Museum in St. Louis, we have a number of pictures on a separate page - for those interested. Click on either picture below to access additional pictures.

This museum was opened in 2016 and a number of local artists - including some of Danielle Wood's friends - contributed. There is a story being told through the museum, but it will take real detective work to figure out what is really going on. The museum consists of a house, with various and very strange entrances and exits within it. The rooms you go through are even stranger. The decoration reminds us of someone with some bizarre visions and weird ideas of reality.

The first picture shows Patty in front of the entrance. The second picture is of Craig 'playing' a series of bones like a xylophone - yes it is a musical instrument.

Arizona

Our first overnight in Arizona was near Prescott. We stopped there because we wanted to visit with our cousins Larry & Cristie Wood and to see their new home.

It was desert living at its finest, even though all the boxes hadn't been unpacked yet. We all went to breakfast at the Iron Springs Cafe - previously the Prescott Railway Station, but moved to its present location.

Then it was into Prescott's central square, where Patty & Craig made a full circuit and stopped at Marino's Mob Ice Cream Parlor. Craig simply had to try some - it was delicious.

Then on to Phoenix, where we stayed with our friends Mike & Marilyn. Patty had picked up a Christmas Tree ornament for Marilyn and they both decided the place on the tree where it belonged.

Monday evening - our last day on the road - we saw Fred Wood's family ( ...well we didn't see his daughter Danielle, or his son Nick...) Kim & Fred, her son/grandson Bradon, Craig & Patty. Here we have all finished dinner and are trying our best to hold our stomachs in.

The following day we crossed into California and were relatively soon back at home.

Everything was ok and we turned into 'bums' for a while. That's it until the next adventure.