Rob's Fishing Weekend--Bay of Quinte

 Rob caught a 10lb. Pickerel

John Hall (our brother-in-law) caught a 13 pound Pickerel
These fish were too large to keep so they were caught and released.
These were taken on Saturday, Nov. 26. On Sunday, Nov. 27, Rob caught 6 to take home....good eating.

Don't the guys look happy!

Dad, we are going to wait and have a feed with you when you get here.

Hallowe'en ------BOO

 The Grim Reaper (aka Ben) and Carl the Coyote that Rob created through taxidermy. Yes, Carl lives between our living room and our kitchen.

 A Harry Potter Wizard (aka Nik)

 Natalie and the Grim Reaper

 Outside Daves where candy galore can be found!

Look who is the scariest of all! Coyote creator Rob Spence..........wwhhhooooooo

Spence Grandchildren

 Ethan (4 years old....just started Kindergarten), Colin (almost 3 weeks old) and Kyle (8 years old)

Papa and Ethan...............

Colin Sean Spence

 On Monday, October 4th Colin Sean Spence weighing in at 8lbs and 8ozs came into the world. He makes Grandson number 4 for Rob and me. Colin follows brothers Nathan, Kyle and Ethan.

 Proud Grandma feeding Colin. He is always starving..............

 Now he is tired........Papa has him...............

What a bundle of joy.......................

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Woodpecker

Isn't he cute? And why is he here and letting us get this close to him to take a picture? This little fella was knocked unconscious when he hit the window in our house. I found him flattened on the concrete walkway. Rob and I for the next two days nursed him back to health. See what you can do when you don't work and have time off?

Back home----our own bed---our own cars---ground

Halifax----the stop between Greenland and Fort Lauderdale

 The bagpipers met us at Pier 21.....This picture was taken from the 10th floor of the ship.

 Rob and I had a wonderful Lobster dinner at the Bluenose 2 Restaurant in Halifax. This was after we finished the Hop On Hop Off tour.

Here is a picutre of the Queen Elizabeth Cruise Ship. This was the first time she has been to Halifax. Most of the residents of Halifax came to see the ship.

More Cruise Pictures---it's the trip that never ends

Wanted to show you the ice sculptors that were created every day. The ice was from Iceland and stored in the freezers. They bring a block out 4 hours before it is to be sculpted and 2 men sculpted these in about 10 minutes each. They will then be brought out to the dining rooms and remain there until they melt to the point where they are no longer holding the ice. However, the ice is at its clearest about 2 hours after is is sculpted.

This is it!

FT. Lauderdale..........7:00am......80degrees F.

It will be 66 or so in Toronto, so we'll be feeling the different temps today, we're sure.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share in what was such an absolutely wonderful journey. There will be more pictures to see once we connect live and many stories to tell over the coming weeks. The memories won't be leaving quickly.

We look forward to sharing our next few months as we train for the half marathon in Las Vegas in December. Stay tuned and prepare to feel the pain with us................bye for now.

K & R
See you in our travels.

Send good thoughts for Bingo

Folks,

The Snowball Bingo has been mounting the entire cruise. Today if you completed your bingo card in 54 numbers, you won 4,750 dollars.....no one won again today.

tomorrow is the finale and the price of 5000 is going to go to one lucky person..........pray it comes our way.

Thanks for your happy Bingo thoughts......

K & R

Largest Celtic Cross

A picture of the largest Celtic Cross in the world. It was erected on the side of St. Annes' Basilica in Belfast. Interesting things happening here. At 4:30 on this particular day, all the choirs from Ireland were going to join here for a concert.........the organist was practicing when we were there. Would have loved to stay for that one......the elder in the church told us we were welcome to stay but we had to get back to the boat. The chairs were very hard and very small, but each section of chairs was reserved for the "tenors", the baritones, etc.   Can you believe what that would have sounded like? Gigantic church.....a cathedral.

When we signed the guest book, the lady before us was also from Canada. She mentioned that Quebec also has a St. Annes Cathedral and I also have seen that church..........can you imagine? both of us in the church at the same time? Small world and getting smaller........

Glendalough......(pronounced "Glen da Lock")

 St. Kevin started this Monastery in "glendalough......two lakes in a valley......although it rained for a bit while we were there, it was still wonderful to see and be there.

 The Bell Tower was built to let people know that safety was in the Monastery. They came from many miles for refuge and solitude with the Monks. Look how far someone had to walk up the center of the tower to ring the bell. The opening at near the bottom was placed strategically so it could face St. Kevin's church.

 There are still 8 families today who are still allowed to bury their dead here in the Monastery. They are only allowed to bury one person from each generation. This will keep the cemetary going and no one can excavate the land until these families have no more family members die.

St Patrick and St. Kevin created the Celtic Cross. St. Kevin brought Chrisianity to Ireland and
St. Patrick brought Christianty to the Pagans (the people who worshipped the sun). You will notice the celtic cross has a circle in it.......that is to honor those who worship the sun and the cross is for the christians. Both were honored and the Celtic Cross remains everywhere in Ireland today.

Great Hunger, Potato Famine 1840

 The Jeannie Johnston is one of the original boats that travelled to America, Australia and other places. Apparently there was a doctor on board so everyone that travelled on this boat survivedNot all were so lucky.................

 These statues are replicated in Boston's harbor representing the many Irish emigrants who survived the voyage. The child replicated here on the man's back, did not make it to the boat. These statues are amazing to see for real.

The famine of the 1840s will never be forgotten. However, potatoes are not the money maker now. In Scotland and Ireland, there are twice as many sheep as there are people.

More Dublin Pics

 Harmony overlooks the Liffey River which flows through Dublin.
Daniel O'Connell's name is everywhere. There is a bridge named after him, a restaurant and pub and I'm sure there were many children named after him.

Dublin Ireland

The Harp Bridge is on the Liffey River. When a large boat comes down the river, the entire bridge swings sideways. We didn't get to see that happen, but they said it looks amazing when it happens.

Disembarkment Error!!!

Sorry folks,

Thought we were going to be home on Wednesday but it turns out we have 3 fun filled days on the ship and won't be home until Thursday. Oh well, more reading, casino time, playing bingo and eating......did I mention eating? Having a good time with new friends and I guess the days are blending in to one big holiday time.

Having a hard time getting the Ireland pics on today but will keep trying before we land. Still have internet mintues to use............

Stay posted...not finished with the fun yet.

*Rob made it to the top 10 in a slot tournament today...............

k.

Almost to Halifax

Hello everyone,
Spent most of yesterday afternoon Whale watching.....saw small ones, large ones, hump backed ones, etc. The water is smooth so they are much easier to see.

Looking at St. John's Nfld from afar this morning, the weather is warm and the waters are calm.

Will be on shore from noon until about 4pm. The RCMP are going to be on board at 4:30pm for a Pipes and Drums show. Will try to get back on board to take that in.

Going to take the "Hop On--Hop Off" bus tour with Rob this afternoon as he has never been here before. Everyone else of the ship will be heading to Peggy's Cove. There are 3500 people on this ship so Halifax is ready to be taken over................won't be going on the Peggy's Cove trip today.....wouldn't even be able to see the lighthouse today for people.....

Going to put the Ireland pictures on tomorrow or the next day. Haven't had time to put those on yet so stay tuned..................

Bye for now.........

K & R

Sea Schedule......

Hello everyone,
We are at sea today and tomorrow and will be in Halifax on Sunday arriving at noon. We will be leaving Halifax Sunday evening, arriving in Ft. Lauderdale Florida on Wednesday and then flying home Wednesday morning one be get off of the ship.

We have transportation from the ship to the airport and will be home on Wednesday at 3pm Toronto time.
Will have  a few days to post more pictures over the next few days............so stay with us bloggers.......

Talk to you soon and love to all.

Emerald Princess Pictures

Emerald Princess Pictures

More Greenland Pics

Random Greenland Pictures---what a great day!

Couldn't Help Myself!

Yes, here I am with the Grade 8s and 10s in Qaqortaq,Greenland. What a day.............the weather went up to 20degrees C. We don't know the last time they saw these temperatures as the last 2 cruises couldn't even make it into anchor. The water was VERY calm............

So much information to share and so many great pics.......will try and get some more on tomorrow but had to share this one.

Had lunch in the teacher's lounge........the teacher in the picture and the Principal (Lars from Denmark) provided lunch. I had rice and Greenlandic Lamb (YUM) and Rob had pickled herring on dark bread. DAD......Rob says there's is as good as yours.....
Everyone was so nice.......the kids are great, as always and they were so glad we came to visit. The kids speak English, Greenlandic and Danish. I spoke to them for about 45 minutes......giving them information about Canada and my school and other things. Wait until I send pictures of their playground and surrounding area.

After we left the school, we staying in town and visited with the people......everyone was out and because there was so much going on in town for the cruise people, they closed the school. They couldn't get the kids to come back to school after lunch anyway.

Am exhausted tonight........on our way to Halifax........back to Canada.

Today was definitely a highlight............

Qaqortoq (early morning)

 Wake up......you have to see these!!! We are here and it is unbelievable........

It is cold.........I may come home with seal boots and polar bear pants.............LOL......expecting an awesome day on land.......talk to you later.......and will put on more pics of the day.

ICEBERG SIGHTING

Hello everyone,
We have seen our first iceberg........way off in the distance but a biggie.......not by the local standards I'm sure but it looks like a small mountain..........if we see any tomorrow will be able to get pictures..........we saw this one at 8:30pm and the sun is just going down.....can see Greenland in the distance now..........7am, the entire boat will be on deck for the anchoring...............
talk to you soon

ps....you should see the sun setting here............

At Sea--Wednesday, September 21

Hi everyone,


*****Rob saw a whale while we were working out this morning........the water was calm so he saw the steam coming out of the whales blowhole.......the whale swam in front of the boat..............******

The excitment is mounting again. The temperature is now 54 degrees F and tomorrow dropping to 44degrees F. We are about the land tomorrow morning at the largest island in the world.....Greenland. Reykjavik was the most Northern Port we were in but this is going to be very special We can't go into port so we are going to be taken in by "tenders" the little boats that are the side of this boat. 20 minute boat ride and we'll be on Greenland. 45 minutes, we should be able to walk around the entire area of QaQortoq....there is one store, one post office, a museum, a church and one school......you know where I'm headed tomorrow. At grade 7, they are able to learn English......but the main languages are Danish and Greenlandic...
About 85% of Greenland is covered by an Ice Cap which is 2 miles in depth......but this is when Greenland has the least amount of bergs......however, to be extra careful we have one of the "Ice Patrol" workers on Board. He is a Dane who has been doing this job for a long time.....they watch for bergs by boat and by helicopter now.....should be interesting to watch..............this man will remain on our bridge throughout the stop.....h has made it 400 km away from the North Pole, so he has seen it all.
Will take lots of pictures and will load some on while on our way to Halifax.....this amazing journey is soon to come to an end.

Talk to you soon.........
See you in our travels.......
K & R

We went to the city after the Blue Lagoon