In Halifax we did the Ahoy Mates Tall Ship Silva sailing. It was a lot of fun. There were 6 of us, 2 seniors, 2 adults a 2 and a 6 year old. They had a Junior Sailor Program for the younger sailors. My 2 year old was too young to care but my 6 year old had a blast. They started with letting anyone who wanted to help, help raise the sails. Then they took them on a tour of the ship explaining the masts, sails, anchors, life boats, etc to them. Then they split the kids into 3 groups.
The first stop was knot tying. They learned to tie about 3 or 4 different knots. Each kid had a rope and they worked with the instructor to tie the knots. Then 2nd stop was button making. Each kid got to make 2 buttons. My daughter made one button of the ship and one pirate button. The 3rd stop was to stear the ship. Each kids had a turn at the wheel and got a chance to stear.
Then they brought out an instrument box and the kids all got to help play music with the fiddler. My youngest especially had a blast with this playing music and dancing.
The adults all really enjoyed the ride around the harbor and just having a nice relaxing view of Halifax from the harbor. There wasn't a guided tour of the harbour but if you had questions there were people to ask.
It was a little foggy at first but the weather cleared up nicely. It wasn't too cool even out of the water and it was an enjoyable time for all.
We also had booked the essential Halifax Hop on Hop off which gave us access to the HOHO bus, express tickets to the Maritime Musuem and the Citadel. By the time we had lunch we really only had time to go to the Maritime Museum and finish up one of the three loops on the HOHO. We probably would have been better off just buying tickets to the museum as we walked there from the Tall Ship Silva. I would have liked to have gone to the Citadel but we didn't have time.
We had lunch at the Bicycle Thief at Bishop's Landing. It was good. We actually ran into our server Aziz who was also eating there along with some of the other crew including a friend of my sister's who was in the show company.
I would love to go back to Halifax and spend more time there.
In Saint John we took the Saint John Highlights Tour. There were 10 of us on this tour. It was a nice tour and we were able to learn a lot about the town that we wouldn't have on our own. The tour guide was very knowledgable. Our first stop was the City Market. The kids all had fun exploring the little shops and tasting some samples. Then we drove around and stopped at the Reversing Falls. It was about an hour before high tide so the falls were reversing at the time. My sister and her family took a 2nd tour in the afternoon and when they came back the 2nd time on that tour (3rd time total) they were able to see the tide at low tide and said it was really cool to see the tide go both ways. It was a nice place. After that we stopped at the Carelton Martello Tower. The tower had some great views and the kids liked getting to dress as Red Coats, "fire" wood rifles, and explore the tower. It was a fun stop and they had a little book of activities for the kids. If they did a few of the activities they got a certificate and little prize at the end.
We finished up the tour at the ship and went back on board to have lunch. After lunch my parents went back to the room to relax, my sister and her family did the Bay of Fundy Photography Tour and my husband girls and I went for a walk to the New Brunswick Museum. It was an easy walk from the ship to the museum and with the family rate and my
AAA card we were able to get in for under $16 total for the 4 of us. It was a nice museum and the girls had a lot of fun exploring the fossils, and the history section downstairs.
In NYC we took the Manhatten and Top of the Rock Debarkation tour. It was rainy and chilly in NYC. It was not exactly what we had planned and they cancelled the Newark excursion so we had to join the JFK/LaGuardia tour. There was another family going to Newark and they 8 of us had to take the Express Bus from the last stop of the tour (Grand Central Station) to Newark Airport. It worked out well but I'm not happy with the way Disney has it set up for debarkation tours. Top of the Rock was nice. A bus tour was nice Friday because there is no way you would have wanted to walk around in the wind/rain. It probably wasn't worth the cost of the excursion but it was better then going straight to the airport. Unfortunately our flight was delayed so we still spent way too much time in the Newark airport.
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- great idea in post # 83
