Today we went on a bus tour which took us to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.

Alexander Graham Bell Museum

The Ride to the Museum

On our way to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, our guide talked about a few interesting things about Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Canada in general. (He also said some of this on the ride back, but I’ll just summarise it all here.)

Today we went to the Canadian Immigration Museum and the Halifax Citadel.

Our original plan was to do a Segway tour of Halifax, but because of the weather, the tour was cancelled. We were very disappointed, but we still had plenty to do today.

Immigration Museum

The first thing we went to was the Immigration Museum at Pier 21, the main entry point for immigrants to Canada. Pier 21 was the Ellis Island of Canada. Pier 21 is right next to the cruise port terminal, in fact, we came into Building 22 so it was super easy to get to the immigration museum. The museum had exhibits on the history of immigration to Canada, the Pier 21 immigration process and an exhibit about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history.

Today we were in Bar Harbor, Maine (pronounced Baahh Haahhhbahh). Bar Harbor is know for its lobster but it is also near Acadia National Park.

Bike Tour

We did a bike tour through the park. The park came to be through large donations from John D. Rockefeller Jr. and a few other men. They bought up the land, preventing it from being developed. After cars were introduced to the island, Rockefeller built a road around the entire park and built separate carriage roads where no motorised vehicles are allowed. They were named carriage roads because horse-drawn carriages are allowed. Throughout the park, the car road and the carriage road intersect in multiple places and in those places, Rockefeller had bridges built to ensure that people on the carriage roads didn’t have to deal with cars. Our tour went on these carriage roads. I think it is best to just post a bunch of pictures and let them speak for themselves.

Getting Into Boston

We got off the boat early this morning because we had a lot of things that we wanted to do in Boston. We took the Subway towards the North End, at the tip of the peninsula that Boston is on. We walked along the Freedom Trail to Paul Revere’s House.

Today we were at sea and the sea was very calm so I was extremely happy about that. I was able to do a bunch of activities on the boat.

Morning

We slept in this morning because we didn’t have anything we needed to be up for. After breakfast, I went to help Barry, the Piano Man with an issue with Garage Band. He is composing the score for Shakespeare in the Park and he wanted to duplicate something in another file so I helped him with that.

Today was our last day in Bermuda.

Elbow Beach

When we were trying to decide what to do today we wanted to really experience island life so we decided to go to the beach. We hopped on the bus that goes to all of the beaches. We received a suggestion from one of the locals on the bus to go to Elbow Beach and we got the driver to let us know when we got to the correct stop. After a short walk, we arrived at the beach. The water was very blue, just like at Church Beach, but it was a much larger beach. We walked in the shallow water along the beach in one direction until we got to a collection of rocks. The waves were breaking hard against the rocks and we were able to stand behind them and watch the spray and get sprayed. Then we walked down the beach the other direction for a little while. At some point I went all the way into the ocean. At this point, it was about time to head back to the ship so we left the beach for the last time in Bermuda.

Today we went to St. George’s Island.

Town of St. George

To get to St. George Island we rode the ferry to Dockyard and then took the ferry from there to St. George’s Island. On the way there, a tour guide introduced herself to the people on the ferry saying that she offered tours of the Town of St. George. We decided to join her tour.

Today we went snorkeling and watched the Bermuda Day Parade.

Ferry to the Navy Dockyard

We woke up fairly early to try and make it to a snorkeling tour around some shipwrecks. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do the tour, it’s a complicated story of why we weren’t able to so if you want to hear the details, ask me when I get back. We had already boarded the ferry to the old Navy Dockyard though, so we went. The Navy Dockyard is basically a fortress at one tip of the island. If you imagine Bermuda as a fishhook, the dockyard is at the barb (I think that’s what you call the thing that snares the fish).

Today we arrived in Bermuda, went to a beach and walked some in the town of Hamilton.

After breakfast this morning, I went down to the library to see if there was anyone who wanted to play chess. There was a guy, David, who wanted to play. He was very good (at least compared to me). He won all three games we played.

Today we were at sea and it was fairly rough. The swells were up to 6 metres (20ft). Of course, the ship didn’t go up that high, but it was going up and down quite a bit. Mom spent most of the day in the cabin, only coming out for dinner. I was up more than her. I ate all three meals, but towards the middle of the afternoon it was really getting bad. To cope, I took a Dramamine pill and napped in the cabin. That was most of the day.