Photo of the Day: Devil, er, Angel in the Details

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Old Burying Ground

Look at the detail in the feather fletching!

Sacred art indeed.

Photo of the Day: Eternal Witness Protection

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Old Burying Ground

Your eternal protection is our grave concern.

Photo of the Day: Giving his pipes a rest

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Guard/Signal Tower, The Citadel

Photo of the Day: Hooked on History

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Soldiers' Barracks, The Citadel

It's like they just stepped out of uniform just out of the frame.

Photo of the Day: Oh, but for a wee bit of wind!

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Historical Interpreters, The Citadel

Whoo, and there are 7!?

A Magical number, or so my Friends tell me.

Photo of the Day: Meet me at the Gazebo

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Public Gardens, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Gazebos vs Bandstands

In my brain, THIS is the gazebo where Ms. Anne Shirley met her Gilbert. 

(But just in my brain.)

Sadly, my Gilbert did not appear on this sunny Canadian day, eh.

Photo of the Day: A Porch of One's Own

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Public Gardens

Forget a room of one's own, I would like a porch of my own .. just like this, with a water view.

Photo of the Day: Checking out Market Square (get it?)

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Market Square, Saint John Free Library

Everyone's welcome!

Photo of the Day: Canadian Bacon, eh?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Raymond's, City Market

So it's true! They do just call it BACON in Canada. No word on the geese though, eh.

Photos of the Day: Sacred Seafood

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Lord's Seafood, City Market

Lord's elevates seafood to a higher plane. According to some people. 

I had scallops and chips.

 If I posted the picture of Christine face deep in her lobster roll, she would KILL me.

Photo of the Day: Retail Therapy

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

City Market

We never did spot what was cheaper than therapy.

Photo of the Day: Something Caught My Eye

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Loyalists Burial Ground

So many Mason symbols, where to start? 

Plus, this guy was actually, really, named Crookshanks. Like ... Harry Potter, Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.

Photo of the Day: X Marks the Spot

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Loyalists Burial Ground

Photo of the Day: Dam It!

Thursday, August 7, 2013

Loyalist Burial Ground, Saint John, New Brunswick

Dam it! Those Canadians REALLY like their beavers.

Photo of the Day: Everyone LEAN

Thursday, August 7, 2013

Loyalists Burial Ground, Saint John, New Brunswick

Everyone in this row, lean to the right .... just a bit.

Saint John Statues: John Hooper's Public Art

Above/Below: People Waiting, John Hooper

Outside Barbour's General Store

Saint John, New Brunswick

For more on People Waiting, please see this 2009 CBC News article.

My boyfriend's commuting cohorts over at Market Square, part of People Apart Moving Together.

 He also did Time Piece outside the Market. More on this work here.

 Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Photo of the Day: Strong Silent Type

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Market Square, Saint John, New Brunswick

part of People Apart Moving Together, 1983, by John Hooper

Doesn't this seem to say:

Hey Girl. I brought these flowers for you.

like these Ryan Gosling memes

(Photos found on Google images - sorry for no photo attributions.)

And Dad told me to:  "Pack tight and enjoy the north country, stay away from the single men on the ship!"

I did. He wasn't on the ship.

Photo of the Day: Read the Fine Print

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Loyalist Burial Ground, Saint John, New Brunswick

Pause Stranger!

drop one tributary tear - 

For know that Worth and

Genius slumber here!

Photo of the Day: New York Harbor Highlights

Monday, August 5, 2013,  New York Harbor

Rush Hour on the Water

How many New York City 'landmarks' can you spot?

Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Liberty

Liberty Tower

Brooklyn Bridge

Photo of the Day: Sunset Sails Away

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Sunset off the Halifax, NS coastline

I mean ... COME ON!

Photo of the Day: Good Morning New York!

Saturday, August 10, 2013, around 6:40 a.m.

Aft Deck, Carnival Glory

Looking out over the tip of Manhattan, Battery Park, Liberty Tower

I guess if you have to get up early to get off the ship, it's worth it to look out the balcony and see glorious sights like this welcoming you back to home port. The home beacons beam brightly.

Dreaming Out Loud - Canada Calling Me Home

Image from here

A few months ago I got a text from my friend Christine that read something to the effect of:

Do you have a passport?

Yes ...

And a few texts later:

Do you want to go on a cruise?

Depends on when and where ....

And still later:

To Canada?

I had to call her back after that one ... because I was shaking. A lot.

NB & Nat'l flag image from here

Back at the beginning of the year, when I started jotting down the preliminary notes for what would be the seeds for these future Dreaming Out Loud installments, I made the following entry: 

NOT a cruise, but a smaller boat trip – maybe to:

Prince Edward Island – for my Anne of Green Gables addiction, and to find the port of entry where my ancestors came in from England

Or

Alaska

I don't think I had ever articulated this dream to Christine. There are more times than I care to count, however, when Christine and I have been on some weird karmic connection when it comes to calls, cards, e-mails, jokes, observations and other odd things. 

Carnival Glory: Photo credit

After talking to her I got the details of this proposed cruise, and while it may not be the EXACT dream, it's pretty darn close. I've learned to start taking advantage of opportunities like this when they come up. Call it a prompting. An opening. What have you.

So I'm getting on a boat. A big boat. A ship even. This Carnival Glory cruise liner, actually. With over 5,000 other people and spending a week doing something I never envisioned at the beginning of this year when I started to dream. Cruising. Me. The introvert. Who would have thought? It will be an adventure to say the least. I hope poor Christine realizes what she's in for. (And, hopefully, The Shushing Librarian is coming with us, so who knows what will happen.)

Nova Scotia flag image from here

 

While it turns out this cruise won't be heading to Prince Edward Island, we will be getting close enough ... this time ... and spending a day exploring Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. While Saint John is also a port city, Halifax was a major port of call, especially back when my ancestors were migrating to North America and I feel there's this mysterious connection calling to me.

I just can't tell you where and what and when that connection is ... but it's there. In the seas. In the land. In the songs. In the breeze. And, in the genes.

 This trip is just whetting my appetite for the Canadian Maritimes.

Image from here

With a day in port in both cities, there is not time for major island hopping or genealogical explorations, so the plan includes touristy things, like:

 

Pier 21, Halifax: Photo credit

Citadel, Halifax: Photo credit

Public Gardens, Halifax: Photo Credit

Saint John, NB City Market: Credit

Photo credit

As more of our family history has been explored, more and more of the "pull" back to PEI can be explained due to family connections. I thought it was just my love for that "Anne Girl," but turns out my father's ancestors ended up settling in, and being buried, in the same mid-Island area that are close to the roads and lanes of L.M. Montgomery's beloved books. 

Photo credit

Photo credit

About two weeks after I agreed to go on the cruise, I got an e-mail from Cousin Frank, (the aforementioned author of the book about a paternal grandfather), outlining plans for the first Annual International Reunion scheduled for Prince Edward Island from July 25-29, reconnecting some of our family lines which have long been severed ("slightly") since the family left the island in 1850. 40 odd "cousins" were planning to visit family sites on the island, including homesteads, the port from whence the family sailed from PEI to the USA, the graveyard where a great+ grand-father and mother are buries, AND, (this is what got to me):

• "All of the Anne of Green Gables "stuff" ... Mongomery gravesite, schoolhouse, etc."

People who don't believe in mysterious heavenly influences having a tug on our heart strings and collective consciousnesses ... I don't get them. 

*MY* ancestors are definitely up there trying to get us all headed in the right direction --back up north -- but as usual, my timing is all off and I was overcommitted.

I still dream of PEI, but for the next week or so, I'll just be out to sea, coming close to "home" port, but not quite. I have a feeling I'll still be having sweet dreams.

Wish me luck and ... Bon Voyage  

until my return to the Attic and blogging in general.

Photo credit information

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

"Sea" you soon ... or later.