Another fine day, Thurs, 7/28/22

Hello, Bar Harbor, Maine.  Such a pretty morning to anchor offshore.  We had no excursion or tour planned today, and we were in no hurry to tender ashore.  We're still learning where everything is on this ship, and our primary focus right now is relaxing.  After all, isn't that what being on board a ship is about?  We'll tender ashore later in the morning.

Look what followed us in the harbor!  Brightly colored, this Norwegian Pearl anchored up next to us. She carries close to 2400 passengers, which means she's much bigger than Insignia.  That's some nasty-looking smoke escaping the stack!

With no set plan in place, the four of us wandered along the waterfront a bit and then started up Main Street.  Did you know that the Town of Bar Harbor is actually on an island?  Mount Desert Island to be exact, and Bar Harbor serves as the gateway to Acadia National Park.  We'd all been to the park, so had no need to visit again today.

The things you see when you're Out and About!  The Hydrangeas along the way were in full bloom and very beautiful.  One of these flowers was wearing sunglasses!  

The day was warm, bordering hot (especially in the sun).  Our stomachs are already getting used to being fed three times a day, and ours were crying for lunch.  We stopped at a cafe called Peekytoe Provisions for a seafood lunch, sitting outside on their deck.  Afterward, by gum, it was too danged warm to keep on walking, and we had no need for tourist trinkets -- time to make for the ship, although when Nannie and I spotted this ancient graveyard, we wanted to give it an inspection.  We saw a number of interesting tombstones, like the one below.

Capt Stephen ....

Then it was time to return to our ship, and perhaps a dip in the pool?

The water wasn't warm enough for Jimmy, but it felt refreshing to Nannie and me.  I didn't know it was a saltwater pool till she splashed water at me (she'll pay).  We romped in the water and had a great good time.  In case you don't recognize us, Nannie is in blue and I'm in pink.  And we both have pretty painted toes for this trip.

Another sail away -- this one from Bar Harbor, Maine.  Our next POC is Halifax, tomorrow, arriving at Noon.  Here the ship is passing Egg Rock Lighthouse out in the middle of "the road" -- actually in Frenchman's Bay.  Cute, with a square tower projecting through the keeper's house, built in 1875.

Oh, man -- another delicious dinner outside at Terrace Cafe.  There's a man who looks contented with life.  We are just enjoying ourselves so much, as you can see, as you can imagine!

Clouds were moving in, obscuring the sun as we sailed away.  I had 10,000 steps on the ol' fitbit by bedtime.  Good to be on our feet, on land (the food is delicious, need to walk off those calories!).  Tomorrow is another country.  Tonight we cruise.  Goodnight.

Mama Said ...

 

... "There'll be days like this, my Mama said," but she didn't say how many!  What should have been a dream journey for Jimmy and me with my sister, Nannie, and her husband, "Bubba," had a dismaying and inauspicious start.  More like nightmarish (and complex).  He and I were supposed to fly from Sacramento to NYC on JetBlue's Monday night redeye, to begin an Oceania Insignia cruise Tuesday afternoon.  When we arrived at the airport, we learned the flight had been canceled.  I'm not going to go into every minute detail (too depressing), but we ended up flying to Boston the next night where we hoped to catch the cruise, rather than in Halifax on Friday, which is what we'd been told.  Long story much shortened, we did get onboard in Boston, but it was touch-and-go.  

Nannie, and Bubba (who made the ship in NYC) and my brother, Rus, and his wife, Anne, (who live in the Boston area) helped us immensely, for which we are truly grateful.  If not for them, we would've been twiddling our fingers till Halifax (and it would have been horribly expensive).  Here's me and Jimmy after dinner our first night at Insignia's Terrace Cafe.  Don't we look happy?

Oh, yeah, what's not to like about lobster and shrimp?

We missed our first sail away in Manhattan, so we were up for watching Boston's sail away!  Planes were flying into Logan International every few minutes, very low above the ship, directly overhead!  We spent quite a bit of time watching boats and planes.  Logan is directly behind the sailboat. 

Looked like a fine sunset in the offing, too.

!

Nannie and Bubba with downtown Boston as a backdrop.  This is their first cruise, also our first international trip with Nannie and Bubba.  We're sailing to Reykjavik, Iceland, via the US East Coast, with stops in Greenland.  Woohoo -- very exciting!  This will be our first time on Oceania.  Insignia is a much smaller than any Princess ship -- it carries only 684 passengers.

Yes, we all thought this sunset was a beauty.

Saying goodbye to the Boston Lighthouse ...

... as the harbor welcomes a freighter.

JetBlue heard from me.  I gave them a piece of my mind.  Jimmy and I also learned an expensive lesson.  Don't take the redeye if you're planning anything for the following day.  We'll never do that again.  Now we're where we're supposed to be, and life is looking really good.  Miracles happen.  Next up is Bar Harbor.  We've all been there before, but it'll be a fun time regardless.  Internet onboard is pretty sketchy, and it's only because we're in a city that I'm able to post this.  If I get a chance I'll get another post going before we sail away.  This is sooooooo cool.  We LOVE that we're sailing with Nannie and Bubba.  We love being on the water.

Truckin' along ... Wednesday, 7/6/22

 

... in Truckee, CA!  I don't know how we got so lucky, and maybe there'll be a price to pay for this later on, but we are in seventh heaven with our cool July temps.  Usually the entire month is a scorcher; not this year with July's early days being so moderate.  That being said, we want to play outdoors as much as we can before it's too hot.  We live in the Sierra Nevada foothills, with lots of ups and downs, very little flat ground, and many narrow two-lane roads.  Not ideal for bicycles, not even our E-bikes.  Consequently, we drive either down the hill or up the hill to find bike trails that don't pose a threat to life or limb.  Today we drove east to the Town of Truckee, situated a stone's throw from beautiful Lake Tahoe.

We've hiked different sections of Truckee River Legacy Trail in the past few years, but never biked it.  Today, with a high temp of maybe 70, fluffy white clouds adding interest to the Blue Flax-colored sky ... well, let's just say we picked The Best Day to ride this trail.  Why lookee here, there's Blue Flax next to the fence, above.

This trail is roughly ten miles R/T,

and it is one of the most scenic trails we've been on.  

The Truckee River, headed down-down-down,

toward the Nevada desert.

We started our ride way off in the distance, ending it when we rode up this monstrous serpentine hill, using all the pedal assist our bikes had!  Our turnaround point was at the top, where the car park at Glenshire Drive is, where the tree slabs below are located.  The downhill was a doozy!  Had to keep a good grip on the brakes!  What a grand view!

Signage reports this tree was 500-600 years old.

Nice bench!

Photos, above and below, are from a scenic overlook.  You might be able to see the RR tracks under the bridge, above.  We always hope to see a train chugging past.

Martis Creek flows beneath the little brown bridge at left.  It joins the Truckee River a bit further on.  One of the best things about this trail is being able to hear the frisky river as we pedal.  We like being on or near water.  This is technically the eastern side of the Sierras, where sage brush mixes with wildflowers.  We saw tons of wildflowers today, but the sage wasn't blooming yet.  

This paved trail is ten feet wide in most places, narrowing at times to eight feet, making it easy to ride abreast, although we saw more people Out and About than we've ever seen here before, and it's Wednesday, not like a Saturday, when it must be really packed.  We encountered more kids, too -- you have to be careful if a six-yr-old on a bike is coming toward you or you want to pass (they're unpredictable).  No matter, we just slowed down.

The insert shows purple/ish, but the flax truly is blue, just like that sky.  Not sure what the yellow flower is.

The trail was lined with wildflowers -- cheerful yellow Buckwheat, magenta-hued Mountain Pride, lupines (all kinds of lupines) California poppies, Woolly Mule's Ears, Cow Parsnip, bright red Indian Paintbrush, I could go on and on, but I won't.  I also didn't want to stop every few minutes to get a picture.

At the end of the trail was JAX -- Jack's at the Trax -- diner, and it happened to be Noon.  Hooray!  Their outside patio suited us just fine -- we pushed our bikes in and parked 'em beside our table.  Perfect.  A burger hit the spot.

Of course you see the RR tracks behind Jimmy.  We wished a train would rumble along while we ate our lunches.  By gum, a long Union Pacific train blew through.  I skipped out the gate to get the pic below.  I also wanted to wave.  The engineer waved back ... always a plus in my book.  

He's been over the pass and now he's on the downward slope, heading east.

Lunch didn't take long, we had time to continue.  We rode our bikes back to the car, loaded 'em on the rack, and drove approx eight miles to park at Olympic Valley (Palisades Tahoe) so we could ride the 10.6 mile R/T Truckee River Trail (again!).  As you see by above and below pics, this one is almost as scenic, what with the river being right at our fingertips, so to speak.  Gadfrey, so many people, young and old, Out and About, on bikes, in rafts, walking, running!  More than we've ever seen.  Then we remembered that last Monday was a holiday and probably many folks have the week off from work, and they were doing the same thing as us -- enjoying their day outside!

Happy people on the water.

I believe the white flower is Gray's Lovage. 

A few pretties for you.  In total, our ride was 26.5 miles, and the E-bikes performed flawlessly.  What a fine time we had on these trails, on a gorgeous summer day.