July 23, 2018

Monday was a boat day, which I thought was the best day to do it when all the activities and food are exciting and you want to explore. We were in charge of the family game night. Dad gave us a spiritual thought in preparation for pioneer day. He talked about their Church history road trip before the cruise and shared testimonies of the early saints.

We played a game called Smurf where you say a sentence, replacing part of it with the word Smurf and whoever is it tries to figure out what Smurf stands for. It's kind of like psychiatrist, if you've played that game.

Tuesday we went to Prince Edward Island. We were going to see Anne of Green gables but the rental car fell through. So we went in a walking tour of the town, a tour of the governor's home, and walked on the board walk. Paul and I went to a modern museum as well before returning to the boat. 

Wednesday we went to Sydney in Nova Scotia. We rented cars and went on a scenic drive of the area. We also went on a little hike that looked over the ocean. It was very beautiful.

Thursday we went to Halifax where we took a taxi tour through town up to Peggy's Cove, which is a little fishing town right on the Atlantic ocean. We had fun taking pictures with the lighthouse, climbing over the rocky shore, and watching the waves come in. We walked through the village too before heading back to Halifax. I think this was my favorite stop of the trip.

In Halifax, Dad, James, Jacob, Paul and I went on the board walk to see more of the city. It was very windy.

On the boat that night Gregg's family set up family feud for the family game night and it was way fun! Unfortunately we didn't win but that was the funnest game night of the trip.

Friday we stopped in Bar Harbor, Maine. This town was so beautiful! And it was crazy that we were on a big island! I had no idea Maine had so many islands. We took a bus to the national Park where we hiked along the shore to a beach. It was so sad because Bethany was so excited to go to the beach but she fell asleep right before we got there and didn't wake up until it was time to get back on the bus. Poor girl. 

Back on the boat we did a lip sync battle as our last game night. It was fun and everyone did a great job. Shout out to Peter for his awesome performance!

Saturday we ported in Boston, got a huge 15 seater van #partyvan. We didn't stay in Boston for very long. We drove by where the Boston tea party happened then drove out to see the minute men museum and Robert Frost's home. Then we went to Walden pond. Bethany and Jessa loved playing on the beach. 

We went to dinner later in an old inn/ restaurant that was originally built in 1716! So crazy, it's older that the country it's in. It was super yummy and our waitresses were so nice. 

The restaurant was across from a little Mill that was made by Henry Ford. It was so beautiful with a little waterfall and River going through it. Everyone was grateful to stick their feet in the water for a quick minute. 

After that we dropped Nathanael, Whitney, and their girls off at the airport. Then we went to our Airbnb and called it a night.

Sunday we drove or to Connecticut to see the Hartford temple. It looked very colonial American, which felt appropriate. After that we went to church then got dropped off at the airport. The fights went by pretty fast. The flight to Philadelphia was only an hour and the flight to salt lake was five hours but we slept through most of it. Our flight got to salt lake 30 minutes early, so we were able to make it back to Logan before midnight.

We definitely had an amazing first cruise experience. I tried escargot and we had a good time with the all you can eat ice cream (along with the all you can eat everything else (; ). 

Thanks Dad for the fun trip and letting us tag along!

Love you all!