St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada

We were awakened this morning by the frightenly upbeat announcement from our British cruise director, Simon, that we had docked at our first port of call ~ St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada. We had until 4:30pm to explore the area before it was necessary to return to the ship.

At every port of call, there are on-shore excursions available, but we decided against it. With Katie at this age, it's difficult to find something that wouldn't completely bore her. And if Katie's not happy, nobody around her is happy! Sorry to say, but that's how it goes. We could have left her onboard in the playroom (for an extra fee, of course!), but we just decided not to do that either. We wanted to take it easy and explore as little or as much as we felt like, without having to worry about schedules or other such details.

We did manage to make it to shore though and walked around the part of town within walking distance of our pier. It was nothing much very exciting, but gave us a chance to buy some cheap, generic zyrtec (not available in the US!) and more diet coke.





Back on the boat, the show tonight was a hilarious comedy show, featuring two comedians: Julie Goldman and Jessica Kirson. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. I thought I would pee my pants!

Oh, and we also attended a Youth Panel on the ship, hosted by the Family Equality Council. It consisted of a panel of teens sharing their experience being raised by gay or lesbian parents. These kids were very brave to speak so candidly to a full house. I don't think there was a single empty seat there.