An old family story holds that my maternal grandfather, whose mother put him on a ship from England to Canada in 1914 when he was just 11 years old, had his life saved by scarlet fever. That's because he came down with the illness and couldn't sail on the ship he was originally supposed to take. As it turned out, that ship was the ill-fated Empress of Ireland, which sank in the St. Lawrence River, killing over 1,000 people. So we always said that scarlet fever saved Grandpa's life.

This story took on new meaning today when we explored the Canadian Museum of Immigration here in Halifax. The museum has a family research room where we managed to unearth the passenger manifest that shows Grandpa arrived in Quebec in July 1914 at age 11 and was headed to his uncle's farm near Biggar, Saskatchewan. He would later get his own farm and raise his family there. He was 74 when I was born and I only remember him as old and cantankerous, but I knew he hadn't had an easy life. (Can you imagine being sent across the world alone at age 11? Yikes.)

The museum also happened to have a special exhibit on the Empress of Ireland sinking (called it “Canada's Titanic”) and plenty of info on the history of immigration in this country. I took a few photos of some of the posters offering cheap farms to anyone willing to settle in the West and start working the land; both sides of my family were homesteaders in Saskatchewan, so that was really cool to see.

We also toured the maritime museum, which had lots of info on the actual Titanic but was kind of a letdown after the immigration experience, and the Halifax Citadel, which was a really neat 19th century military fort that was unfortunately on top of a rather large hill. That was enough walking to last me for quite a while. Ouch.

To Saint John tomorrow…

Cape Breton is basically a warmer version of Scotland (especially today, when it's 22 degrees and sunny…I can't believe we've been so blessed). The 50,000 Scottish immigrants that arrived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries re-created their homeland on this side of the Atlantic, and many of those families have been here ever since. More Gaelic is spoken in Nova Scotia than in Scotland. It makes for a very cool cultural experience.

We spent the day touring the Fortress of Louisbourg. Built by the French in the early 18th century, the fortress was captured by the British, later given back to France, then finally reconquered by the British, who proceeded to level it. There was nothing but rubble until the 1960s, when the area was designated a national historic site and one-fifth of the original fortress was painstakingly reconstructed.

Guides in period costume give talks about what life was like there in 1744. A soldier showed us his musket and even demonstrated how to fire it; a maid let us try a sample of hot chocolate and explained what a rare treat this was at the time. We also had some free time to wander around admiring the buildings, cannons and fortifications. Very cool.

On the drive back to Sydney, our guide regaled us with tales of the Celtic traditions of Cape Breton and even sang a few Gaelic songs that none of us understood but all of us appreciated. I could easily spend two more days here exploring the sights — especially if it continues to be this gorgeous weather-wise — but alas, the ship leaves tonight.

On to Halifax…

What I knew about Newfoundland before I came to Corner Brook:

1. It’s way out east.
2. It’s in a funny time zone.
3. It’s rocky and cold and windy.

Incredibly, it turns out that’s not all there is to know about this place. Here are some things I learned from touring around the Gros Morne National Park today:

1. It’s not nearly as rocky as I imagined. Much of the island is covered in dense forest and actually has a thriving pulp-and-paper industry (in truth, it looks a lot like BC, though it’s a tenth of the size — our guide said BC was like “Newfoundland on steroids.”) Gros Morne does has some unique geology: the Tablelands are 500 million-year-old rocks that were originally part of the earth’s crust and were pushed upwards when the tectonic plates shifted. Combine that with fjords, waterfalls, and mountains 20 times older than the Rockies, and you get some really impressive scenery.

2. It’s not that cold, at least today. We had gorgeous sunny skies and a high of 17 degrees, which our guide says is the warmest October day this place has had in over 20 years. There was still a nasty wind off the water that chilled us to the bone, but the sunshine made it all OK.

3. It lies on the main air route between North America and Europe. That means that at any given time, there are at least three or four planes passing high overhead. I’m used to seeing one, maybe two white contrails in the sky. It was a little unnerving to see six at once.

4. According to our guide, until very recently it was not at all unusual for Newfies to not know how to swim. Sure, they live on an island that’s surrounded by water, but it’s frigid North Atlantic water. Only an idiot would swim in that stuff.

So that was Newfoundland. Now on to Sydney…

I used to complain that sea days were boring, but that was back when I tried to occupy myself with sitting by the pool all day. We’re staving off boredom by getting involved in lots of activities. We’ve gone to the gym, played group board games, seen a comedy show, done a line dancing class (that one was just me) and watched a beer stein lifting contest. Who knew we could be so social?

About the beer steins…the ship is celebrating Oktoberfest today, so that’s been a theme for many of the happenings onboard. We played a round of Oktoberfest trivia this morning (we met a couple from California that enjoys trivia as much as we do, so we team up together for all the group games) and we actually knew most of the answers, but no one could beat the team of five ladies from Germany.

The atrium is all decked out with banners depicting beer steins, giant pretzels and other symbols of the great German festival. They had a bit of polka dancing and then brought three guys out of the audience to see who could hold two full beer steins straight out to their sides the longest. Chris, who didn’t actually participate, was disappointed that the steins only contained water — claimed the lack of beer would kill his motivation.

And yes, I actually took part in a line dancing class. I always thought of line dancing as only for country music, but we learned routines for Mambo Number 5 and Thriller as well as Achy Breaky Heart. Picture me and 200 seniors bumping into each other on a tiny dance floor. It was a total blast. Thankfully there are no photos.

You can’t win em all. Today was supposed to be about a walking tour of the Lower Town of old Quebec City with an extended stop at the Musee de Civilisation. But chilly temperatures and 56 kph winds made for extremely unpleasant walking conditions, and it turned out the museum is closed on Mondays. So we took a few pictures and were back on the ship by 9:30 am. Huh.

Still, we managed to have a pretty good day. We don’t normally get too involved in onboard activities, but I wanted to make more of an effort to do that this time, so we joined in some group games of Scattergories, trivia, and Taboo. We were the only ones in the room under the age of 70 (it’s definitely not a young crowd on this ship) but we still had fun. We even won at Taboo, so that was kind of cool.

Tonight we have a special dinner at the Italian restaurant on board, then there’s a comedy show in the theatre, and then we’re off to our next port.

Day at sea tomorrow (sigh)…

I’d heard that people in Quebec City could be pretty militant about the language thing, so I wasn’t sure what kind of reception we’d get when we arrived for our Canada-New England cruise, but no worries. Everyone we’ve encountered has been friendly and helpful, though that may be because they assumed we were American (when our cab driver found out we were actually from Canada, he chided us a bit for not speaking French.) Still, it’s been a good experience overall.

We had one night on our own in the city before boarding our ship, so we took advantage of Chris’s corporate connections to get us a super cheap room at the world’s most photographed hotel: the Chateau Frontenac. We didn’t get there until almost midnight and had to check out first thing this morning, but it was still a treat. The hotel itself is very castle-like; the lobby strongly resembles a medieval dungeon, with dark woods and intricate carvings everywhere. Our room was nothing special and had absolutely no view, but that wasn’t the point. Cross that one off the bucket list.

We spent the morning wandering around the Upper Town of Old Quebec, which is surrounded by fortress walls and overlooks the St. Lawrence River. Buildings in the area have been carefully preserved; some are more than 300 years old. It’s very much like walking through an old European city. We also stopped at the Musee du Fort and saw a very interesting sound and light show that covered the various battles fought by the French, British and Americans over control of Quebec. I’m a history nerd, so that was pretty cool.

The ship is docked here overnight, so we have one more day to explore before we sail. Lower Town tomorrow…

After four days of hanging with the Saskatchewan relatives, we hit the road to Calgary once again, this time to spend a couple days sightseeing. One of the main things we wanted to do was take the kids to a football game, so when I saw that the Riders would be in town, I snapped up some tickets. I can’t honestly say I’m a huge football fan, but I was born into Rider Nation — I get it. My kids, on the other hand, are huge football fans but do not care to cheer for a team that a) they have no real connection to and b) almost never wins. They thoroughly enjoyed mocking me, though. Good times.

We had more good times today when we toured the zoo. I was slightly hesitant about doing that, since the kids have actually been there before, but that was six years ago and it turns out they remember almost nothing about that trip, so this was all new to them. We skipped the whole Canadian wildlife section in favor of focusing on animals like penguins, lions, tigers, hippos, camels, etc, not to mention the animatronic dinosaurs in the Prehistoric Park area. I was pleased to see that the boys actually stopped to read the signs at the exhibits this time (they actually learned something!) So that was three hours well spent.

Then it was off to the Canada Sports Hall of Fame, where we saw statues, videos and artifacts of Canada’s most well-known athletes. They even had some interactive exhibits where the kids could shadow box with Lennox Lewis, try out their football/baseball/hockey skills against a simulator, and publish their own sports magazine. Very cool.

Home tomorrow…

Who are these fools who dream of driving across Canada? Just getting from Calgary to Saskatoon is enough to make me mental. It’s been an eye-opening experience for Brayden, too, who’s getting his first views of both the Rockies and the actual prairies. He was impressed by the former; not so much by the latter. (Turns out he, like his mother, cannot read in a moving vehicle without getting sick, so that’s a bummer. Thank God for the iPad.)

We didn’t spend the entire day driving, though. This morning we got to see the the oh-so-awesome dinosaur fossils at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. We easily could’ve spent more time there if the kids had bothered to read any of the signs at the exhibits, but they just wandered around looking at skeletons. I hadn’t been to Drumheller in over 30 years, so it was basically all new to me too. Very cool.

And now for the family visit portion of the adventure…

Call us crazy, but this year we decided to drive to Saskatoon to visit the relatives. The original plan was just to see Calgary and Drumheller, but we quickly realized that if we were going that far we might as well drive the extra five hours to get free room and board — er, to spend time with loved ones. We’ve been to Toon Town many times, of course, but we generally fly (in fact, Brayden has never done that drive, and everyone should be subjected to it at least once). So we loaded up the van.

Our first stop was at the Revelstoke Railway Museum. We climbed through a couple of vintage rail cars, drove the locomotive simulator, and marvelled at the detailed theming of the exhibits. There was probably two hours worth of information, but the kids ran past most of the plaques, so we were done in about 45 minutes. Then we were stuck in the parking lot for 15 minutes because an actual train was going by — the irony.

It was shortly after leaving Revelstoke that the rain started. And I’m not talking about a gentle sprinkle. It was coming down so hard that it was difficult to keep the van on the road. We passed half a dozen cars that just gave up and pulled over. The downpour continued off and on the whole rest of the way. As we approached Calgary, the clouds to the north were so black that it was like a scene from Twister. We seriously felt like we were driving into a tornado. We made it to the hotel about two minutes before the skies opened up (!) so we hunkered down, had dinner in the hotel and hit the indoor waterpark.

To Drumheller tomorrow…

I’ve never been inclined toward science, but space is cool, and the Kennedy Space Center is an awesome outing (certainly better than sitting in the airport for eight hours, which was our only other option.) We inspected the space shuttle Atlantis, now permanently docked at the center. We saw a Saturn V rocket. We witnessed a re-enactment of the Apollo 8 launch. We even rode a space shuttle simulator.

And that was just the cool stuff for the adults. There were all kinds of interactive experiences for the kids, too — landing the shuttle, crawling through a replica of the International Space Station, and sliding down a huge drop that simulates how steep and fast the shuttle lands. We had five hours at the center and didn’t even get to do everything, and it was only one-third the cost of Universal Studios. In short, it rocked.

Another vacation done…