Dopp Family Cruise

 For Bruce and Marlene's 50th wedding anniversary, We planned a cruise to see New England in the fall. We all flew into New York at different times and met up at a musical on Broadway the night before the cruise.

Jeremy and Jenny arranged to have the marquis outside their Times Square hotel honor them. It was so fun to see their names in lights!

Scott and I took the redeye Thursday night, so we had all day Friday and most of the day Saturday. Our hotel, the Jane, was in Chelsea, so we checked in early and just started walking. Scott had never been to Greenwich, so we walked towards that neighborhood. We found a cookie dough place that's trendy right now and got a cup of chocolate chip. We agreed that it wasn't as good as Marlene's. We spent time in Washington Square, right next to the NYU campus, just listening to street musicians and watching people. It was an absolutely breathtaking fall day in New York, the kind of day people live there for. I was happy inside, just to be there, and to spend time with Scott. We hardly even see each other.

Our strolling took us through Nolita, and into Little Italy. It happened to be the San Gennaro festival, and the street was lined with food and shoping stands. Tony Danza was there at his restaurant, serving food, as he always does during this festival, we learned. It was fun to see the real deal New York Italian-American star in his element. Lunch was leisurely and delicious. We watched as the servers catered to the nice people and completely ignored the pushy tourists until they eventually got up and left. Tee hee. New Yorkers are only rude if you're a jerk.

Each day of the cruise, we sent postcards to all our kids. While Golda andRuby probably appreciated them, we found all th eones we sent home in a pile of mail tha tthe kids had never looked at. Anyway, Friday night was Come From Away on Broadway. It was an excellent, complex production with great music and a talented cast. We enjoyed it. We stayed up late getting pizza and taking the subway back to Chelsea where we had a nightcap in a cute restaurant by the Whitney.

Early Saturday, we took the subway to the Upper West Side ( we accidentally didn't get off and ended up in Harlem, but didn't have time to stay. We had wanted to have breakfast at Marc Samuelson's restaurant, but the ship was waiting and we had too many plans. So we went back down and walked across the park to see a Modigliani exhibit at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side. Yesterday was Rosh Hashana, and it was closed, so we went today. It's free on Saturdays to avoid the element of commerce on the sabbath, so even better. We had plenty of time to see the whole exhibit, which was wonderful. We both love Modigliani. The Gugg was under renovation, so most exhibits were down. We had a falafel outside and talked to an artist from Burkina Faso, all about Ghana and the rest of West Africa.

Afterwards, we walked all the way down to Columbus Circle and got a treat at Kaiser bakery.

We boarded the sip at about 3, and got settled in. When the ship left the harbour as night was falling, the skyline was incredible.

First stop, Boston. All the leaves were pretty much still green, so anytime Nikki saw some dead leaves, we pretended to do a fall photo shoot.

Boston Cream Pie at Fanuel Hall

Red. Scott and Nikki came this close to renting a car and driving up the coast to Portland and meeting us there. Traffic out of Boston scared them out of it.

Portland, Maine. Scott and I had the BEST time. We got off the ship early in the morning and found a unique little coffee shop along the waterfront. We people watched while enjoying some organic baked goods, and we got a feel for the town. Our destination was the Portland Museum of Fine Art, because they have an extensive collection of Impressionist and American art. Before it opened, we watched some dancers suspended from ropes and pulleys, rehearsing a piece on the side of a building. It was innovative and beautiful. I'm glad we got to see that.

The museum did not disappoint. It's probably one of the best in the country, and we didn't want to miss it. Who knows when we'll be back in Portland, Maine?

Jonathan Cooper is a well-known violin maker. He gave us a tour of his shop and his stockpile of wood. That was fun. Everyone in Portland was casual and friendly. We had lobster for lunch at a microbrewery with lots of cool atmosphere, then met up with Marlene and Jeremy and ubered out to a lighthouse. (Lyft, actually. It seems to work better than Uber.) On the way, we drove by the rest of the gang riding the bikes they had rented for the day. The lighthouse wa pretty. It was exactly like being in a postcard. The rest of us went back to the ship, but Scott and I wanted to take advantage of every Maine moment. We kept stopping at "one more place." Last stop was a waterfront restaurant with dockside seating, for blueberry pie.

The next port was St. John, Nova Scotia. We were too cheap to take a bus to the waterfalls that seemed to be the tourist spot, so we walked the three miles each way with Ryan, Jennie, Jeremy and Jenny. We saw some quaint architecture and pretty scenery. We all split up for lunch, and we did get to try a donut at Tim Horton's, just like real Canadians. We had some fun laughs with some of the siblings. It was a good day.

There were fun things to do on the ship. Our favorite was late-night pizza and mockery, instigated by Scott and Clint laughing at Scott for something. The best part of the trip was all the time we spent getting to know each other better, especially late at night. We have the best family. Each one is invested in loving one another and staying close, even with our differences. It's so worth it.

We when we disembarked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the weather was angry and wet. It wasn't just a drizzle, it was pouring. All the waterfront stores and restaurants were closed. We were determined to have a good time, though. I didn't mind being soggy at all. This was our one day in our whole lives to see Halifax, so we soldiered on. We ended up at lunch with Nikki and Clint, laughing our derrieres off. They are so fun! We had another lunch when we met up with Jeff and Richelle. The six of us went to a poutine restaurant that locals had recommended. It turned out to be a chain like Panda or something, but it was a cute place. Scott and I shared butter chicken poutine, and we stayed in out of the rain for awhile just talking. We wandered around and stopped at another place before reluctantly, but gratefully getting on the ship to dry off.

Jeff won the dance contest! He got a trophy.

In Halifax, right when we got off the ship, there was a covered mall with food and stores. We met a Ghanaian woman and bought some food. It was really, really good.