MS Mom'sdam

So pleased that Facebook updates allow me to take a shortcut while catching up on this summer's blog.  The plan was to recap the wonderful week upon the Maasdam for Mom's birthday cruise from Toronto, allowing me to then focus on the wonderful state of Michigan as we make our way around the Great Lake state during this next week.  Unfortunately, Google is very suspicious of Canadians taking over random blogs, apparently, and created a security nightmare in order for me to verify that I am, indeed, the author of this here blog.

Now that I write from a chair next to a roaring fire in the Webster Inn in Bay City, Michigan, with footsteps busy upstairs preparing the breakfast (the wonderful smells are already wafting down into the "Keep") we will eat when my sleeping family awakes in 30 minutes, I am happy to say that I am back on task! :)

As we will never forget, and those of you who read this blog each summer already know, our trip started with quite the unpleasant and expensive hiccup when we realized just a half an hour or so before we were all to head to the port in Boston that we hadn't brought our passports.  After wishing Mom, Dad, Clay, Alex, Sophia and Fiona a Bon Voyage, we got busy trying to figure our way out of the mess.  The fact that the first port stop - and last port stop in America - to Bar Harbor, Maine - occurred on a Sunday, created all sorts of complications.  What otherwise would have been a relatively inexpensive overnight FedEx package turned into an incredible gesture that had Phil (beloved nephew and all around superstar) jump on a plane to Boston (only to turn right back around to Ft. Lauderdale, so he could return to his planned weekend festivities with his girlfriend), fly the passports to us, at which point we jumped into a rental car and headed to Bar Harbor.

The silver lining to this major screw-up was realizing just how lucky we are to have such wonderful friends and family (Susanna and Adrienne who ran to our house to get our passports came through in a clutch, as well) who would drop everything to help us.  The extra bonus was that I got to check off another state when we made an hour stop in darling Portsmouth, NH on our way to Maine.

We reunited with the rest of the Clifton clan by 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning, much to everyone's (but, let's face it, especially Mom's :) relief.  Guests on deck 10 are fortunate to have their own personal concierge.  Maddie and Daniel want to figure out a way to make Paulo a permanent presence in our lives, as he made quite an impression on them from the start.  He graciously eased us on the ship, and our cruise adventure began, albeit a day late.

Some photos from the cruise will offer a snapshot of an amazing week of increasingly charming and interesting ports (to some of which we have all promised we must return; apparently Dad intends to bring Molly to Quebec for a month!)  We all agreed that Holland America is a special cruise line; with the exception of the line to return on the tender in Bar Harbor, we never once experienced those crowds that can make a cruise feel less like a luxurious experience on a ship and more like a cattle call.  Not so on the Maasdam.  During the week, we participated in all manner of contests, from trivia to Name that Tune to Blackjack tournaments to scavenger hunts, and we emerged victorious in nearly all of them.  We were a relatively unstoppable force :)

Taking a "selfie" in the mirror on our first night of the cruise

Recreating the scene on the staircase from Mom's Alaska cruise birthday.  They're all a bit bigger and more unwieldy now :)

Dancing King and Queen

Daniel and Fiona provided much dancing entertainment 

Perhaps my favorite part of the cruise was watching Daniel dance with his sister, his cousins and his grandmother.  Wearing his first suit since he was just a kid, he cut quite the handsome figure and was eager to hit the dance floor every night.  Mom seemed like she just walked off the set of American Bandstand rather than that she was celebrating her 70th birthday, as she put all others on the dance floor to shame with her moves.  Clearly the concert we (and by we, I mean Mom) should have entered was the Dancing with the Stars dance competition.

The very best part of the cruise - cousins spending time together!

Clay strikes one of many poses ;)

Dad and Daniel await our rental car chauffers (aka Dana and Clay) to begin our driving tour of Halifax

The famed lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

Port #3 - Sydney... known for its giant violin :)

The only thing better than faking a pose is having company to do so

In Charlottetown for our GPS scavenger hunt... a little rain wasn't going to stand in our way!

Checking out Charlottetown's, PEI's version of this worldwide art installation

Back to the beginning... Team Pink completes clue #1 for the win!

Dad contemplates the bridge we are about to barely fit under :)

This was quite an event, so many of us made the trek to the top of the 12th deck

Clay thinks he's videotaping the historic moment; alas, he was in photo mode :)

A ping pong competition was inevitable; while we have many strong players in this brood, ultimately, the finale came down to Clay vs. Daniel, with Clay emerging victorious! 

A "cupcake tea"  :)

Our tour guide, Denise, gave us a lovely overview of  Quebec

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Jacqueline, the French kitty, the children wanted to adopt.... (and did name :)

Voted the "prettiest street in Canada"

So... the family is awake, and we are due upstairs for our lovely breakfast in just ten minutes.  That, plus the fact that this blog is already likely much too long, will cause me to wrap up for now.  Suffice it to say that, passport woes aside, the week on the Maasdam was filled with quaint ports, delectable food, great music, and, most of all, wonderful company.

I will leave you with one last image - from our hotel in Boston.  After we returned from an opening night viewing of Ant-Man, we decorated the hall outside of Mom's hotel room, so she would be greeted with a festive Happy Birthday when she awoke (yes, I remembered the Happy Birthday banner but not the passports! :P)   This was a perfect way to celebrate Mom's big birthday.  I know I can speak for one and all when I say, "where are we going for Dad's 75th?!

The birthday princess caught in  her famous act of fluffing her hair before a photo :)