We're Singing our September Song

Boston Harbor

I've been around the world in a plane...again and again. Mongolia? Check. Guyana? Check? Uzbekistan? Check. Samoa? Check.

But I've never set foot outside Logan Airport in Boston. I've never gazed at Niagara Falls. I've not visited the Maritime Museum with its Titanic exhibits in Halifax nor paid homage to childhood idols Jackie Robinson and Christy Mathewson at the Baseball Hall of Fame. I've explored our southern neighbor, Mexico, from Baja to the Yucatan, from Chiapas to Chapala, by train, car and bus. But I've never wandered anywhere in our neighbor to the north, Canada, outside of British Columbia.

Child's Shoes from Titanic

Not too late. My beau, Frank Stern, and I have been poring over the AAA Tour books, the Road Scholar itinerary and the ports of call on the Celebrity Summit cruise from Cape Liberty to Halifax, and we've rolled three vacations into one.

Bar Harbor

1) The cruise leaves Port Liberty, in Bayonne, N.J.,  on Sunday, Sept. 9. We'll have three days to explore NYC from our hotel by Newark airport. We plan to take subway and buses to get around. And then the cruise goes to Boston, Portland, MN, Bar Harbor, two days in Quebec City, Saquenay, Sidney, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and back to Cape Liberty.

Saratoga Springs

(2) We take a cab from Cape Liberty on Sunday, Sept. 23, to Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island and spend the day and night there. Maybe explore a little of Staten Island. The next morning we pick our car rental up from next to the hotel and head for leg two, our Fall Foliage drive through upper New York State. We drive to Albany and spend two nights. We will go to Saratoga Springs and visit the National Museum of Racing.

Then we continue from Albany to Syracuse, with a stop at Cooperstown to tour the Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally we drive from Syracuse to Ottawa and have a day or two to explore before joining the Road Scholar tour in Ottawa on Sunday, Sept. 30.

Niagara-on-the-Lake

(3) The Road Scholar trip includes two nights in Ottawa, with tours of the Ottawa Museum of History and Rideau Hall, and then on to Kingston for two nights with Arthur Child Museum, 1000 Islands, Boldt Castle, and then on to Toronto for two nights, with Picton, McCaully Park, wine tasting, St. Lawrence Market, Elgin Wintergarden Theater, and then on to Niagara-on-the-Lake for two nights, with the Shaw Festival where we see either "Oh, What a Lovely War" or "The Hound of the Baskervilles." On Canadian Thanksgiving, we tour Niagara Falls with a boat cruise on The Maid of the Mist. Finally, we'll be transported to the Buffalo airport for our return flight home, via O'Hare.

Two countries...dozens of  "At Long Last" items to check off my Lifetime To-Do List.

Ottawa, Canada