Hop Aboard with Thebeerchaser – Bar Harbor and Boston

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Thebeerchaser

In several previous posts, I’ve covered our seven-day Holland America cruise from Montreal to Boston in early May that Janet and I made accompanied by our good friends, Jeff and Susan Nopper. (External Photo Attribution at the end of the post #1.)

I told you about Three Brassieres – a great brewery in Montreal, how a walking tour of Quebec City captivated us with visits of the impressive Fairmont LA Chateau Frontenac Hotel and the majestic Notre-Dame de-Quebec Basilica Cathedral (#2) in the historic city.

Then our day in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island – home of another splendid edifice – St. Dunstan’s Cathedral Basilica. (Clockwise – left to right below)

You saw pictures from our bus tour on the Cabot Trail out of Sydney, Nova Scotia and I vicariously let you raise a mug with us in the Garrison’s Brewery in Halifax (#3) after visiting scenic Peggy’s Cove. Wilken, our bartender at Garrison’s was friendly and helpful.

I shared how we didn’t even try to quaff our daily quota of fifteen drinks each – as unbelievable as that Holland America gimmick sounds – but I could have actually downed three Americanos, seven beers and five martinis and not paid extra based on the cruise package we had.

Even with the outstanding and plentiful food available, I wouldn’t have fulfilled that daily beverage quota. But for the first time, I discovered the wonders of a Smokey Boulevardier cocktail. (#3)

And the people we met were memorable ranging from 87-year-old electrician, Sonny, and his educator wife from Florida to Jennifer and JD – middle aged Texans who had recently ridden their Harleys to South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and singer Anne Cochran.

We met Anne at breakfast. She is the superb vocalist from Cleveland (with a trial lawyer husband she met after serving on one of his juries) who, besides her own singing career for many years, has accompanied her friend going back to their teen years, Grammy-winning pianist, Jim Brickman, both in his albums and on tours. (#4)

A Stellar Spectacle

Late in the evening of the sixth night as were cruising in the Atlantic Ocean from Halifax to Bar Harbor, Maine, we were leaving the bar (not even close to our quota that day) after listening to the great combo featuring a talented female vocalist.

In the passageway heading to our stateroom, some crew members were excitedly running to the bow of the ship with their cameras.

We heard one shout, “It’s the Northern Lights” and figured if the crew thought it was extraordinary, we should take a look. And it was amazing, although interestingly enough, not as visible without looking through your camera.

This phenomenon was actually a powerful solar storm that appeared across the globe according to news reports including this one from The Oregonian. I guess we could have seen the same show from our own house, but it was still a thrill on the bow of the ship.

“Brilliant purple, green, yellow and pink hues of the Northern Light were reported worldwide. In the U.S., the lights pushed much farther south than normal….In the Pacific Northwest, they could even be seen from the Portland area.

…..the best aurora views may come from phone cameras which are better at capturing light than the naked eye.”

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

Bar Harbor was the only port where we had to use a tender – or small boat to transport us to shore from where we anchored.

Bar Harbor is a charming city, and we had visited it and toured Acadia National Park several years ago. We enjoyed lunch there and a van tour around the beautiful Park – one of our favorites.

And when visiting in 2018, we had excellent beer at Atlantic Brewing – the Midtown location, so before returning to the ship, we looked forward to returning:

“Atlantic Brewing is a family-owned brewery located in Bar Harbor and surrounded by Acadia National Park. The brewery was founded in downtown Bar Harbor inside the Lompoc Cafe.

As demand grew, and the company outgrew its space, it moved down the road to an estate brewery built on the site of a 19th century Bar Harbor farmstead…

In 2017, the Midtown Brewery opened in downtown Bar Harbor, a block away from the original location. Midtown is a modern brewery and taproom focusing on pilot and specialty batches.”

Given the good selection, we couldn’t decide so had a small sampler. Afterwards, we had a great chat with Thomas who manages the Midtown location. The lower left picture shows a sampler we had in 2018, so we moderated in 2024 (No. Not because we had fifteen drinks waiting for us back at the ship…..)

Our three four-ounce samples, shown above, were Blueberry Ale, Mountain Hopper IPA and Atlantic Summer Ale – all excellent brews.

Boston – Our Debarkation Port

We sailed from Bar Harbor with scheduled Saturday arrival at around 10 AM in Boston. With some regret, I realized that I didn’t participate in several cruise activities – “Coloring for Adults”, “Origami Folding – Paperbomb” or the “Art of Flower Arranging.”

Walking around the third deck multiple times daily, however, and a few fitness center workouts at least kept me from gaining any weight notwithstanding the excellent food. (Janet also pointed out that alcohol has calories….)

Now Janet and I had been to Boston multiple times on work trips and once since my 2011 retirement. Jeff and Susan were catching the one non-stop Alaska Air flight to Portland that evening at 7:30. Before the trip, I had negotiated with Janet asking:

“When are we going to get back to Beantown again? Let’s stay over Saturday night and eat at Giacomo’s – our favorite restaurant in the North End and explore the City on Sunday until we hit Logan Airport.” (#5)

She agreed and we booked a room at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in the impressive Seaport District in South Boston – within walking distance of where we docked.

“The Seaport is a formerly industrial area that has undergone an extensive redevelopment effort in recent years…As of 2017, it was the fastest growing part of Boston and has stimulated significant economic growth in the city. The restoration of the Seaport began with the completion of the Big Dig.”

I reassured Janet that it was good that we were seeing it now as according to Wikipedia, “The Seaport District is at risk of climate-related flooding over the next 30 years.” (#6)

Our Boston Weekend

In the slim hope that we’d get to see the Red Sox play at historic Fenway Park, I googled their schedule and found that they had a home game at 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. We debated just relaxing at the hotel given that we would require public transportation.

Remembering our visit to another historic stadium – Wrigley Field on a 2008 business trip to Chicago, which was fantastic, however, we decided on an adventure. I’ll share that in the final post on our cruise, but before the game, we had to check out a brewery.

We walked to nearby Harpoon Brewery and Beer Hall. It has a distinctive exterior and expansive and attractive interior. In 1986 the Harpoon Brewery received Brewing Permit #001 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

It has a commonality with the Northwest and the origins of craft beer because:

“Harpoon was the first brewery in New England to brew an India Pale Ale….and first sold as a summer seasonal in 1993 and quickly became the brewery’s flagship beer. Harpoon IPA quickly became a staple of the American India pale ale style and was found on tap at bars and restaurants in Greater Boston.

In July 2014, while then the twelfth-largest craft brewery in the United States, the company became employee-owned.” (Wikipedia)

We had just consumed a bowl of New England Clam Chowder in a nearby bistro, so didn’t get to try one of Harpoon’s signature pretzels. Tim, our server, who attended college nearby was friendly and briefed us on the history. (#7)

Of course, we had a Harpoon IPA.

Stay tuned for reviews of a few more Boston breweries and our great experience at Fenway.

Photo May 11 2024, 2 24 20 PM

External Photo Attribution

#1. Holland America Website (Find Cruises – Search Cruise Itineraries 2024, 2025, & 2026 (hollandamerica.com).

#2. Wikimedia Commons (File:Basilique-cathédrale de Notre-Dame-de-Québec.JPG – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Sylvainbrousseau 16 September 2012.

#3. Wikimedia Commons (File:2022-08-15 02 Wikivoyage banner image of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.jpg – Wikimedia Commons). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Gordon Leggett -15 August 2022.

#4. Anne Cochran Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jimbrickman/photos/a.166961617144/10153808359072145/?type=3.

#5. Wikimedia Commons (File:Boston Seaport (36318p).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Rhododendrites – 13 November 2019.

#6. Wikimedia Commons (File:Boston skyline from East Boston November 2016 panorama 1.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: King of Hearts – 12 November 2016.

#7. Harpoon Brewery Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/woodmansofessex/photos/t.100064984110084/10159973737455557/?type=3).

Hop on Board with Thebeerchaser – Part III Charlottetown

Posted on June 15, 2024 by Thebeerchaser

Charlottetown

Since it was 682 nautical miles from Quebec City to Charlottetown, we spent the second day of the trip – a Monday – just cruising which I really enjoyed – and the weather was much better:

Photo May 06 2024, 7 11 34 PM

Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island – one of thirteen Canadian provinces or territories – the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated.

The city has a population of just 40,500 and was incorporated in 1855. Since it was pretty compact, we decided to just walk on our own and there was a nice boardwalk along the pier and harbor.

When we docked and left the ship, I expected to see a bevy of Canadian realtors waiting for appointments with those on the cruise who were hedging their bets based on the result of the forthcoming November US General Election. But I guess that’s another story…..

While it was filled with historic houses and buildings, the highlight was two wonderful churches. St. Dunstan’s Cathedral Basilica – built from 1897 to 1907 – it reminded us of the ornate trappings of similar structures in Europe.

Photo May 07 2024, 11 14 58 AM

And only several blocks away was the smaller, but still impressive St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral founded in 1869:

“St. Peter’s has superb choral music, beautiful liturgy, strong orthodox Christian teaching and preaching, a friendly congregation, and a tradition of service to the community.”

Remember, however, this is a blog primarily about bars and breweries…..

Now, we hadn’t been to a brewery since Montreal, so after viewing the cathedrals, we set out in search of suds. Gahan Brewing came to the rescue. And consistent with the heritage of other structures throughout town, The Gahan House embodied history:

“Gahan is a name unknown in Prince Edward Island today, but in the middle of the 19th century, John Gahan was a prominent merchant, an importer of teas, wines, and family groceries. His place of business was on the corner of Queen and Sydney Streets in Charlottetown; now known as The Gahan House.”

Photo May 07 2024, 10 31 37 AM

The brew pub was a very attractive mix of brick and dark wood and they had an excellent selection of beers. Gahan Brewing also has a good story and it was nice to see an independent brewery thriving:

“The Gahan Brewery (formerly Murphy’s Brewing Co.) was established in March 1997 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The beer quickly became a local favorite and the brewery relocated to its current location on the corner of Queen & Sydney Streets in Downtown Charlottetown, thus doubling its production capacity and giving it a permanent home in Old Charlottetown.”

“With a total of six locations across Atlantic Canada, The Gahan House has become an East Coast tradition dedicated to creating memorable experiences.”

And their Island Red Ale was one of the best I’ve drunk. I’m also sorry that I didn’t get to try the Big Don Coffee Belgian Blonde Ale before Gahan stopped brewing it. One reviewer on Untapped characterized it as follows:…”

“So deliciously weird, wouldn’t want to drink more than one, but that one is a great treat.”

This prompted Janet to remark, “That account might be similar to your personality, Don…..”

The pub also had a great menu and there was a thriving take-out business during the noon hour, but we had lunch back at the ship.

And since we still had twelve (of the fifteen “free” daily drinks) waiting for us at the ship that day, we didn’t partake at the Olde Dublin Pub – right across the street. It looked like a watering hole, however, that deserved additional research!

“….we’re Charlottetown’s original Irish pub! Here, since 1983, Islanders and visitors alike have been tipping back Guinness, enjoying Irish and East Coast dishes with an ODP twist, and raising a cheer for some of the best traditional and contemporary music to grace the province”

I guess that that will have to wait for our return trip!

Cheers and stay tuned for Sydney – our next port.

Cheers!

External Photo Attribution

#1. Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vote_sign_democracy.jpg) File is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law.

Hop on Board with Thebeerchaser – Part II – Quebec City

Posted on June 5, 2024 by Thebeerchaser

Welcome back to Thebeerchaser. If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title above to see all of the photos at the end of the post and so the narrative isn’t clipped or shortened.

In the last post, I told you about our recent Holland America cruise from Montreal to Boston with our good friends the Noppers. https://thebeerchaser.com/2024/05/29/hop-on-board-with-thebeerchaser-part-i/

We had a night and a morning in Montreal before we embarked on the Volendam (on Saturday May 4th – my birthday) so on Friday, we took a ninety-minute bus tour of the city and then walked around to see historic buildings and, of course, bars and breweries.

I might add that we stayed at the La Centre Sheraton – right downtown – which had a wonderful looking bar itself. The concierge recommended a couple of good places for beer.

Th Sheraton bar

Our first watering hole where we had some excellent beer was 3 Brasseurs. (That’s “brewers” in English). Evidently, it is a chain with establishments thoughout France and four locations in Canada – Montreal, Quebec, Toronto.

Photo May 03 2024, 4 29 45 PM

“Welcome to our brand with 30 years of experience in beer making, design and service of authentic and generous local dishes, for the greatest satisfaction of our customers.”

The bar had a great atmosphere inside with a long, attractive bar, but given the beautiful day, we sat outside on the expansive patio – right on the street which made it more interesting.

And we sat next to a young and very friendly couple – the first of many great people we met on our trip – who were visiting from the Western part of Canada. We only had beer and they even offered to share their food with us since the servings were so generous.

Photo May 03 2024, 4 08 04 PM (1)

We declined and ate that night in an Italian restaurant – a mistake – we should have ordered a burger and fries at 3 Brasseurs.

I left the others for five minutes while they were waiting for our beers, to check out the other recommendation from the concierge – Brutopia – kind of an interesting name and I was sorry we didn’t have time to check it out. It looked very interesting:

“Brutopia Brewpub is the premiere brewpub in downtown Montreal. Since we opened our doors early in 1997, our attentive, friendly staff has been serving full flavoured beers, freshly brewed on our premises.” (# – External photo attribution at end of post #1)

It looked like the brewpub had great food, but we still had places to see and instead ate that night in an Italian restaurant – a mistake – but I guess I already said that above.

The ship left the next day at about 5:00 PM and we had some beautiful views of Montreal – by the way, the city is actually on an island….And shortly after we left the pier, I saw another brewery I would have liked to hit – I guess when we return.

It brought back memories of two of Molson’s slogans from the past:

“We’ll drink to that.” (2005)

“Molson’s makes it golden..” (1986) (#2)

Molson and Coors merged in 2005 and at that time, Molson Coors was rated the third largest producer of beer in the United States, and the second largest brewer in the United Kingdom.

It has continued to expand and in 2016, “per the agreement with the regulators, SABMiller sold to Molson Coors full ownership of the Miller Brewing Company brand portfolio.” Wikipedia

Shipboard Life and Port Adventures

We quickly acclimated to life on the cruise. The only issue which disappointed me was that with the exception of the second day, we sailed from port to port in either the late afternoon or after sunset into the morning hours and I didn’t get to see that much of the beautiful countryside and towns along the St. Lawrence.

Every day, we could either sign up for tours (excursions) ranging from walking tours, to tours of museums, historic homes to long bus tours e.g. an eight-hour ride (including lunch) which we took on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia to see the beautiful coast and mountains.

Historic and beautiful Quebec City (#3)

We sailed Saturday evening from Montreal to historic Quebec City. Before debarking the ship for the tour, we had our typical breakfast at the Volendam’s Lido Market Place – a buffet that had an amazing assortment from pastries to traditional faire to lox.

The first morning, I had lox and onions with my scrambled eggs, even though some would scoff at this combination.

We then took a two-hour guided walking tour of the city of 549,459 settled originally in 1633. To get from the pier to the upper level and most of the attractions, we took the Old Quebec Funicular (1879).

At the top was a great view and an abundance of history.

The tour was very interesting, albeit wet, as a steady rain came down. It didn’t dampen the experience of seeing the:

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac (“An iconic historic hotel in Quebec City known for its castle-like architecture and stunning views of the St. Lawrence River.”) (1893) (#4)

Notre-Dame de-Quebec Basilica Cathedral (“An historic and iconic basilica-cathedral, known for its stunning architecture and religious significance.”). (1633 – original) (#5)

Since our excursion of Quebec City was over by lunch, we spent the rest of the day exploring the ship.

The activities were an eclectic bunch of pursuits – keeping in mind that given the median passenger age, there could probably be an animated discussion of the Nixon vs Kennedy debate.

There were team sports or competitions from bingo to trivia to soccer goal scoring to cornhole to poker to pickleball to bridge, but these were not for us as was the case with “Origami Folding – Paper-bomb” or “The Art of Flower Arranging” to “Coloring for Adults” (not hair…) or “Adventures with Water Colors – Jellyfish….” (#6 – #7))

However, there were no offerings such as “The Colorful History of Pabst Blue Ribbon,” or “Hop Gardening,” although I have to admit given the median age of the passengers, I was surprised to see one actually entitled “Pampering the Ladies…”

One that piqued my interest was “Make Your Own Mug” until I found it that it pertained to coffee rather than beer and I blanched about spending 90-minutes in a session – “Make Your Own Flower Vase.”

And these were just on the first two days so I thought with five more days left on the cruise, they might consider “Make Your Own Titanic” or “Make Your Own Submarine,” but Janet told me not to go anywhere near the Cruise Director with these suggestions.

We decided that we would enjoy walking the deck and then reading and viewing beautiful Quebec City from a higher deck – this while consuming one or two of our fifteen “free” drinks per day (unbelievably – part of the cruise package).

It made me think seriously about the assertion of Aloysius Archer, the protagonist in the Baldacci novel I was reading:

“If you’re going to drink all day, you have to start in the morning.”

While walking the deck, my mind was still at work wondering:

“Do they really need the warning message on the bulkhead shown in the following photo?”

Is that warning really necessary?

And while my initial “Make Your Own” suggestions were not viable, given the robust supply of cooking material on board, why not “Make Your Own Life Ring?” (#8)

On a more serious note, I thought Holland America missed a good opportunity by not mimicking Portland’s Breakside Brewery which recently advertised:

“Make Your Own IPA Ice Cream, 11 a.m.-noon Saturday, June 15: Join Malek and Breakside head brewer Ben Edmunds – churn your very own beer-infused ice cream.”

Photo May 10 2024, 8 37 34 PM

The selections in the dining room for the evening meal were splendid as was the presentation and quality. We typically had two meals each day (along with an occasional cookie or ice cream cone in the evening.)

Given the expansive and plentiful availability of both food and alcohol, it made me wonder if any medical research had been conducted on the correlation between heart attacks and post cruise living.

I decided to banish that morbid thought the next morning when I had my breakfast which included lox and a bagel. (#9)

Stay tuned for our next port, Charlottetown – 721 nautical miles from Quebec City – so we had one full day of just sailing, before we docked at this next city – another one with a rich and interesting history.

External Photo Attribution

#1. Brutopia Brew Pub Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=903734435093709&set=a.485131863620637.

#2. Molson Canadian Facebook Page by Samuel Hurd Photography (https://www.facebook.com/samuelhurdphotography/photos/t.100064389773443/373652893053044/?type=3).

#3. Wikimedia Commons (Château Frontenac city at night – Quebec City – Wikipedia) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Wilfredo Rafael Rodriguez Hernandez – 27 September 2018.

#4. Wikimedia Commons (2016-11 Château Frontenac 06 – Château Frontenac – Wikipedia) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: 0x010C – 8 November 2016.

#5. Wikimedia Commons (File:Basilique-cathédrale de Notre-Dame-de-Québec.JPG – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Sylvainbrousseau 16 September 2012.

#6. Wikimedia Commons (File:Adult Coloring program.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author:
Jenn Gaylor – 22 September 2015.

#7. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons (File:Jelly fish in watercolour.png – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Author: Midjourney AI prompted by Netha Hussain – 21 January 2023.

#8. Wikimedia Commons (File:Onion Ring (48075744183).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Ryan Dickey – 16 June 20219.

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:Lox-and-bagel-02.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Author: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner – 25 July 2012.