They Redeemed Themselves

 I woke up to a nice surprise.  Thanks to a few changes, the couple that we stayed with offered to take us to Upper Canada Village (another one of those dress up in old-times outfits and teach us cool history stuff).  Yeah yeah, Clare keeps telling me there is a fancy name for these museums, but that doesn’t mean I have to use it.  

We have been to a number of these places now, and I think this is my favourite and we didn’t even get to see it all!  There was actual things being made there!  We saw a working flour mill and they actually use the flour to make bread that is sold on site.  There was a working lumber mill as well, and watching how they set it all up to cut long straight cuts was pretty cool.  There was also a wool umm… workshop?  First piles of stinky wool off sheep, then these amazing huge spindles that does something like 28 bobbins of yarn all at once, and then to the weaving area.  

Those are the only three buildings we spent any time in because they wanted to do the barge ride up the river, pulled by a horse on the edge of the river.  This took us to the opposite side of the village where we caught a trolley ride back because it was crazy hot and nobody wanted to walk.  I heard plans made to go back in the fall or something when it’s cooler and we can see it all.  I hope they bring me too!

Heat and a five hour drive ended the adventure early, but I was just glad to get one more adventure in, so no complaints from me.  Besides, I heard much discussion about what province or territory they want to do next.  I know it will be at least a year, but just hearing the discussion is music to my ears.  

Until my next adventure everyone 

Whatever!

Forgotten Again

 Short drive days are much better I have decided.  Clare and Robin are so much better to hang out with on short driving days - just sayin’

Today was all of four hours driving, plus a gas/bathroom/stretch/eat stop, so they slept in a bit and got to their friends place in the afternoon, where I was promptly forgotten in the car.  Yeah, thanks.

As a result of my complete boredom, I’ve decided to share some photos I didn’t get to share earlier in the trip (usually for space reasons - Clare gets very cranky when the website won’t let her format things nicely).

Enjoy the photos

Whatever!

“Dirt Shirt” blanket (dyed in PEI red dirt)
We don’t talk about what item they bought to be my blanket

Fries with the works (fries, gravy, hamburger and mushy peas)
It’s an island thing - not just at one place!

I think it’s bigger than me!

Made just my size :)

New friends??
(No they didn’t buy me one even though I asked)

Around the Workd in PEI

 

We made it to the hotel in Levi Quebec without a single story - yay!

I thought I’d share the map of PEI after we drove all over it (the island, not the map… Clare had fun colouring in the roads on the map, ok I think you get the idea). Just don’t look too close at the schedule part because that got a little messed up (although Clare had a little fun fixing the first few days).  

While we drove all of those roads, we came across some very familiar names in small towns, hamlets, and umm intersections that got given a name for some reason.

We went around the world to:  Norway, Alaska, New Zealand, Belfast, and Churchill

And yet never left Ontario: Toronto, Woodstock, Elmira, Wellington, Grand River, Kingston, Stratford, St. Catherines, Cornwall, Georgetown and Port Elgin

Whatever!

A Day of Lasts

 Sad but true, it was our last day on the island today.  As all the exploring was done, it was planned as a day to do things “one last time”.  

We went for one more shopping trip to the metropolis of Borden-Carleton for a few last minute gifts (still don’t understand this idea of buying things for people who didn’t go, but there’s a lot about humans I don’t understand).  

We went for one more seafood meal out at Victoria By The Sea (cute little village).

We went to Argyle Beach for the first time as the planned last-beach, didn’t like how busy it was and left.

We went to one last Dairy Bar, which makes 9 total.  Some had restaurants, some just ice cream.  All were delicious.

Bridge in the distance (if you can zoom in)

Disappointed in not getting a last-beach, we ended the day on Chelton Beach, the same beach we went to on the first day.  This wasn’t planned at all, and yet, after two weeks of searching for a decent beach to build a sand castle on, it turned out to be this one - the one 10 minutes up the road!  We had been there a few times, but never at low tide (we thought we HAD seen low-ish tide here and it was very rocky so ruled it out as a “good beach”.  Turns out we had been very wrong, and low tide turned up a ton of sand bars just perfect for sand castles!  Yay!

Is their sand castle good?  Nope.  

THEY say it was because it was late in the day and they didn’t have enough time, and that they never got to practice.  I say they just didn’t know what they were doing.  Did they have fun though?  Yup.  Did they get to practice a bunch of techniques they learned on YouTube?  Yup.  Did any of those details go together to make a cohesive build?  Nope.  Did I have fun laughing at them trying?  Definitely!

So ends the adventures of Prince Edward Island.  We do have three days of driving, which I hope will not be as exciting as the drive here.  I have some fun stories and summaries of our trip that I hope to post the next few nights (as I know some of you like knowing we got there safe and all that).

Until tomorrow

Whatever!

A whole Carnival for Lobsters

 We went to the Summerside Lobster Carnival.  Yup, they have a carnival dedicated to lobster… that lasts THREE days!  I want a carnival dedicated to bears!  I digress.  

 

It was not a big carnival, but neither is Summerside, so I guess that’s ok.  Today was the last day so we headed over just after it opened for the day (at noon lol), figuring we would have lots of time before the lobster dinner they had bought tickets for.  Turns out we did not need that much time.  We skipped the midway entirely, checked out the cardboard box boat race (that was totally worth it!) and entered one duck in the rubber duck charity race (we assume we didn’t win as we never heard from them again).  And… we were done.

We still had about two hours until dinner, so we checked out the shops along the waterfront in Summerside.  It was a really quaint little spot definitely designed for tourists like ourselves.  Yup, trinkets were bought.  Time was spent.  Perfect.

Dinner was… interesting.  I got some pictures at the beginning, before they got their hands all gross, and I sat under the table after that.  It was rather messy, I was told.  There were some giggles, some confusion, and some assistance from an older gentleman at the next table who helped make sure they left nothing behind on the carcasses.  Opinions varied at our table.  Both liked the meat itself to varying degrees.  One was more dedicated to getting every piece of meat out.  Both agreed they could check it off a bucket list and didn’t need to do it again.  I’m not sure what a bucket list is, but I don’t like sitting under the table so I’m glad we won’t be doing that again!

After dinner we went over to the “entertainment tent”.  Guys, this makes it sound like a bigger festival than it was.  There were two tents - food and entertainment, and then a small midway and the pond with a few activities.  Sadly we missed the lobster trap stacking contest (it was yesterday).  Oops, went off topic a bit.  The last band of the day was “Tip ‘er Back” an Island band that seems quite well known.  They kinda reminded me of the small band we saw in Newfoundland all those years ago.  Celtic favourites mixed with some of their own originals about PEI.  

Laughing, singing and eventually the buying of a CD.  What a day.

Whatever!

Bread and Butter Anyone?

 

My escorts got up early again to get me back to the east side of the island (yes, we were just there yesterday).  We headed to one of those places where the staff people dress up and act like they are from a different century to teach you stuff.  Ya, I like those!  Well this time they paid for a special experience, not just a wander through.  It was to make Scottish sour dough bread and churn butter and meet the farm animals.  That’s what we signed up for.  Is that what we got… not exactly.

This was more like a VIP pass with a personal tour and everything!  We made the bread (I tried to help of course) and then while it was rising we got a tour of the buildings.  We were introduced to all the animals, taken behind doors not open to the public, and into stalls to pet baby goats that were only a couple of weeks old.  Robin got to milk a goat (Clare said she’s milked a cow so didn’t care).  They hitched up the horses to the wagon for us to ride (thankfully they invited other visitors in the village to join us or it might have felt really awkward).  Then we met the blacksmith who showed us how to make a fancy wall hook that we got to keep.  Only after all of that did we go back and turn cream into butter by hand (I helped much more with this one) and enjoy our bread… and we got to keep all the leftovers.  Highly recommend!

After a fun morning on the farm, we headed south to Wood Islands, the southern most point on PEI.  Yay I got my four lighthouses (I’ve been saving the photos to share them all together - see end of post).  We also got to see the ferry leave for Nova Scotia.  Not quite as big as the Chi Cheemaun but definitely bigger than the Tadoussac Ferry!

Our final stop of the day was recommended by our tour guide at the history place - Point Prim.  It is the oldest lighthouse on the Island and was definitely worth a detour.  The girls also got a great seafood meal there.  Bears like fish too.  I never get any fish!

Side note: we have seen a lot of weird and wonderful names of stores, places, restaurants and inns.  Many are thought provoking (Five Houses was literally a village name, and yes they had only 5 houses), some are just weird (Moo Moo BBQ), some clever (All-a-board Woodworking), and MANY are some form of spin-off of Anne of Green Gables, but by far the best is the one we saw today:  “Green Gay Bulls”.  We had to look it up - it’s a B&B run by a gay couple.  If only we’d known - we would have stayed there!!

Anyways, here is my proof I went to all four ends of this island (and a bonus lighthouse at the end).

Whatever!

Tip to Tip

 

Apparently The Island only cares about the two furthest points, but still, they have this very cool certificate if you visit North Cape and East Point.  So now I have North, West and East… still waiting on South :)

Obviously we went to East Point Lighthouse today.  It was a two hour drive out but my escorts actually got up early so they could get us there shortly after the lighthouse opened.  I was looking forward to seeing the tides meet again, and technically I did, but there was no drama.  I like drama people!  The excuse I was given:  it was lowest of tides due to full moon, and we were there right AT low tide.  Great planning people!  Still, you can see where the two meet which is pretty cool (that weird wiggly line separating calmer water and more ripple-ey water is the two tides.  Apparently at high tide, the waves form a line and crash against each other.  I’ll never know.

From there we started working our way back through beaches and small towns.  Our first stop was Basin Head beach nicknamed “Singing Sands” because the sand sings when you walk on it.  Ummm…. I was waiting to hear “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Polka Dot Bikini” or something similar but it never happened.  There was no singing at all!  However, there was this high pitched tone as you walked, that you could barely hear over all the humans at said beach, which I guess was pretty cool, but not any kind of singing I’ve heard of.  This beach was BUSY!  It was barely noon and the parking lot was filling fast.  We did not stay long, and even then, the parking lot was full when we drove out (with someone waiting for our spot).

Next stop was Souris (shops of course) and then Souris Beach.  I swear you could have walked for a mile and the water still wouldn’t be above your knees - I would have been under water, but you humans could walk it, and walk it they did.  This time I just had to see what all the fuss was about, and checked in on Robin a few times, finding all kinds of critters and shells.  It was kinda interesting, I won’t lie, but still not sure how she can do it for hours at a time on every beach we go to!

After some more ice cream at yet another dairy bar (this one only had ice cream or I think they might have eaten there) we headed to Sally’s Beach, named after Sarah something-or-other.  I kinda got lost on the Sally-Sarah part and forgot the rest.  I gather she was known as Sally, and you don’t really care about the history even if Clare wants to type it.  Moving on.

Honestly, I think my escorts would have stayed at Sally’s beach until it closed if they didn’t have to drive back almost 2 hours AND get up early again tomorrow. Yet, with the couple of hours they did spend there, not a single photo was taken.  Robin went treasure hunting as usual (finally finding sea glass so she was happy).  Clare finally tried to build a sandcastle with YouTube knowledge and some tools, but forgot a key item at the hotel (something about spraying the big buckets with something or other so that it comes off the sand easy).  Yeah, she forgot that.  The bucket did not come off the sand at all, she nearly broke the bucket and ditched the whole attempt as the tide was coming in.  Still, no pictures of the attempt.  

Both reluctant to leave the beach, we attempted to find another dairy bar or similar on the drive back to the hotel.  Who knew that would become a challenge they did not win!  They even drove off the main highway, through rolling hills and windy roads that Clare says reminded her of driving in Dorset in England (no comment), to O’Shae’s pub and Eatery which claimed it was open.  Robin even tried to call on the way, and the answering machine said “if we don’t answer the phone it’s because the dining room is busy”.  Nope, that’s not actually true.  We got there to find a sign on the door saying they were closed at 8 tonight.  Thanks O’Shae’s.  They drive to the hotel and ate eggs.  

Whatever!