P.E.I. to Baddeck NS

Trip Odometer: 342 km + 29 km aboard the ferry.

A very common sight on the P.E.I. farms. Irrigating the potato crops.

We chose to take the ferry out of P.E.I. today instead of Confederation Bridge. It was wheelchair accessible - they left lots of room behind our van for Monica to get off and they have an elevator up to the main deck. Monica could move around outdoors. 
When we got ready to go back down to the van we discovered the elevator broke! But they fixed it in time. Yay!

Before we got on I (Anna-Lee) counted the number of cars that came off. There were 168 including 3 big tour buses! The ferry is two stories high. We were on the upper top deck of cars.

This is the ferry we are to take arriving and unloading both decks.

 

That's our van aboard the Holiday Island Ferry! They were so helpful with Monica\s wheelchair.

 

Farewell P.E.I. A view from the ferry as we left.

It was really windy as we entered the channel into Caribou NS. Once we docked, one of the workers threw the garbage bags over the rail into the bin - but he missed and one of the bags went into the water. That was sad.

We drove a long way through trees but as soon as we got to the Causeway to Cape Breton Island the landscape changed to water and cliffs!
 

Baddeck Marine near the Inn we are staying at.

We took a nice walk after dinner down to a wheelchair accessible boardwalk along Bras d'Or Lake where we are staying for the next few days.
 

Just like John A McDonald\s statue on a bench was in Charlottetown, Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel are here in Baddeck.

I (Monica) liked the ferry ride. It was a pretty fast boat and the breeze was nice. There was a person playing the guitar on board too. Anna-Lee and some others saw jellyfish in the water. I didn't but did see a couple boats including another ferry.

This would be the Confederation ferry Monica is watching.

We got to our hotel and had dinner here. There was a person playing music here too. Lots of Irish songs, and mussel songs, and seaside songs. As we ate out on the deck thunder and lightening started! We were under cover but other people had to go inside and it wasn't airconditioned. It was really hot (32 degrees). 

Sun, hot, sprinkles, rainbow and thunder all at the same time. A very nice dinner.

There was a ceilidh happening right next door and we could hear some of the fiddle music when we started our walk but we wanted to be in bed early tonight so we will go another night. They have them every night here. Our walk was fun and we beat the rain back to our inn, but just barely! It is thundering still.

Goodnght from Baddeck.

Last Day in P.E.I.

Morning time at the cottage. Breakfast, checking emails and blogging. Most mornings Anna-Lee plays outside with the kids in the cottage next door ages 2, 6, and 9. Ironically, we discovered they are from the same city in Ontario we live in!

After some confusion of what we should do the last day here with it raining and windy and us wanting an early night to pack and prepare to leave tomorrow, we decided to explore the north east shore. There was so much we hadn't seen or done yet, but another exploring drive on a gloomy day seemed a good idea.

Anna-Lee spotted this bird and nest on a telephone pole after just a few minutes on the road. Later in the day she spotted another just like it. When Linda got close to take the picture it started to "chirp" and eventually took off showing it's huge wingspan. Dave researched tonight and believes it to be an osprey.

 As we arrived near Charlottetown we realized a wrong turn somewhere had occurred. We weren't suppose to be near Charlottetown AGAIN! Actually, more than one wrong turn had occurred, but we'd corrected the others. By the time we backtracked it was getting a bit late to get out to East Point and actually return home before 11:00 p.m.!

So, we decided to attempt the wheelchair accessible beach.
But the only two beaches that are accessible are within a Provincial Park which meant - we'd have to pay.

At first we turned around and said "NO," but eventually we figured it wasn't worth the stand. So, we turned around and went back.

Anybody home? The saga begins at Brackley Beach.

Only to find out the beach didn't have the key to get the beach wheelchair. Anna-Lee and Linda stayed at the beach while Dave and Monica went to the campground to get the key.

Alone on the beach drawing in the sand. Sand dunes on the right, ocean on the left and lots of red sand in between. (The red is caused by iron in the sand or rusty sand - maybe the reason for the town's name of Rustico!). Tide is strange here. Depending on the moon, the tide can actually stay relatively constant at both high and low tides. Very unlike the Bay of Fundy.

But they didn't have the key. "Go back to the kiosk at the beach." they said. "OK." so D and M went back to the beach. |No, we don't have it, go to the campground."

It was discovered they lost the key to get into the room where they store the chair.
So, onward we went to second beach.

Another new experience. Anna-Lee thinks this is a very "nifty contraption." And it had warm water.

We went to the campground again and got the key for the second beach.  But where do we find the door the key fits? After all it's a gloomy day and no one is around to ask. 
 

Alone again! A couple people came and went but for the most part the beach was ours. This one is called Stanhope - where the first Scottish settlement on P.E.I. occurred.

As you can tell, we did find it and the day turned out OK after all.

Anna-Lee had her opportunity to push the chair too.

Dinner on the way home, an awesome playground for a few moments and homeward bound.

Centennial Playground North Rustico, P.E.I.  Never seen anything like it. At least 2 acres of play area. This section was like a fitness gym for kids. The other hit was the teeter totters.

Anna-Lee's eagles eyes spotted more osprey, a red fox and a couple blue herons on our drive back to the cottage.

Fox seem to be fairly prevalent here and interestingly the other day Dave and I (Linda) saw a silver fox. P.E.I. used to farm silver fox for their fur back around 1910 and again up until the 1970's and has a very wealthy district due to the history of the silver fox fur industry.

And no, we did not get home early.

Charlottetown and People

Choices

We chose to head to Charlottetown again today. There was so much we still wanted to do. Even with a second day,  we still didn't do all we wanted. There was more than one thing happening at the same time and we had to choose which we would do. 

One neat thing that happened was as we pulled into the Parking lot, the person in the car parked right beside us was in his car and we knew him from a church we used to attend back in Ontario!!!! Now that is amazing! We had just started talking to him, when his wife who had been shopping arrived. Then we saw them again later that night. They were there at a Gideon's Conference!

Anna-Lee sitting with John A. McDonald.

If we could get tickets the vote was to go to the Musical Anne and Gilbert. This is different than Anne of Green Gables the Musical. Anne and Gilbert is based on book number 2 and 3.
Well, even though we were told they were sold out, they called us and said because of the wheelchair we could get front row seats!
So, we got to see it and it was really good. I (Anna-Lee), loved the P.E.I. song and dance they did. Kind of like the Ceilidh we went to last night!  I wasn't expecting it, but there was a live orchestra for it as well and one of the actors played a lot of the fiddle as part of his role. 
And our tour guide from the Harbour Hippo tour we went on last time was at the same show, and she remembered us!

We also did some more historical stuff and went into Province House. This is where the Father's of Confederation met. We got to go right into the room they used for their talks. I (Anna-Lee) thought that was awesome. I counted the number of chairs and there were twenty-six.

Anna-Lee's new Anne doll got to see all the activities today too. This is Province House - the Confederation Room where the Father's of Confederation met.

There were also two fireplaces, and one chair that was up higher and by itself. 
We also went into the library room they used and they had a beautiful huge painting of the Ball dance. In it, they had many of the Father's of Confederation included.

COWS

They grow them big out here!

We also did a tour of the Cows factory. Cows is huge in P.E.I. They make world famous ice cream.

They also make their own T-shirts here. People used ot come in and want to buy the staff's T-shirts right off their backs so they started producing them for retail! They were making them during out tour.

We got to have a sample at the end of the tour.  I am glad Mom doesn't like chocolate because the flavor we got to try was Wowie Cowie which has toffee and chocolate in it. I (Anna-Lee), got Mom's sample!

Anna-Lee right up with the tour guide again. If they can't get the ingredients local such as vanilla, they buy only the highest quality. They showed us a container of vanilla  from Madagascar (maybe 2 lires) that cost $500!

My (Monica's) vote was for Anne and Gilbert too! I loved it and am glad it worked out. I laughed a lot!

Dinner seems to be the topic I  (Monica), get each night!
 

Anna-Lee ordered just the salad bar tonight. The 60 foot salad bar that is!

Well, today was the day we got to a real Lobster place. Dad and I both ordered a real live lobster. It is very interesting to get it prepared to eat, but well worth it! Very tasty.

Our server told us real lobster eaters wear bibs!

It was delicious. Mom had crab. I am sure Anna-Lee was glad that crab wasn't crawling under her as she swam! It was huge and Mom loved every hard earned bite.

Surf and Turf P.E.I. style served in North Rustico.

Anne of Green Gables and the Ceilidh

Anne with an "e" 

We went to Avonlea Village today. My (Anna-Lee) favorite places in the Village were the Schoolhouse and the Dress shop. The school was the actual school that Lucy Maud Montgomery taught. Someone moved the schoolhouse to this location.

Dave and Anna-Lee goofing in the schoolhouse. Hair in the ink well.

There were real books that students had used that I looked through and slates I drew on at the desks.

Anna-Lee at the teacher's desk. It is exciting to think of Lucy having sat at that very place teaching many years ago. The books were also interesting - poetry, Latin, health, and math.

The dress shop was so neat. I got to dress up in dresses and hats.

Anna-Lee dressed as Anne. There were wonderful props in the Dress shop to get your picture taken around.

Perhaps she is now Diana.

 

OK, there are more, but suffice it to say she had a lot of fun in this place.

There were also lots of different activities including games at the "Sunday School picnic," a reenactment of the amethyst brooch episode, songs, and lots of other things.

There were lot of other places including the General Store and a real manse that was used by a Presbyterian minister on the Island. The church at the site was one Lucy used to attend!

They had actors there wandering the village including Anne, Diana, Gilbert, Matthew, Marilla, Josie Pye, and many others. I could go up and talk to them and get my picture taken with them too.

Anne and Diana with Anna-Lee and Monica at the S.S. picnic.

 

The kids weren't the only ones who got to play picnic games. Here the men got to try their hopping legs out. And yes, Dave is there.

We also saw the Anne of Green Gables home, and the birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery. There are lots of Anne or Lucy related buildings and activities around the Island, but we aren't doing any more.

Tonight we went to a real Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee). It is Irish music and dance and singing and even a recitaiton tonight. They can be at people's homes or a church. We went to one just down the street in the Malpeque Community Centre. There was lots of foot stomping and clapping. There was a fiddle, accordion, guitar, and a girl who did Irish jig and reel dancing and singing. And they served strawberries and ice cream at the break time!

We learned that if you want to say "potato" the way the Islanders do you pronounce the "t" like a "d" so it becomes "podado." We sang a song about P.E.I. podadoes!
 

There were about 100 people packed into the Centre. It was fun and funny. Very interactive, high energy, stories, jokes, dancing, singing, and ended with an Irish blessing.

I (Monica) enjoyed Avonlea Village as well. It made it come alive to have all the characters moving around interacting with one antoher, involved in all the activities and approachable too.

The outdoor skit being put on about the amethyst brooch. The acting was really good.

Monica says she dressed as Marilla.

 I think one of my highlights though was to watch the rest of the family try mussels today! Mussels came with my supper and when the server discovered no one else in my family had tried them before, she brought an entire platter of them for us all to share! After all we "couldn't leave P.E.I. without at least trying them" she said! We all ate them - some of my family with more trepidation than others! Anna-Lee was first to pop one in her mouth. Mom was last!

Clams and Mussels are not the same we learned today. These were mussels.

Charlottetown P.E.I.

Note: Dave has worked his gifting again and we are back up and running on our computer. See yesterday again if you read it without the photos.

Trip Odometer: 110 km

Back in Time
I (Anna-Lee) had so much fun today. I want to go back and see more of it. We did an historical walking tour with actors that appeared throughout the walk dressed and acting the role of someone that would have been around during the Charlottetown Accord in 1864. We were lead by Mr. Tilly who was premier of New Brunswick at the time.

Anna-Lee up front listening to the stories. Charlottetown Harbour in background where the Father's of Confederation sailed into in 1864.

One of the people we met on the way was the town crier. I was given his bell to ring!
 

Tilly and the Town Crier

Great George Street is where most of the historical buildings are located.

There are so many interesting stories along the way. One of them was that there was a fire in Charlottetown back in the late 1800's. It got stopped at one of the few brick homes. The family wet clothing and put it on their wooden roof so sparks wouldn't light it. Because the fire stopped there, the house next to it didn't burn. That is where all the history of P.E.I. was stored. Without that brick home and the wet clothes, almost all the written history of the Island would have been lost.

We also got a history tour aboard The Harbour Hippo.

Dad says it's called an amphibious vehicle because it can go on land or in water. It was really jerky when it went into the water and then as soon as it got in water it just floated.  Neat.

We got into the water and were leaving the dock at exactly the same time as a big cruise ship!

We also went to Peakes Quay which is where the Father's of Confederation including John A. McDonald would have docked their ship. Peakes Quay now has yachts, stores and restaurants. One of the places is COWS ice cream. Apparently it is world famous. None of us had ever heard of it though, but it is yummy. While we ate our ice cream there was live fiddle music in the park.

Music being played in background. Us eating COWS ice cream And stores around that sell "interesting" things such as The P.E.I. Dirt Shirts - shirts that have been dyed with the red soil of P.E.I.

The other really exciting part of the day was going to the "Anne of Green Gables Musical." It was really good. They didn't do everything exactly like the book. Dad says they didn't have time for that and it's called artistic license. I wish it had gone on longer.

The musical was at the Confederation Centre. We weren't allowed to take photos of it though. The set changes were astonishing. Fast, seamless and elaborate.

I (Monica) enjoyed Charlottetown a lot and also want to go back. I was able to manage the Harbour Hippo quite well once Dad got me up there!

Muscles and Coordination make it possible.

Quahaugs for sale! We wondered about that sign yesterday on one of those back roads. Today we found out what it was. They are a type of edible clam. Thick, round and big. We saw them in a restaurant in the tank with the live lobsters! No one ate one though. I did eat lobster although it was in a different kind of sauce. I've never had it in anything other than melted butter before. It was good.

The historical walking tour was fascinating. There were so many stories. I'll share two of them.
The first is a story of miscommunication between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia in the late 1800's. Great George St. when the Father's of Confederation arrived by ship was only a red dirt road and mats laid down along the side for walking. (Although one fo the Father's of Confederation was heard to say he felt like the red carpet had been rolled out for them). One day P.E.I. decided to build sidewalks and as they didn't have the material on P.E.I. to make it, they asked NS to send them slabs of rock. Instead they received huge boulders. Well, the people of P.E.I. had no way to cut them and it would be too expensive to send back - so, they dug 6 foot holes, buried the boulders until only the tops stuck out. That is what remains today along the one side of George St. It is a bit of a bumpy walk.
 

The "Confederation Players Theatre Company" put on this walking historical tour and have many actors along the way in the historical costume. This would be Great George St.

The second story is about the oldest bank in P.E.I. It was run by a delightfully generous man with absolutely NO banking sense. He built a large brick bank on George St. He would loan money just because he was nice and didn't want to deny people. One day one of the Peake sons (the wharf where the ships came in is named after them),  wanted money to build more ships. Unfortunately they wanted to build the wooden ships at a time when metal steam ships were coming in and wooden ships were going out. The banker said "sure" and loaned them money with NO documentation, and P.E.I. ended up in HUGE debt as none of the ships could be sold! The town folks were so upset the banker stole all the remaining money in the bank and ran away to Boston.

I love the music around here. Lively fiddle music, Irish and Scottish. It's so much fun to listen to and it's all over town night and day. 

The Anne Musical was wonderful. It was really funny in places too. One of my favorite parts was the carriage ride back from the train station with Anne and Matthew. The carriage really moved, the song was fun, and the back ground set and scrim were amazing. The whole set was over the top! The dancing throughout was fabulous, and the choreography was fun.
 I had a great day.

Back roads of P.E.I. and Highland Storm

Trip Odometer: 360 km


What's down there?
Today we took a drive along the North Cape Coastal Drive - well we didn't exactly follow the route. Dad kept finding interesting little roads to turn off on! 

They were interesting - dead end roads that led to fishing harbours, old bumpy roads that led to beautiful churches, Acadian villages with the Acadian colours painted on mailboxes, fence posts, and guard rails. And even an Acadian restaurant we stopped and ate at.

The Restaurant was in the Acadian section of the island and everything about it including the flag, food and French language was Acadian.

Mom ordered a variety plate so she could try it all and I (Anna-Lee) tied most of it too! I really liked the chicken fricot and had a bowl myself. I didn't really like the hominy corn (Mom did), or the rapure or meat pie.
We made it to West Point where the tallest lighthouse on the Island is located. Mom, Dad, and I (Anna-Lee) climbed to the top. The stairs kept getting steeper and higher at each flight. By the end they were like a ladder. We made it to the top and it was HOT! We were all sweating up there. The view was nice. It was over the Northumberland Straight.

At 83 feet this lighthouse is the tallest on P.E.I.

The climb down was a bit scary. Dad had to help both of us. Mom said he was her hero.

Both were scary but I think going up was harder than down.

After that we scooted back to Summerside to see the "Highland Storm." It is a show put on by the Students and teachers of the College of Piping. And guess what! The family that I met from Florida in St.Andrew's on the Whale Watching Trip was there!!!

The show was amazing. There was bagpipes, drums, Highland Dancing, and singing. It was all Celtic.

It was amazing music and they even played Amazing Grace.

And Dad and I (Anna-Lee), got invited up as "volunteers" to play the spoons! I was not so sure at first but it was fun and I even bought a pair of spoons to take home to play!!!!

They started with one person playing and by the end there were six all in rhythm. It was so much fun.

I (Monica) had a great day. The favorite saying on our drive was "Turn around!" I lost track of how many times we stopped and turned around to look at something or for Mom to get that picture. Fishing boats, lobster traps, mustard fields, potato fields, churches, an interesting shaped house, and red red roads... We just had fun.

There were lots of boats in the harbours and even on front lawns getting repairs but this one took us by surprise.

The first thing Anna-Lee wanted to do when she saw this road was to touch it.

Although there was no elevator up the lighthouse I did get inside it and they had a board walk along the beach area and sand dunes.

b z

Boats still use lighthouses significantly even with all the technology of radar etc. out there now.THe only difference is they are now automated.

The Highland Storm was spectacular. Very high energy.

Many different costume changes for the various dances and many types of Celtic music.