Prince Edward Island

Any of you Anne of Green Gables fans?  For several years now my sisters and I have wanted to visit Prince Edward Island, the location for the home of the fictitious Anne. I always loved the movies, and though I never read the books, cough, cough, I wanted to go.  (My sisters have read the books.)  I started reading Anne of Green Gables to my kids this summer.  We're not quite done, but are more than half-way through.  We will finish it this summer.  Well, we finally headed off to Prince Edward Island!  Since we knew we would already be up in Vermont this summer (SO close, right? haha) we decided that we would continue on up to PEI.  The "we" consisted of the Heits, the Bunkers and Sam, Shawna and family.

Monday morning after the Elden and Lena Reunion we headed to Canada!  We left early, with Lee and I waking up at 3:15 am.  Early, early.  We made a pit stop in Portland, Maine to stock up on some food and what not.  The time came to cross the boarder!  We were the lucky travelers heading into Canada that had to pull over and get background checks run on us.  Me, Lee, Lois and Jeff.


The town we crossed the boarder in....


We had a nice drive through New Brunswick.  Before we crossed the bridge to the island we decided to fill up on fuel because we thought it would be more expensive on the island. Come to find out it was 2-3 cents cheaper on the island! That night we set up camp, ate dinner and headed to the beach for a little while.  We camped at the Prince Edward Island National Park right by the Atlantic Ocean.  We weren't right on the beach, but about a half block walk from the ocean to our campground.  It was perfect.  I must say it was one of the best campgrounds I've been too.  The "washrooms" were so nice!


Thankfully we could change our "miles" to "kilometers" in our Chevy.  I still wonder why we don't go by the metric system like everyone else!


Crossing the bridge into PEI. It's an 8 mile bridge and also the longest in the world that crosses over ice covered water. It's free to get to PEI, but when you leave there is a hefty toll..about $37!




The shoreline at the campground, with a view of the Atlantic Ocean. So gorgeous.  We were further back, but the beach was only a couple minutes away.


Playing at the beach the first night.




Believe it or not, but when we took these pictures it was about 9pm.




We went back to the campsite, finishing off the day with roasted marshmallows and Oreos.  We had a hard time getting the fire going.  (We bought lighter fluid the next day.)  It wasn't dark till 10pm or so.


The next morning we took a short drive along the coast and hunted down this light house.


Next Lois and I and crews met up with Deb and Sam and families at Green Gables.  We watched a short movie about Lucy Montgomery then took a tour of "Green Gables" which was actually her cousin's house.  She lived nearby with her grandparents after her mother died when Lucy was young.  She often visited her cousins at this house.  Lucy loved PEI dearly, taught at three different schools and later married a pastor/minister.  Her life shows up so much in Anne of Green Gables.  It made the tour there more special since in many ways Anne was actually Lucy herself.  In the kitchen "where" the current was kept....in the books....




This bedroom was made up to be Anne's.  In one of the rooms there was a wreath made of hair.  I never spotted it, but the tour guide told us about it. Apparently it was sentimental to cut a lock of hair from a relative who died and put it into a hair wreath.  Clark joked, "That is where they got "hair"-loom.  Too funny and clever.


We walked around the property too.




Anne!  Though from the books she was a painfully thin girl.....


I bought some raspberry cordial for everyone...well, one bottle per family.  The ladies in the little cafe gave me cups so people could share.  It was yummy raspberry soda.




We took a walk on Lovers Lane and the Haunted Wood.






Green Gables






I received a recommendation for lunch from the park ranger--Captain Scott's.  We wanted something that served seafood since we were so close to the ocean.




The food was really yummy!  The fresh cut french fries from PEI potatoes were sooo good.  And the fried fish was great too...hard to go wrong with it fried, ha ha. We tried Poutine for the first time too.  Never heard of it till my brother told me about it.  French fries with gravy and cheese curds on top. Interesting, but good.




I hit up a candy shop too, then off we went to Charlottetown. Such a pretty drive on the way there.


It was fun learning about and handling a different currency.  A looney is a $1 coin in Canada...there is a loon on it.  A tooney is a $2 coin.


We met up at Walmart in Charlottetown.  Glamorous and unique, I know.  But it was so fun to go around the store and see the different food items they sell.  That is one of my favorite things to do in other countries--go to a grocery store and look around.  And buy stuff.  We had fun getting different treats, especially the Kinder Eggs!  Why they are banned here is beyond me.  Oh, and the Ketchup chips taste just like ketchup.


We walked to Victoria Row in Charlottetown.



We checked out a couple shops and I bought some earrings. It was fun hearing the music performers and the kids had fun playing checkers outside on the tables there.








Clark shot a video of my nephew Hyrum pulling off some awesome dance moves.  Hyrum has a gray long-sleeved shirt and jeans on. It was so cute and funny.




We found this fun sign by the harbor.








At this shop with the giant lobster I found a fun shirt for Lee, but couldn't find one for me.  I gave up since I was taking so long.




We went back to camp for a quick dinner, then headed out to the beach for the evening.

Haley, Reed and Elden


Haley, Reed and Elden


Haley, Blake and Rhett




Our little family


Hyrum, Cal and Elden


Clark


Shanna


That was the end of our short, but wonderful trip to Prince Edward Island.  I would love to go back again!  Lena, we need to make plans!

On the way back to Virginia I wanted to hit a few states on the way back.  If you don't know, I have a "thing" about visiting all the states in the USA.  I've been to 48 thus far.  At the end of the summer all of my kids will have been to 46.  After PEI we were able to check off Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island! Plus we were able to go to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine beforehand.




Ahh, what a lovely trip.  I'm sure glad we didn't hit any moose in Canada, though we saw several signs for them. It would have been fun to see one off the side of the road though.  Maybe next time, ha ha. Only once did we see a policeman in Canada.  I was going to ask a Canadian how "fast" I could actually go on the freeways, but forgot.  Not a good question to ask I know, but I was still curious.....hehe.  Thank you for the great trip Canada.  It was lovely.