PEI

Wow! It's been a long time since we updated.... the trouble with trying to find WiFi.

Prince Edward Island enchanted us with its beautiful scenery. Everyone told us you can drive around the island in a day, but we ended up staying for almost a week. We were impressed first with the construction marvel of Confederation Bridge, which is about 13 kilometers long and has been open for 10 years now. It sure made the trip to PEI fast and painless.

No trip to PEI is complete without a look at the Anne of Green Gables sites. We toured the Green Gables home, upon which Lucy Maud Montgomery based her descriptions of the house in her novel. It was actually the home of a family relative, and she spent a lot of her childhood time there.

We also spent a day at the fictional town of Avonlea, where several actors in costume entertained us all day with singing, races, country fair competitions, and vignettes from the Anne of Green Gables novel. We all got into the spirit of the day, and Allan even entered the manure-toss competition. :)

The kids found it hard to believe that any place would have a museum about 'potatoes', but PEI does. Potatoes are an important part of PEI's economy, and we saw lots of crops of them. While visiting the west side of the island, we also went to Cedar Dunes Provincial Park. The red-sand beach was beautiful, as was the lighthouse there.

We also spent a day at Charlottetown, where we went to 'Province House'. This is where the Charlottetown Conference was held 1864, and the idea of confederation was first discussed. It was quite awe-inspiring to think that our nation became a nation right there. The visitor center's 'time tunnel' took us through the events of 1864 and also showed how each other province joined the country throughout history. That was a neat way to end our tour of the beautiful province of PEI.

After Ottawa, we travelled to Quebec. It was a strange feeling for me, knowing that I could often be my family's soul means of communication with the fracophone population. But I found that the language came back relatively quickly, and I enjoyed talking with people, even in line at the grocery store. Everyone seemed to understand me with no problem, and I even got some comments on how well I spoke. :)

In Montreal, we stayed with Lenore Fletcher, a friend since my Rimouski days. We spent lots of time at the community pool, and were so thankful as we found the Montreal weather to be extremely hot. Lenore's son Jonah is a real dear, and got several ribbons at the swim-meet that we attended. It was nice to visit Old Montreal on our last morning there. The Notre Dame basilica was a highlight.

Our next stop was Quebec City, where we met up with Sylvain and Darcy and family again. It was great to see the same friends a week or so apart on this trip. Sylvain and his daughter Rachel took us to the walled Old City that first evening. It was really fun, as the Festival of New France was on, and there were many partiers dressed in medieval costumes. It seemed to fit so well with the cobblestone streets and the stone buildings that looked like they had come out of a medieval European village. We visited the old city several more time in the following days, as well as the Citadel, which is the star-shaped fortress which is part of the walled city. The Plains of Abraham was right beside the fortress, so the kids saw lots of sites from their Canadian history textbook from last year. We also visited the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City.

We took a quick trip north through forests and mountains, and eventually emerged over a hill to see flat farm land stretching for miles. This was the first time since leaving Alberta and Saskatchewan that we saw the crops of wheat, barley, and oats. We also saw corn, soy beans, sunflowers, and lots of hay being put up. The historic village of Val Jalbert was really interesting; it was an old pulp and paper town, set on a beautiful river with a spectacular waterfall.

After crossing to the south of the St Lawrence River, we met up with the parents of the family with whom I lived when I took my French course in Rimouski in 1987. It was so much fun visiting with them...as if 20 years hadn't passed since we last saw each other. We continued around the Gaspesie, and saw the sight where Jacques Cartier first landed on Canadian soil, in 1534. It fills me with awe to think about it. We continued to the famous Rocher Perce, which is a giant rock with a whole in it, just off the coast. When the tide is out, people can walk out to the huge rock, but when the tide is up the rock is well into the water. We suffered our worst weather at Rocher Perce as we camped on the cliff; the wind and rain were bad enough to close some of the local highways and caused a home of slide down a slope (killing one person). We were sure worried during the night as the wind rocked the motorhome. Thankfully the wind died down the next day, and we were able to continue on our trip.

Yesterday, we just crossed into New Brunswick. We stayed at Sugarloaf Provincail Park last night. It is located at the local ski hill, and has something called an Alpine Slide. This is a small version of a luge run that is used during the summer with sleds on rollers. Allan and I tried it once and it was a lot of fun. We got passes for the kids to go down the run, and that kept them busy for hours. They had a hoot!

We are presently at what is known as the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick, and still French is the language used in the community. In a few days or so we hope to go to Prince Edward Island, so I guess our Maritime experience is about to really begin.

Today, we've been away from home for a month.... and no one is homesick yet. :) After leaving London, Ontario, we went to Burlington to visit with Allan's old Silver Valley school buddy, Mitch Seekins and his wife Nicole. We also met Mitch's two daughters, who are almost the same age as our kids. The Seekins family took us to downtown Toronto, where we went up the CN Tower. It was a clear day and the views were superb. Mason was the only one brave enough to go onto the glass floor part, that looked straight down to the ground. The tower is 553 metres high, so it is quite something to overcome the fear of the height if you are looking straight down.The next day, we went with the Seekins to Niagara Falls. It was wonderful! We took pictures at the brim of the falls, and then went on the tour into the tunnels underneath the falls. We all looked pretty cute in our yellow rain capes (that were provided with the tour). Next, we went on the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat that takes you right up to the base of the falls. It was neat to see the water spilling over the brim, almost on top of us.

Later, we went to the Butterfly Conservatory, where there were over 50 types of butterflies flying around. We all had fun taking pictures in the conservatory, as the butterflies are quite used to people and therefore are very obliging subjects.

After Burlington, we drove north toward the Muskoka Lake area of Ontario. We had supper with Debbie (Junk) Lloyd and her family (an old friend from my Fort Edmonton days). The Lloyds live on a lake, so the kids went out tubing with the Lloyd kids, Jeremy and Heather. It was a very fun evening.

A few miles down the road, at Rosseau, we met up with another old Fort Edmonton colleague, Sylvain Croteau, and his family. Sylvain's wife's parents have a cottage on Lake Rosseau, so we spent a couple of days canoing, kayaking, and swimming in the water. It was such a neat experience to enjoy the Canadian Shield lake, and to visit with friends from decades ago.

The Ontario experience continued as we camped in Algonquin Provincial Park for several days. The highlight of our time there was to go to a ranger program one evening, and to go to "Loggers' Day" to see how logging was done in the 1800s.

Today, we spent the day in Ottawa, first seeing the changing of the guard, with the soldiers in their red uniforms and big black bear-fur hats. We then toured the parliament buildings, which was fascinating. We'll recognize the House of Commons when we next see it on the news. One of the highlights of the tour was going up to the top of the Peace Tower, from which we had very impressive views of the city and many of its famous sites. We also strolled down beside the Rideau Canal where we saw the lock system in operation. We were glad to be able to see how they actually work.So, we are still enjoying our learning experience.

July 20, 2007

We are 3 weeks into our trip now and are having a great time. After leaving Alberta, we visited with Bill and Ula Knelson in southern Saskatchewan. We also visited with Allan's dad's relatives south of Swift Current; they were a delight.

Then we drove down to Peoria, Illinois where we spent a day going through some of the Caterpillar facilities in the area. First we went to the foundery where red hot molten metal is poured into forms that are made of compressed sand, to make Cat engines. Next, we toured the forge building, inwhich hot metal 'billets' are punched into track links - a quick rendition of the old blacksmith shop. Our next stop was the tractor assembly building where we saw Cat crawlers being put together from start to finish, then painted and shipped off to far-off places in the world.

We realized that Peoria was just a couple of hour's drive from Illinois' capital city, Springfield, famous for its Lincoln history. We camped for several nights at the nearby New Salem, where Abraham Lincoln first settled when he moved to Illinois. The historic village, with costumed interpreters, was a wonderful site and we learned a lot about local crops and pioneer lifestyles. In Springfield we toured Lincoln's home, law offices, the old state capital building, Lincoln's tomb, and the fabulous Lincoln museum. What a wonderful place to learn.










We returned to Canada via Sarnia, and toured the oil museum at Oil Springs, Ontario, where the first commercial oil well in the world was put into production in 1858. Ontario's oil history is much different than that of Alberta.

We also enjoyed going through the Uncle Tom's Cabin Museum in Dresdun, Ontario. The kids and I have been reading the novel of Uncle Tom's Cabin as a novel study in our homeschooling, so this was a great experience. Even though the book is a novel, it was based on the life of a real man, Josiah Henson, who escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad.
For the last two days we've been in London, visiting with Heather and Brad Berdan. I think that even I could maybe be tempted to become a gardener if I lived here. The plants are beautiful, and many are in full bloom right now. We'll keep in touch whenever we can.

We are almost started on our trip!

Charlene looks pretty relieved, now that she is with her sister Natalie at the Bidulock family re-union on the Bidulock family farm.