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.