Exploring the Island

In case you're wondering where Prince Edward Island is located, here's a map to help you visualize it:

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You drive up through Maine and over through the width of New Brunswick to the Confederation Bridge (the longest bridge I've ever been on by far) across to the Island.  It's an hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time.  One thing I hadn't expected was everything in French and English.  Even a lot of the TV and Radio channels were in French.  I always think of Quebec as the predominantly French province, but all of the Maritime Provinces are noticeably bilingual.

We spent an evening in Charlottetown - the capital of Prince Edward Island.  It's the largest city on the Island and it only has under 35,000 residents.  It's a charming, little "city."

St. Dustin's Basilica in Charlottetown:














We ate right on the docks.  The sea food was yummy.  I had crab cakes with a particularly tasty aioli sauce.  My sister had her first lobster.    

 We went to Cow's creamery - supposedly it's the best Canadian Ice Cream.  It reminds me a lot of Ben & Jerry's.  Stina was most put out by the small serving sizes. 

This sign was outside their bathroom and it may be one of my favorite things I saw all day. :)


We went to 3 of the 4 sides of the Island exploring the beaches.  They were very beautiful.  The first place we traveled to was the Southern side of the island by Charlottetown.  They are famous for their red sand beaches, and the water was actually pretty warm (even if the weather was wet and cold).


You can see Charlottetown in the distance in the photo below.  Even the water looked red because of the red sand.   This was probably my favorite beach, because it's so unique.

 There are little lighthouses all over the island.

Things that were also common all over the island were the famous  "Red Dirt Roads," red farm fields, and Lupins.  I think they are such beautiful flowers.  They were all over in Nova Scotia, too.

 On the East Coast of the Island is Basin Head Beach.  It's famous for its singing sands.  The wind was whipping too hard that day, so it sounded more like a squeak than a song.  

The famous white sand dunes:  They were beautiful against the red cliffs.  The water was freezing though.

We traveled along the North Coast and ate lunch in North Rustico.  It was an adorable fisherman's town.  This particular lighthouse reminds me of the one in Anne of Green Gables.  There were a ton of jellyfish in the bay.

 We spent the afternoon reading on the North beaches of Cavendish.  These are the beaches that L.M. Montgomery describes in her books, and yes, they're gorgeous.  The sand dunes are breathtaking. 

 There were red rocks all along the beach.  I brought a few home for the kids.  Behind Christina is "The Lake of Shining Waters."

  PEI is such a beautiful, idyllic place.  I can totally see the allure of this island.  In some ways it's still the same as when L.M. Montgomery lived here a hundred years ago.  Life moves slowly, and the scenery is incomparable. 

2nd Quarter Finishes

I finished up the binding for this badboy in the car on our way to Maine.  I slipped this finish in right before the end of the month.  I am particularly happy with this one, because I love the fun quilting on it.  This is Skill Builder Quilt #2  (all the blocks are from the Skill Builder Sampler Quilt Along)

Here's the back- I've been waiting for something fun to use this fabric.  It's some of my favorite purple fabric.  The quilt is a little wrinkly from being in my suitcase all week, but it's nothing a good wash can't take care of.

 A close up of some of the quilting on the back:

That means that I completed 3 of my 4 quilts that I set as my goal for the 2nd quarter of the 2012 Finish-A-Long.  Original goals here.  Sadly, I didn't even touch my Christmas blocks, but I remembered that I started and finished 3 other quilts during this time frame, so I'm not feeling too shabby right now.  Now to think about the next quarter goal...I really should work on that Christmas quilt because everybody knows the Holidays will be here before you know it.  Besides, aren't there always things about Christmas in July?

Ann (with an e) for the Day

It has been a lifelong dream of traveling to Prince Edward Island to experience life as Anne of Green Gables for the day.  I read all of the books when I was in Middle School, and loved all of the movies, including the Avonlea TV series.  So, my mom planned a trip for the girls in the family to travel to PEI.  I left my babies and husband behind for the week (for the first time ever) and set out on the road with my mom and 2 sisters.  We stayed in a 2 room bungalow that wasn't more than 500 feet away from Green Gables.

 L.M. Montgomery based her description of Green Gables after real locations she grew up around. 

If you know about Anne of Green Gables then you will love this place.  We walked in the Haunted Wood:

 Walked down Lover's Lane:

   
And of course, we drank some Raspberry Cordial. (It tastes like Strawberry soda).
It started to rain on the way back to the bungalow, so I'm a little wet.













We also visited the birth place and burial grounds of L.M. Montgomery.

 We then headed over to the Village of Avonlea.  It's set in 1908, and it's adorable.  It had a ton of things for children to do as well.

 My favorite part was probably this folk band that sang songs from the Island.  The song we listened to over and over in the car was "On the Red Dirt Road."  And yes, the Island is full of red dirt roads.

We played a little dress-up. :)

 Mom and Stina on the wagon ride:

 It had a complete farm.  Little Man would of loved it. 

One Morning in Maine

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Have you read this book?  It was one of my absolute favorite books as a child, and after spending a day in Bar Harbor, Maine I love it even more.  I was completely enchanted by the coastline.  I can see why my husband loves Maine so much (he was born in Bangor, Maine).  I thought of him a lot as we explored Acadia National Park.

Downtown Bar Harbor

The town is adorable and during low tide you can walk along the tide pools to Bar Island.

The tide pools were a lot of fun - they were full of oyster shells, barnacles, tiny crabs (they're the brown spiral shells in the picture above), seaweed, beautiful rocks, and we even found a live starfish.  I didn't expect it to be so prickly and spiny.

Some of the tide pools

A view looking back from Bar Island

Christina posing on Bar Island

We then headed to Acadia National Park.  You could spend a whole month just exploring that place- it's huge! We drove the park loop, and then walked down to Sand Beach (very creative name, I know).

I thought it was a little cold for swimming, but that didn't stop quite a few people that were there.  Ang and Stina headed straight for the rocks. 

We hiked the path along the rim of the coast and it was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done. 

Thunder Hole:
















Otter Cliffs are in the background:

 You can see Sand Beach in the distance behind us:

It was a lovely hike, but I think these two had the right idea.  I could have sat there and read a good book all day long, but alas, we needed to get going to Canada.