A Prince Edward Island Birthday

Today was absolutely wonderful - nothing like spending my 21st birthday on PEI. The who drinking age thing here was kinda anti-climatic since their drinking age is 19 here. But it was a wonderful day on the island!

We had sunshine for most of the day though is was chilly but I liked that because I have gotten to wear my jackets all week! We had a lovely breakfast of scones with blueberry pie filling, danishes, fruit, and quiche! It was so sweet when everybody in the dining room sang happy birthday to me! After that wonderful and very filling meal we headed off to The Anne of Green Gables Museum! It was as wonderful as it sounds! The museum was where L.M. Montgomery was inspired to write Anne of Green Gables, The Story Girl, and other stories. The house was her cousins lived and she visited so often she had her own room - she lived right down the road, but I guess when you have to walk that is a long way. There were pictures of her throughout the house, writings, she was married in the front room, first editions of all her books, and first editions that signed my her and given to each of the people we lived in the house are in a glass case - best of all her cousins still live in the house! We walked by the real Lake of Shining Waters and the beach by the house! As a birthday present my mom bought be a first edition cover of Anne of Green Gables and her cousin signed it! Only a true Anne fan would be excited by that! haha

Some interesting things about the island - they hang their clothes out on the line to dry. They call their culture a clothesline culture. They also call all their ice cream places Dairy Bars. That just makes me smile!

We went to a french restaurant that was recommend by one of the information people. So we walked in and it's pretty much a gym with tables and chairs but we sat down and had the sweetest french woman wait on us. She very excitedly explained the menu items and brought out a cute little dessert with a pink candle on it and sang to me by herself. It was so incredibly sweet and the dessert was great! We bought some of their 'famous' cookies and cinnamon rolls and they are both delicious! The ginger cookies are some of the best cookies - they are wonderful! We Though the food wasn't as amazing as the information woman said we did have a good time and tried some new things. Later we drove around the island and went to take a picture of the Confederation Bridge while it was sunny, which is the bridge that connects New Brunswick and PEI. We had now driven the ENTIRE island and it felt like it too!

We went over to where Anne and Gilbert was playing that night at the theater and had a drink at The Silver Fox Yacht Club. We walked in and their we 6 old men having drinks and they made fun of us looking like we were dressed for winter... but hey it feels like winter for us! They were funny old guys! So we got our drinking and we sat in the warm sun outside and had a great chat over our Strawberry Bicardis and Mindy's tequila shot. We had two hours to burn so we had a lot of talking, enjoying the sun, and drinking slowly. haha We got a little hungry so we went to Wendy's - which, did you know that All the french fries that Wendy's serves are from PEI - so every time you have a french fry from Wendy's you are having a taste of PEI. For the rest of my life I will smile and remember our trip to PEI! After we had baked potatoes we went to Bakin' Doughnuts because we had seen it all over the island - let's just say... GROSS! The doughnuts must have been 3 days old... so we were not impressed. But we were off to Anne and Gilbert so nothing could spoil our excitement!

Anne and Gilbert The Musical was as wonderful as I'm sure you are imagining! The songs were amazing, the cast was perfect, the script was extremely funny, the dancing was wonderful, and the story followed the books but had some fun twists. They did some irish step dancing which is a huge thing on the island - it was great! They had a funny song called Polishing the Silver after Diana got engaged where Diana and Anne were singing about how nobody ever talks about what happens when after the candle is blown out. At first we were like, wait this is Anne?? But it turned our to be one of our favorites... of course it isn't on the cd! My heart was sining the whole time - it was a perfect birthday treat! I couldn't think of anything better than Anne and Gilbert The Musical! We bought the cd and have listen to it over and over! I have some of the songs completely down pat! My favorite songs were Carried Away By Love and You're Island Though and Though. Enchanting absolutely enchanting!

It was a wonderful birthday on Prince Edward Island and the last night at our Kindred Spirits was bittersweet! We had such a wonderful time there and it was sad to be leaving such a kindred place but we are excited to come back to our families!

Touring P.E.I. To the Tune of French Music

Today we woke up to a nice cold misty morning - but even a morning like that couldn't dampen our spirits! We had waffles, blueberry coffee cake, and homemade whipped cream. We sat outside on the porch because the breakfast room was a little full - but lucky for us they have a heater on the porch, which Mindy would have hugged if it was possible. haha

We were going to the Avonlea Village but it was rainy so we drove into Charlottetown, which is the main city here in P.E.I. We had a a great time walking around the harbor, the little shops, and though the town - it stopped raining when we got there and the sun starting peaking though the clouds. We went to the Anne of Green Gables Chocolate store and bought a Prince Edward Island favorite chocolate covered potato chips. Sound gross... not at all! They were AMAZING - think chocolate covered pretzels with a little more crunch and salt. I plan on making them when I get back home because I want to share the awesomeness with you! We went into the most amazing church... all these churches here are so beautiful! Close to the end of our walk it started to sprinkle again so we walked a little faster on the way back.

We drove from Charlottetown on the Points East Coastal Drive - the clouds lingered but we took some really pretty pictures on the way. What cracks us up is all the different mailboxes they have here - there are ones with pictures on them, one that is a giant size (seriously that mailbox was bigger and taller and me), and ones that are held up by sailor statues - they are all homemade and absolutely hilarious. We drove to the 'singing sands' beach... which let me tell you doesn't sing when the sand is wet. We were disappointed to not hear the famous singing sand but we had fun looking at the waves crash on the rocks, look at the clear water, and we threw a piece of driftwood into the current going into the inland to see how fast it was going... which was pretty fast. I think our favorite part of our long drives is the music we have found - French music! No we can't understand a word they are saying but the music is GREAT! It makes our drive feel more Canada-ish and we just plain enjoy the music. Another thing that is funny is the way their maps make the towns look much bigger than they are in reality. For instance, they are one street and you drive though the entire town in 6 seconds. P.E.I. is amazingly rural but that is what makes it beautiful! We passed two potato distilleries - they make moonshine and vodka out of potatoes ... who would have thought!

We ate at Rachel's for dinner and then drove to a lobster supper place to get mile high lemon pie (we heard about it on the radio) but we were totally shunned because we didn't want dinner or appetizers. Turns out they don't serve dessert by itself... hummm We drove once again to the cliffs for a another beautiful sunset. We saw 6 foxes on the road on the way back to Kindred Spirits which was so funny... they just came popping out everywhere. Canada wildlife = fun!

With all our diving so far we have done so far we have put 1200 miles on our car! We have driven around the entire island and crisscrossed it a couple times over!

Tonight's cookie was ginger honey, they were by far my favorite as of yet! YUM!

Today wasn't an extremely exciting day but still a lovely one.

Some interesting things about PEI:

- I love the water from the tap here it's pretty much amazing

- They are very patriotic , they fly there flag at almost every house

- Only 50 people stay in Cavendish over the wintertime

- Cavendish is the most beautiful spot on the island

Tomorrow should be fun - Birthday day! PARTY!

Exploring the North Cape

Today we woke up to a cloudy day - the wind lightly blowing and chilly but it was still beautiful! We had wonderful breakfast quesadillas and crumpets for our breakfast this morning, then we started off toward the North Cape, which is the northern part of the island. Today was a more low key day, we drove and stopped at picture perfect places and little local shops. The rain they were forecasting only came for about ten minutes while we were driving... so we were happy! We stopped by some great picture places for instance some, beautiful churches, lighthouses, horses, cliffs, and windmills. What was pretty crazy was the wind energy windmills that were on the north part of the island - they supply 5% of the energy on PEI. For how many there were - you would think it would be more, it's not like there are a lot of people here or anything. So see how that works Obama - supply the US with wind energy... yeah right!

The highlight of our day would be the seals! Yes, we saw seals! It was so exciting - though they were not super close to us we could see them out in the water and sunning themselves on the reef. We stood there on the cliffs just so excited to see real live seals in our beloved Prince Edward Island.

We did have another funny driving experience today - we took a wrong turn and thought it was strange that the two lane road turned into one... then the road looked like it was going into the ocean. So we drive over the hill and low and behold the road did literally end in the ocean. I can't tell you how hard we all laughed... the road just ended right into the water... if it would have been high tide we would have had another ditch incident. But lucky for us mom slowed down before the little hill because we were a little confused as to why the road looked as if it was going into the ocean and we stopped instantly. haha We just laughed and laughed...

After driving around the island for three days we were wondering where these poor people shopped - seriously we have passed nothing. UNTIL the sun broke shining over... yes... a Walmart! So we are now convinced there is a Walmart everywhere!

We had a nice unhealthy dinner at a little place near Kindred Spirits. Mom and I split nachos and onion rings and Mindy went with the PEI special of seafood. After we got back to our room we decided to walk over to Green Gables to see if Anne was there to take a walk in the Haunted Wood or Lover's Lane. Though Anne couldn't come out with us... I'm sure she was busy with one of her 7 children, visiting with Gilbert, and chatting with Marilla and Rachael... we took a walk down Lover's Lane - this was all at twilight. Lover's Lane was creepy in the fading sunlight but it made it all the more romantic. We came back to Kindred Spirits to warm freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies. Ah my favorite!

This wasn't my most descriptive and interesting post... I think my brain is so tired I can;t think of anything to say. But today was another lovely day on the island. :)

Till tomorrow my kindred spirits - I'm sending my love to you though the moonshine

Exploring Green Gables and The Cliffs

We woke up this morning with the sunlight shining through our windows covered with white ruffled curtains and the smell of french toast and bacon - just the prefect wake up call for a place called Kindred Spirits. Breakfast was delicious - french toast, the best scones I've ever tasted, homemade blueberry jam, and juices galore! We ate our breakfast outside on the porch, I kept expecting Anne to pop through the trees and come and join us. Prefect start to a perfect day!

Our first stop was Green Gables... that just makes my heart happy to type that! Green Gables was as perfect as I imagined.. even better actually. It wasn't so much the house that was amazing, it was the grounds, the haunted wood, the garden, and lover's lane. L.M. Montgomery said that she always felt like there was a thin veil between her world and the beauty of the beyond but sometimes that veil would flutter and she could get a chance to see it - the veil flutter for me today. Being there was like an out of body experience, I couldn't believe we were actually walking where Anne lived, where she tip-toed through the haunted wood with shaking hands, and where she walked with Gilbert when she realized her love for him... I kept quoting the book to myself as we walked though these wonderful places. As I walked down Lovers Lane this quote was the one on my mind. "For a moment Anne's heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert's gaze and a rosy flush stained the paleness of her face. It was as if a veil that had hung before her inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation of unsuspected feelings and realities. Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps. . . perhaps. . .love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath. " As we walked through the haunted woods we sipped on our raspberry cordial which made it less frightening because of the sweet goodness to bestowed on our tongues. But I could still imagine the icy fingers of a murdered child on the back of my neck. Lovers Lane was enchanting to say the least - though I wish I had my lover to walk with me. But like Anne I imagined him there, walking hand in hand with me over the bridges and dipping our toes in the brook. All and all Green Gables was a WONDERFUL experience!

After visiting with Anne we drove along the coast and were in awe of the red cliffs and the deep blue ocean. Some times a camera cannot capture the beauty of something - the cliffs were one of those things. We loved walking along the red cliffs and putting our feet in the water, which was absolutely FREEZING! There were actually people swimming at the beach we went to - but I guess once your body goes numb it doesn't feel cold anymore. We drove around the beaches and through some farmland to get the the dunes where they had some of the softest sand I have ever felt, it was like red flour. After walking around the beach for a while we drove back to our place of residence, Kindred Spirits, for afternoon tea. How wonderful is it that? Afternoon tea at Kindred Spirits in Prince Edward Island! After relaxing in the living room we headed back out toward New London, which is a beautiful bay with little fishing villages and beautiful farms nestled throughout the road. We do a lot of driving around and taking pictures on the side of the road if you couldn't tell. haha We had dinner at a oyster bar and restaurant on the water - the best part was that they had live music! After driving around all day listening to radio stations with all american music... don't they have Canadian music.... we enjoy some real P.E.I. folk /county music! It was amazing! We sat outside on the deck overlooking the water clapped along with the songs, watched some crazy kids jump off a bridge into the water, and enjoyed a real PRince Edward Island Saturday night!

After dinner we drove back to the Cavendish cliffs to watch the sunset. We had a wonderful surprise on the way over when a fox crossed the road. Of course, being the tourists we are we turned around and went back to take a picture of him! I jumped out of the car, ran across the street, and took one shot before he got scared by a little truck driving along the road. But one picture was just awesome! So we trundled along toward the cliffs when we were surprised again by two more foxes! This time it was a little less awesome seeing as how there was a car feeding them bread from their window. They obviously didn't read Death in Yellowstone... don't feed the wildlife! I was thinking I was going to have to write Death is Prince Edward Island... at least the chapter on when wild foxes attack! But I'm not complaining becuase I got some great pictures of some foxes! They came right up to our car, he actually looked like he would jump up at us... so I put my arms back into the car. The sunset was absolutely wonderful. We stood on the cliffs that Anne and Diana watched the sunset together - we couldn't appreciate it more even if we were wealthy and wearing ropes and ropes of diamonds. As Anne would say "Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds." Annes voice seems to carry in the air here... her beautiful little sayings sweeting the breezes along the coast.

We came back to our Kindred Spirits to the smell of fresh baked cookies for the second time! In the evenings they make cookies and tea for the guests- how wonderful is that?! So we had ourselves some freshly baked chocolate and chocolate cookies, last night it was peanut butter! Every night it's a surprise as to what kind of cookie they are making us. So this is wonderful, just wonderful! I'm so happy to be on this enchanted island - it's so sad the thought of leaving this beautiful place. Although the thought of my loves in Virginia and Georgia make the home light in my heart burn brighter.

So tomorrow we drive the coast in search of some more wonderful Prince Edward Island experiences... as long as they don't involve ditches and trackers pulling us out!

So good night my dearest loves and kindred spirits - let the moon sing it's sweet lullaby to your souls

So We met the Locals... the story

Ahh the day finally arrived when we would set foot on Prince Edward Island soil... bright and early I might add. Though I was for sure that mom had gotten her bag during the night - it must have been a dream because no bag still. So after waking up and talking with the airline we figured out that the bag was at the airport and would be on it's was to us soon! Thank goodness! Soon enough Moms bag was brought to us and we were on our way to the ferry!

We drove 40 minutes and got the the P.E.I. Ferry, which we thought was crazy that there were so many cars waiting... how in the world would the boat fit that many cars?! The thought was, I'll admit, scary! Especially since there were a couple semis and a charter bus waiting as well. EEK! While we waited for the ferry we took pictures of the boats in the harbor and then we saw the boat coming in - question not fully answered, it was big but would it fit all these cars?? After getting all the pictures in the fish-smelling harbor we got back in the car and drove onto the ferry. This was a great experience actually - it was so much fun standing on the deck wind blowing our hair and even better we saw whales and dolphins! I will not be a cruising girl...I couldn't stand inside without getting dizzy. haha Just like me huh?

Prince Edward Island in the distance our hearts started to flutter with excitement! We were welcomed by a white and red lighthouse, red cliffs, deep blue sky, and sparkling water... just the kind of welcome Anne would be proud of. Our first stop was the Cape Bear Lighthouse which was a lighthouse that received the distress call from the Titanic, pretty cool! So after picking up Prince Edward Island clovers, Prince Edward Island ladybugs, Prince Edward Island gross, Prince Edward Island rocks,and Prince Edward Island flowers we drove along the coast for a little while then the road turned into the countryside which at first was sprinkled with little fishing villages... then NOTHING! Literally nothing, we drove for forever before we were even passed by another car - this was the road... grass, trees, trees, trees, trees, trees, trees, field, trees, grass, farm, trees, farm, WATER, fishing village, fields. So after realizing that we would never be able to make it all the way up the coast we decided to cut through to Cavendish, where we were staying - good idea in theory. The roads are crazy here - they aren't marked... and when they decide to put a sign its after you already turned on the road. It's CRAZY! We only made one wrong turn... left instead of a right (the map was confusing okay?!?) but we made it safe and sound to beautiful Cavendish, which is on the coast so it was stunning! We pulled into our lovely inn - Kindred Spirits Country Inn and Cottages - ahh it's just so comforting just what a kindred spirit would love to stay in. We went to dinner at a Prince Edward Island Cafe' which was on the water so we had a lovely view and had a nice show from a bald eagle flying over the water. This is where the story gets interesting...

On our way back the sunset was AMAZING! The clouds looked like big brush strokes in the sky in grey, pink, and yellow. Driving along the road we saw an amazing view of hay bails and pink clouds... so Mindy and I yell at mom to stop... but we passed the best spot and settled for another hay field along the road. Soo turns out the side of the road was a ditch... a deep deep ditch. Pictures do no justice. The car was stuck... spinning wheels completely sideways in the ditch, the wheels were barely touching the ground on the one side. Great, so the rental car to stuck in a ditch, it's getting dark, and there isn't many people around, and freaking expensive to call anybody of the phone - great. Freaking scary too! But Prince Edward Island natives are as nice as everyone has said they are. We were there only a couple minutes before we had a couple people stop and help. After pushing the car and turning the wheel every which way they decided they needed to pull out the big guns - a tracker! So the guy left and five minutes later, really five minutes, we heard the tracker coming up the road -- more like speeding up the road! OH how much I love this island and the islanders! They hooked up the car to the tracker and seconds later the car was pulled out of the ditch. Yippee! Ahhh the wonderful islanders and their trackers! So we went back to Kindred Spirits and settled down after all the excitement/ nerve racking energy... and now we are watching Anne of Avonlea - perfect since we are actually in walking distance from Green Gables. It's magical - actually being in the world that Anne has walked, where Anne and Gilbert fell in love, and were the scope for the imagination is endless. Though who would have imagined that we would have gotten the car stuck and been blessed by lovely islanders and their tracker!

So my kindred spirits and dearest love - that is our adventures of today, can't wait to see what tomorrow holds for us!

So We met the Locals

Just wait for the story

Traveling Day!

I'm sitting here on our hotel bed in Truro Canada - not an incredibly impressive place but it's still Canada so we're happy!

But I'll start from the beginning of our day... at 4a.m. in the morning. (it's actually not as bad as it sounds) I woke up totally energized after only 5 hours of sleep! Driving through Atlanta at 4:30 in the morning is great no traffic what-so-ever but that is probably because normal people are sleeping. So we go through security - of course the slowest lane of all of them... seriously everybody was though this one lane before we got though ours. But no biggie because we were on a high from actually being on our way to the trip of our dreams! In the terminal I had my 5th pumpkin spice latte and found out that Ellen Degeneres is going to replace Paula on American Idol... don't know how I feel about that one. :/

So we sat there and I kept wondering why I couldn't see the plane... well I found out when we started to board. We had to walk down to the place because it was too small for the connector thing... SCARY! There was some beautiful clouds - it they were cotton candy they would be pineapple and peach flavored for sure! But we made it safely to Newark and got a great view of New York City! We met Mindy, had a delicious lunch at Uno, and bought Martha Stewart's Halloween magazine! So after our 2 hour something layover we got on our second very small plane and made our way to Halifax. It was a bumpy ride but I had some great cran-apple juice! =)

Canada at last, got though customs with no problem... now here is the fun part. We go to baggage claim and find both Mindy's bag and mine...but no bag for Mom. =( Seeing as how there were only two planes in the entire airport there weren't many bags to choose from - we lost hope pretty fast. So standing as the alone with the baggage people we figured out that her bag must have decided to go on it's own vacation. Soooo BUMMER - but we left with the info we needed and got out Altima and drove to exciting Truro! haha

What was really funny is the speed limit is in km so the speed limit was 110 - Woo-Hoo! But ahh it was Canada! There were beautiful farms all around on the way to the hotel and lo and behold a wonderful sight to Mom's luggage-less eyes a Walmart! So she got some essentials and we were back on our way to the hotel. So after checking in we took a little drive around the countryside and tried to find something to eat... but like I said this place is less than impressive so there were not special places to eat. And now I'm back where I started sitting on the hotel bed - so that is our day. So we sit here and wait on Moms bag to arrive sometime around 12 tonight. Price Edward Island tomorrow - so excited!

Here are some pictures of our trip so far!