As we drove out of Moncton heading to PEI, we went through the beautiful seaside town of Shediac. Shediac is home of the big red lobster and apparently has some of the best lobster in the Maritimes. But as it was only 30 minutes from our campsite in Moncton, we really were not looking to eat lobsters at 0900. We did take some time and poke through the town and the beach.
Today is September the 15th. We have left beautiful PEI, which by far as been the most beautiful place on this trip thus far. Not that we have not been in some very beautiful places, but as soon as we crossed the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick into Prince Edward Island, we were utterly awestruck! Beautiful lush, rolling hills with so many different shades of green! Like a jewel in the water. For many years we have heard from Elayne about the hospitality and beauty of her home Province. As we were already planning on heading on to the Island as part of our trip, we would have gone anyway regardless of how beautiful Elayne had, over the years been telling us and anyone else who would listen, PEI was.
The Confederation Bridge is 13 kms long and takes about 12 minutes to cross it. I had envisioned a four lane bridge with 20 foot sides, to keep the sea water off the vehicles travelling to and fro. The bridge is a two lane bridge and the sides were really no higher than that of the Mission Bridge. The sides are concrete though with no pedestrian walking path. The center span is quite a bit higher then that of both ends, to allow the ice bergs and ships to safely pass through. The concrete beams holding the bridge are triangular in shape. I am told that the shape of these columns causes the ice bergs to break apart when they hit, so that they can pass through. Apparently the makers of the bridge (engineers) made a few of these columns long prior to the making of the bridge and had them placed to do tests to make sure the icebergs would successfully break up rather than cause damage to the pillars.
PEI's resources are farming (home of the PEI spud!), tourism and government. Veterans Affairs and Taxation have their head offices in Charlottetown. University of PEI and Holland Univeristy are the two major post secondary schools. The Law Courts are very beautiful as is beautiful St Dunstans Basilica cathedral which is very gothic in appearance. This huge stone structure was originally made out of wood in the 18th century but was destroyed by fire and in 1913 it was reconstructed to the way it is today. With its spires, it is a landmark that can be seen from all over.
Elayne had prearranged for us to contact her sister Cathy to park our 5th wheel at her place. Once we got on the island, we stopped at group of shops and restaurants called Gateway. While we chowed down on a bowl of seafood chowder I called Cathy and got directions to her place which was only an hour away.
Cathy's house (she calls it a cottage) is beautifully set back off the road up a long grassy driveway. The house sits about 100 feet away from the cliff which looks down on the red beach below. One thing that we had noticed while driveway to Cathy's was the rich red earth everywhere! Even the cliffs going down to the ocean are red! Cathy lives in a bay which flows out to the Gulf of St Lawrence. You can see the sand spit and ocean just a short distance away. The waves were crashing onto the sandspit due to Hurricane Leslie that had passed through parts of Nova Scotia and into Newfoundland just the day before.
Within a couple of hours of being with Cathy, both Ray and I felt like we already new her. She is like Elayne, only not. Hard to explain. They have the same mouths and beautiful Corrigan eyes. Cathy has lived in BC so we did have lots to talk about. Elayne was coming out on the 13th for a family wedding, so we had planned to stay and visit with her before heading to Nova Scotia.
Ray and I toured the north central side of the Island. This included Cavendish, which is the home of L.M Montgomery the author of the Anne of Green Gables books. We toured the house that she had spent many years and which provided her with the inspiration to write her books. As I am the only female on the earth who had not read Anne of Green Gables, I bought a collection of the books to read.
We also toured around the beautiful Dalvey by the Sea. It is an amazing old mansion (that I later learned Elayne worked at as a teenager) that has been turned into a hotel/B&B. Prince William and Kate stayed at this beautiful place when touring Canada last year. Across the road is one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere! You probably would like to see a few photos right about now, but for some reason the computer is too slow to load and we are short on time.
Anyone who knows Elayne, knows what an organizer that she is. While she is still out in BC she calls her brother, David and asks him to take us up in his plane for a tour of the island. So on Wednesday David took us up for an hour of the most beautiful flying ever! The colors from the sky were unreal! From the blue water, red dirt cliffs to the many shades of green it was a sight to behold!
I am going to post this blog as it is for you to all read. I apologize for the lack of photographs, but the service for wifi is encredibly slow (am I repeating myself?)
Stay tuned for more bogus adventures!
Lori and Ray
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