And Now, Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program…

Posted by Liz June 19, 2018

And Now, Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program…

OK, so I had a couple of days of blogs that were significant to me, but not trip-related. When you have back to back days with Father’s Day and a 35^th anniversary, those are important topics that can’t be skipped over. However, we were (and are) still on a trip, so let me catch you up!

Sunday, June 17, 2018 – This was designated to be a day of rest, with no movement whatsoever from our cottage here on PEI; however, we did end up doing a little sightseeing. The reason was that Sunday was a fabulously beautiful day, and Monday’s forecast was for rain all day. We relaxed all morning, but decided to take a little drive on Sunday afternoon. We are on the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island this trip, and our goal is to drive the entire “Points East Coastal Drive” by the time we leave. To that end, we drove to the south, seeing Panmure Island and Cape Bear. Panmure Island had a beautiful, expansive beach where we enjoyed watching the waves crash in. At Cape Bear, the first thing I saw was a heron, balancing on a far away cliff. Then we also saw a seal swimming nearby, but I couldn't get a good picture of him. Still, he was fun to watch! We were gone for a couple of hours, and upon returning, we did a video chat with David, Laura, and Andrew in celebration of Father’s Day. We had a relaxing evening, watching Coco on Netflix, after I went down and explored the beach once more. It was a delightful first-full-day-on-the-Island.

I found shells on the beach in the morning.

Panmure Island Lighthouse

Panmure Island Lighthouse, from the beach below.

R.J. on the beach on Panmure Island

Heron on a cliff

Cape Bear Lighthouse

Heron at low tide

Monday, June 18, 2018 – This was the actual day of our anniversary, as I said. We relaxed for part of the morning (while it rained), but then we took advantage of a break in the rain to catch a bit more of the Points East Coastal Drive. This time, we went north. The section we traveled followed the shore line in and out. It was so curvy we joked that it was the small intestine of the trip. We saw some nice, scenic views, a fort/settlement re-creation, and some beaches, but no lighthouses on this day. We got back “home” in time to fix our lunches, and then we settled in for the afternoon. The rain came down hard and the wind howled around our little cottage. We were glad to be safe and sound and not on the road. The rain let up again around supper time, which was handy since we planned to eat out in honor of our anniversary. We went to a restaurant in Montague called Windows on the Water, where I had lobster and R.J. had shrimp and scallops. We shared some chocolate mousse for dessert, and we talked about where we might go on our next trip, or when we might come back to Prince Edward Island. After a delicious meal, we went back to our cottage. It was a great anniversary.

Us, along the shore near Roma Settlement

Shore near Georgetown

Us, at our anniversary dinner

Tuesday, June 19, 2018 – R.J. and I started on the road fairly early today (around 8:00), but not before we had quite a scare. My laptop crashed in the middle of a show we were watching. I mean it seriously crashed. It was down for the count, and when it rebooted, the error message said “hard drive not found.” This is not good, not good at all. After a couple more reboots, things magically restored themselves. R.J. checked a couple things and then we shut the laptop off and just prayed that it would turn on again when we returned. We did not want to spend this day working on the computer, so we left. We drove across the Island to the area we went on our first trip. I was surprised at how nostalgic I felt, finding those areas we had known and loved five years ago. For some reason, I felt like crying. Anyway, it rained again as we drove. I thought the rain was supposed to have moved on by 8:30 or so, so I was a bit frustrated. We got to my favorite lighthouse of the last trip (and of this trip, too), Covehead. I wanted to walk on the beach like we did last time, but it was windy, cold, and really not very pleasant walking around. I had to settle for a short walk and a few pictures. I still love it, but last time we got way more time to experience it. Our next destination was the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place. This was an experience we had last time as well, but since the Anne books are what brought us here in the first place, it seemed right to visit it again. We had a great time walking around the site and taking pictures, as the weather cleared up a bit. After that, we stopped and ate our packed lunch, right in the car, and then did some shopping. No buying, just shopping. It was fun to look at the same stores we shopped in last time we were here. Our next destination (after a short nap in the car – yes, we do that!) was visiting my friend Anne Woolner. She is the daughter of my friend Dr. Woolner, who I got to know when he was the ripe, young age of 101.5. If you follow my blog, you “know” Dr. Woolner. If you don’t, read here or here. Anyway, I am so thankful for my friendship with Anne, and I finally got to see in person all the places she told me about, here on the Island. We saw several family homes, the boardwalk in North Rustico, the schoolhouse where Dr. Woolner taught for two years, and the cemetery where he is buried. I am filled up after this day. To top it off, Anne treated us to tea and dessert at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company in New Glasgow. I had some seriously delicious strawberry-rhubarb crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream on it. Wow! After that great time together, we took Anne back home and then took ourselves back to our cottage. We had a quiet evening. My laptop works again, and I am so very thankful. I hope it lasts until we get home without any more crises. I need it for blogging and for organizing my pictures!