Last Day On Prince Edward Island

AUG 31 FRIDAY

Today we went to  the center of Charlottetown, PEI.

We were lucky again to find on-the-street metered parking. $2 for 2 hrs right in front of this church , Dunstan's Basilica, above and within only a one block walk to the Province House . 

The parliament still meets there in The Province House and it's a a museum as well.

There were costumed actors that presented a short skit , maybe 20 minutes or so It was not only fun but informative.
 It helped us with some of what we should have learned in school.

Joey got some nice photos of 8 of the Province's Coats of Arms

We missed taking pictures of the remaining 5 provinces:
 Manitoba,
Saskatchewan,
 Newfoundland/Labrador,
 NorthWest Territories
 & the newest in 1999 NUNAVUT.  Who knew? Not me!
Nunavut was separated from the NW Territories & was the first province to split out since 1949. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut

I'm going to see if I am able to find the last five coat of arms. These are so pretty with their scenes.
Well, I certainly changed my mind about posting those last 5 coats of arms....too much work BUT I found a wonderful website that not only show all of the coats of arms but the flags of each province as well as the meaning behind each one.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/cansymbols.htm

We had time for one more museum: The Founders Hall. This one took more time than the one above. But I'm not  posting anything on Founders Hall.

We still had plenty of time in the late afternoon to do our laundry in a Laundromat in town. 
The camp had a couple of machines but the laundromat in town had many more & we were able to put in four loads at once & get 'em over with a lot faster. I hate "waiting" around for anything but 
The Laundromat had a nice WI FI hotspot signal.
 It's our last day here in Charlottetown & It REALLY was time to wash some clothes.

The winds are really picking up a bit scary to me, water, ferry.....but we will at least head towards the ferry port in Wood Island for our departure to Nova Scotia tomorrow.
 If it turns out we are unable to leave tomorrow then we'll just hang around and try for the next day.

Bottle Houses Day Trip

http://www.bottlehouses.com/about.cfm
"Over 25 000 recycled bottles ingeniously cemented together to create the Bottle Houses,"

We enjoyed this day trip after yesterday's rain.
 Today was beautiful & this "Bottle House" was a good drive on PEI & there were other things to see in route too & I'll post them after the bottle house slideshow below.

After about one & 1/2 hrs @the Bottle House we had an Acadian meal  in Abram-Village. "Acadians" are descendants of an early group of French settlers in the early 1600's that were kicked out by the British in the late 1600's & 1700's.
"The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia, a colony of New France."

 Another reason for the dislikes between the two countries we hear about from time to time even today.

In the last part of this day trip we ran across this cathedral in the middle of nowhere.

On the Red Sands of PEI & a bit more

Note on the Plates the have the "House of 7 Gables" & Anne Shirley with her red pigtails & straw hat.

We did lots of driving around today so I'll just post some more photos.

He always has fun climbing all over the place. Me? Not so much! But I DO like taking the pictures of him at play. No, no, Joey, you simply cannot bring another rock or shell into the trailer! ......... OR I'll start to call u LUCY!
(For any of you that saw the 1953 movie THE LONG LONG TRAILER, w/ Lucy & Desi You'll know of what I speak...about the rocks)

This video below is of Joey, not Lucy!

I just had an idea...hey on YouTube I'll bet I can find the "rock" part of the movie.
OH OH OH I can hardly stand it...I found the 3 minute preview & I'm laughing so  hard I have tears...



Over a year ago I found the full movie on YouTube in 17 parts but it's been removed for copyright reasons...I did find one more 30 second clip...below.

But I just couldn't find the part where she hides rocks all over the place, oven, fridge, bed...AFTER Desi Clearly explained that she needed to get rid of the rocks because they're going to drive over a mountain pass & they just cannot carry that extra weight or they'll never make it. She wasn't very happy.
...but this 30 sec clip shows what happened after he asked her to get rid of her souvenir rocks.


I MUST BUY THIS MOVIE!

Later that day we went to the Piping College to see a mini-performance. I'm GLAD it was only a mini!

We stopped at Sobey's Market & bought some munchies including these delicious YELLOW plums. Never saw yellow ones before and they were sweet & juicy.

We heard from some other RVers about Paderno's "Pots for Eternity". Now, I'd never heard of Paderno's before but this woman went on and on about their products AND that there was a Paerno Factory Outlet Clearance Center near the Charlottetown airport.....which we just happened to pass .......soooooooo the above photo tells OUR part of the story but the "Rest of the story" about Paderno is here:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TzWnzgu8lJ8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Don't ya just love factories? We do.
Anyway, I found the following from the Paderno website:
"Prince Edward Island is better known for Anne of Green Gables, sunny beaches and potatoes than for quality cookware. But since 1979, our company has been making people across North America stand up and take notice as we provide them with some of the finest cookware found anywhere in the world. As Canada’s only cookware manufacturer, we take exceptional pride in the quality that goes into every product we sell. We take the time and care that’s needed to make sure every piece of cookware delivers outstanding cooking performance, good looks, ease of use and durability. Such durability, in fact, that our cookware is called “Pots for Eternity.”"
Hope I don't sound like a commercial with all the Paderno information but....oh well, it's good for our records & memories.

Then there was the Great Canadian Soap Factory: http://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/aboutus.asp

They use lots of goat milk in their soaps as well as various herbs & coconut oil. I'm crazy for coconut oil now...for cooking & skin too.
Needless to say I now have soap for life!

Ok, THAT's enough for today. As I type this I'm two months behind already. I cannot wait to get to the Nova Scotia & New Brunswick photos....really beautiful places. I'll end up doing the rest of the blog at home. Today is November 04,  2012 but the date for the blog shows the date we were doing the above adventures.

Hunkered down in camp today: RAIN

AUG 28 TUESDAY

RAIN today so we hunkered down in the "shoebox". 

We went out only to grocery shop a bit. 

We bought a whole lobster (already cooked) & Joey shelled it & made a wonderful salad.

We ran into some RVers from New Brunswick in a Sobey's Grocery parking lot & they said wait to have lobster dinners in Nova Scotia.

They said the lobsters have harder shells in Nova Scotia & that means "better" lobsters.

NOTE: We loved shopping at Sobey's Market. Great bakery with wonderful breads. 

Well, it's too late to wait for NS  because we've already had lobster twice here in PEI. Not "dinners" per se but luncheon sandwiches.

I saw online that in Nova Soctia even McDonalds has a lobster sandwich! I use

Google Images a lot & saw some photos of the McLobsters & it really looks full with lobster, not skimpy at all. 

Speaking of RVers: I think I've failed to talk about how MANY Canadian RVers there are!  From the  huge 40 footers plus down to camping vans (tenters too). All over the place. We noticed how many park in either WalMart lots or other big shopping lots as boondockers……. AND the RV campgrounds were quite full as well.

So far we haven't had any problems finding last minute camps. It turns out that's because first of all we don't require 50 amps as the biggies do and secondly we usually ask for the "2 way" sites instead of the "3 way" sites. That means we only need Electricity and Water.

If we get the "3 way", which means including a sewer at the camp site, that's a plus but we don't need or require it.  All the camps have a designated spot to dump anyway so we only dump when necessary.

 Lastly I'm thinking we're not having any trouble finding last minute campsites might be because  we're only 8 1/2 feet wide WITH the single slideout so we don't need a long nor wide place.  Our little "shoe box" not only saves us money but usually assures us a last minute place to camp. (shut your mouth girl…as soon as you say THAT….there'll be trouble…I just knocked wood)

Bottom line here:  

So far this trip we've only boondocked once & I don't recall even where.

We did a lot more boondocking on our 2007 Alaska trip.

Oh yes, now I'm remembering WHY we haven't boondocked more.

 It's been too damn hot up until now.

We really do need  electricity for the A/C….princess that I am.

 "I WANT it, daddy!"

(we've actually used our tiny, portable electric heater twice in the mornings in the last couple of days)

Hot days, cold early mornings beginning about 3am..  

Charlottetown to be continued...........

Charlottetown. P.E.I.

AUG 27 MONDAY

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES the MUSICAL

I have my iPhone turned off while in Canada. I didn't want to be surprised with a humongous phone bill so I used Skype to call the theatre in Charlottetown.

The Confederation of the Arts.

The show was FABULOUS. The venue was great and we were "happy campers"!

This was an unexpected treat!

We bought these tickets on a whim using Skype on my laptop from the campground.
The highest price tickets would have been $75 each & we opted for the next lower priced ones for $65. 
The gal on the phone that booked us asked if we belonged to CAA or AAA. We do belong to AAA in the states & she gave us a discount. I hadn't even thought to ask. So the two tickets including a tax & a service fee came to $127. Our seats turned out to be very good and close enough to see make-up, costume details & facial expressions. We LIKE to see all that good stuff.

 I repeat myself when I say this show was fabulous.
 We've attended theatre all over the world & I say this was as good as something on Broadway or anywhere!

The girl that played Anne Shirley was Tess Benger. 

It's unbelievable the talent and the energy she exuded playing Anne. 

I mean…….E.N.E.R.G.Y!

She never stopped moving & talking & dancing & singing with such exuberance. Just as the young, very imaginative, over dramatic Anne that she played would have done.

The rest of the cast was excellent as well & the staging & costumes could not have been better.
Neither Joey nor I have ever read any of this book (books?).

Like I said we went on a whim for something to do in the evening.
This quality of production would be double the price in Las Vegas or NYC.
The two & a half hours that just flew by! 
Yes, 2 1/2 hours. She, Tess,  must collapse after the show!

Oh, I forgot to say that we had been out driving all day today (about 170 miles)  We almost didn't make this show because of "another" lighthouse that we just HAD to see.

Fortunately didn't get lost in our last minute rush & we were able to find on-the-street free (after 6pm) parking only one block away from the theatre.

Yup, just like parking at home in Los Angeles….eh?     I wish!

I even wrote a review on TripAdvisor.com.

I use that website a lot to find travelers thoughts on various things & decided to help others that might be considering going to this musical.

I thought it might have been a kids show but it was truly for everyone.

We surely have been lucky with the last two stage productions we've seen.

(The one at the beginning of our trip in Solvang, Ca & now this one here in Charlottetown, PEI)

Charlottetown to be continued........

2nd Day P.E.I. AIRSHOW

AUG 26 SUNDAY

Decided to NOT go to the Farmer's Market in Charlottetown  because we were wanting to arrive early at the Air Show in Summerside.

It was to be an all day affair & we didn't wish to be late. We'll just go to another Farmer's Market somewhere on our trip if/when the opportunity presents itself.

We've never been to an air show before ….hate crowds BUT we were both thrilled that we decided to attend.

On the way to the show location in Summerside which was about a 35 minute drive from our campground ( camp HARRINGTON ) just north of Charlottetown we had to pass by the Charlottetown commercial airport.

 In doing so Joey noticed the Blue Angel planes all lined up THERE . We made a quick left into that airport to look at them up close . As Joey likes to say, "Lucky Lager" 

It turns out that THIS airport is where all of the planes will fly out of & then make their "show" stunts in Summerside where we are on our way to.

We arrived at the Summerside airport about an hour before the show was to begin but we still had to park pretty far out in the grassy parking lot.  Lots of walking….good exercise, all loaded down with our "stuff". My ole knees didn't like it much but they probably needed it!

We packed a lunch & 2 folding camper chairs, camera with a wide-angle lens as well as a longer zoom lens, water, earplugs, two beers (heavy drinkers, eh?)

We weren't even sure if beer was allowed.

Speaking of beer we are REALLY glad we brought a 30 can case & 1/2 with us from California because we saw a 12 pack of Corona for $26.50 CN!!! We also brought along some Trader Joe's 2Buck Chuck Merlot & glad for that as well.

Back to the air show:

We bought general admission, senior tickets at the "door" (portable kiosk) for $20 each.

We were told that this being the 2nd day of the show the crowd was smaller than yesterday. YAY! That made ME happy. I please easily.

The weather was perfect with a temperature of about 78 F with a pretty good wind.

 I was a bit worried that some of the "stunts" might (should)  be eliminated due to wind but the only thing that was canceled were the parachute jumpers.

It WAS thrilling! The show included  9 planes from the Canadian Royal Air Force

 AND  7 BLUE ANGELS! I've always heard about them but never saw them before....only online. My friend, Elynn's dad was a Blue Angel pilot....how exciting for that family.

There were some WWII planes a military helicopter, a glider & a fold-up-wing plane.

One Blue Angel's plane actually whizzed by so low it was able to drop a smoke bomb on a target. 

Thankful for my earplugs & felt so clever for having them.  It will be the last photo in the slideshow below…the black billowing smoke you see is NOT the result of a crash…just part of the show.

Don't ask what the equipment was I'm not well informed on that but I sure do love seeing, hearing & feeling them.

Whoooosh, zoooooom AHHHHHHH, no other words words are possible.

 Again, I'm  just glad I had my earplugs!

We took SOOOOOO many pictures it's going to be difficult to sort through them.

I decided to just make a slideshow of some of the still photos.

Ok, now one last 2 minute video below is of some of the airshow videos clips we took BUT as maybe you can hear in my introduction that it was really a challenge to get ANY of these short video shots at all. The planes not only zoomed by so quickly BUT it was very sunny and we were unable to see anything on the LCD screen on the camera. We just pointed the camera & hoped for the best. I think we were lucky to get what we did get.
I've suggest watching this one in full screen mode. That way you will really be able to SEE the planes!

First day P.E.I.

I forgot to show you what we saw when we first arrived at a Visitor center & Duty Free store P.E.I. 
Can you BELIEVE the price of this beer? 12 Bottles?
EVERYTHING in Canada is more expensive than in the U.S.!

AUG 25 SATURDAY drove all around central PEI bout 120 miles.

Beautiful weather about 74 degrees so we ate some lobster for the first time outside on a patio where some fishing boats take out passengers to fish.

 Had to have some lobster here.

OH, wait. It wasn't the first time. I'd forgotten we already had a foot-long lobster sandwich at a SUBWAY in New Brunswick for $14 .

 It was a temporary offering so we took them up on it. Yum!

We just drove & drove around to see the countryside's impeccably kept farm lands on HUGE rolling hills.

My friend & artist, Emily Preece, called it exactly right when she called the rolling hills & farmlands here on PEI as looking like a patchwork quilt. BIG, GIANT patchwork quilts.

And the colors. My oh my! It's the light. I think it's similar to the light in France that inspired so many of the great artists.
 No smog there nor here!
The wind blows it all away here on P.E.I..

We drove to a wharf & did some people-watching as a class of kayak students got prepared & went on out into the calm waters of the bay.

This next short video is around the area where the kayakers had their lessons.
It was an area with lots of things to please the eyes & senses.

We learned there was an air show today & tomorrow near SUMMERSIDE. The Blue Angels and the  Canadian Royal Air Force will perform. 

We drove on out there but it was over for today & the exiting traffic was horrendous!

I think we might go back tomorrow after a farmers market in P.E.I's capital city of CHARLOTTETOWN.

Finally Prince Edward Island

AUG 24 FRIDAY 240 MILES TODAY (the longest day driving so far)

 Made it into PEI  

This CONFEDERATION BRIDGE is 8 miles long & took 4 years to build. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Bridge
You only need to pay a toll in one direction; coming back from P.E.I.
For us it will be $46 Canadian Dollars

The signage is really well done. If there were to be any problem everyone would be alerted as you travel.

Just snapped this from the bridge.

This was the sign as we first got onto the island. 

Their signs were really well done and we were happy for that because we were towing the trailer & it's no fun to make a wrong turn with trailer in tow.

We went right into the Visitor's Center following the ? sign to the right.

Inside the Center they had a liquor store where we saw this sign 

$26.50 Canadian Dollars   for 12 beers!!!

After looking around and NOT buying any beer we found our camp just north of Charlottetown. 

Camp Harrington a Passport America camp $12.50 including WI FI.

 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? 

There were not many rigs camped there & the showers & restrooms were a bit ugly but it was a very good location & it was quiet & the WI FI was good once we got it going.

We really had to maneuver the trailer to get a good WI FI signal but now that we did I think we will stay here a bit longer than we thought.

That is to say we really didn't know if we'd be 4 nights or 7 nights. We were THAT open to whatever comes.....weather included.

 We'll play it by ear but we do need some "down time" & laundry time.

That's IT for today.

wrong turn but finally into NEW BRUNSWICK

I finally found the map I was looking for. I hope it's readable. I somehow got it from Microsoft's Streets & Trips software in my laptop to go into Blogger after trying a thousand times to no avail...that's why I'm posting it her           any-friggin-way  !!!

We had hoped to make it as far as Bathurst, NB today BUT only made it to Nigadoo  NB. That's only 100 miles but it included a 25 mile error when we missed a bridge to cross into New Brunswick:

 

Percé. QC to Nigadoo New Brunswick

 

Percé. QC to  New Richmond, QC

AUG 22 WED we ft Ft Ramsey RV camp about 11:30 on our way to Percé. QC.

            147 miles today

We drove slowly through the town of  Percé.

Lots of traffic.

Lots of tourists

Lots of touristy shops.

We only stopped in Percé for lunch in a rest area with a fabulous view of the much featured rock formations offshore. (In the collage above )

 The rock formations were  on Bonaventure Island & Percé Rock Bird Sanctuary

AUG 23 THURS 140 miles today

We arrived in New Richmond, QC to camp this night. Arriving about 6pm in time for watching the sunset on the Gulf of St Lawrence.

Nope that's not us but cute anyway,eh? 

 

Each Labor Day weekend there's a huge Bluegrass Festival here in New Richmond. We'll miss it by 10 days. 

That's a bittersweet miss because we like some bluegrass music but hate crowds.

I KNOW we would have enjoyed this festival.

BUT we're in a bit anxious to get into New Brunswick & P.E.I (Prince Edward Island) & Nova Scotia.

We had hoped to make it as far as Bathurst NB today BUT only made it to Nigadoo NB. The 140 miles included a 25 mile error when we missed a bridge to cross into New Brunswick from Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula.

This is a nice map of the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec in relationship to New Brunswick.
Where we missed the bridge a little west of Carleton, QC to cross into NB & needed to go all the way left to the end of that inlet to cross. It was about a 25 mile mistake but, "Oh, well"
This map doesn't show Bathurst, NB but it's almost across from Carleton.

Then the map below shows where our next "touring destination" is: Prince Edward Island and the bridge into P.E.I. is from Nova Scotia after a quick trip through the northern edge of NB at this time.
Later on AFTER P.E.I AND NOVA SCOTIA we will return to NB but more to the southwest on the BAY OF FUNDY which DOES show up on the map below.

Don't worry about trying to figure it all out....it's mostly for us to be able to remember these few things. 

Gaspé area and Forillon National Park (still in Quebec Province)

AUG 20 & 21 MON & TUE drove 107 miles 

Camped 2 nights @ Ft Ramsey Motel & RV camp and took day trips from here.

This was the camp that our Rimouski "Walmart-camper-friends" liked so much & suggested we give it a try. So we did. We got lots of tips from other travelers throughout our trip & so far they've all worked out nicely.

 Camp Ft Ramsey was on the water in the actual town of Gaspé on the Gaspé  Peninsula.

We spent Tuesday driving in the Forillon National Park, Quebec.

There were lots of beautiful views in this National Park

Joey took a 6 km hike up to an observation point while I waited in the car watching the sea birds & the wild cloud formations & listening to a podcast on my iPhone. Don't ya just love it? I took a little snooze too.

The beautiful, billowing clouds were all over the sky while I was waiting for Joey to come down from his hike but by the time he returned with the camera they were already gone for this video. His timing was great though because right after this video it began to rain.

These are some of the things we saw along our route today.
(to play the videos Click on the triangular arrow lower left or in the center)

Rimouski's LightHouse, Empress of Ireland Museum, Submarine

We spent about 3 hours at this spot north of Rimouski where;
There was a lighthouse; one of the better ones we've seen so far.
There was a submarine too but the most interesting was a museum that chronicled the disaster of the Empress of Ireland cruise ship. 
Just like the Titanic she went down and very few survived.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/collections/liners/empress/

Only two years after the Titanic in 1914 the Empress of Ireland collided with another ship in the St Lawrence & " A mere 14 minutes after the collision, she sank. And by the time the last nearly frozen survivor had been fished from the water, the death toll was staggering. Of the 1,477 on board, 1,012 lost their lives, including 840 passengers, eight more than had died when the Titanic sank."
http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/empress.html

So my little movie here shows a bit of all this area offered.

En Route Rimouski to Ft Ramsey

SUNDAY AUG 19  En Route Rimouski, QC to Ft Ramsey, QC

We spent some time at a lighthouse en route. I learned the French word for lighthouse is Phare (pronounced Far) . There have been so many light houses on this Gaspé Peninsula and they even produce a Phare brochure & map.

We had some coffee & cookies inside.

We drove 107 miles today and Camped @

 Au Bord De La Mer in Cap Chat, QC  

This was a nice camp too. WI FI strong. It was on the water & we  took lots of sunset shots & spent some time just sitting on a bench watching the sun set on the water. Ah, the small sweet things in life. (along with the internet, that is….teehee)

Not very crowded here. That was nice.

Below: The biggest Vertical Axis windmill in the world! It's in the center of the lower horizontal photo.The photos just don't show the hugeness of this baby. The truck is charring one of the regular size sections of the kind of windmill we're used to seeing. 
http://www.eolecapchat.com/e_index.html We didn't take the tour of this; just saw it on our way. If I had to do it over again we WOULD go right up to it & take the tour. I actually didn't even realize there WAS a tour offered until I began reading the website on the link above.