Saturday, July 19, 2008

Day 19 & 20 - Cavendish area and Charlottetown

Day 19 – West Coast of Prince Edward Island.

Today we took a sight-seeing tour of Prince County, the western section of PEI. We drove about 360 km and again got a beautiful image of the island, the potato farms, the small harbours, oyster and mussel farms, red beaches, lighthouses and the local hamlets. We left about 10 in the morning and did not get back till 9:30 in the evening. It was another full day with lots of new impressions.

The most memorable impression was Leo being ‘pooped on’ by a pair of common terns, (a small seagull-like bird), as he was getting too close to their nests. They were dive-bombing him and decide to take stronger measures and poop on him. They managed to hit him on his hair, on his shoulder and arm, but most importantly, on his camera!

Lots of people have large Gulf fishing boats in their backyards here just like some people in Alberta may have fibreglass motorboats in their yards. Some people even had 2 in their yards and really rich would have three. Again we saw many more beautiful churches but did notice the riches of the different parts of the island as some churches were beautifully restored or maintained while others were becoming dilapidated
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On the way back to our campground we also took in the tourist shops along the Cavendish Boardwalk and played souvenir-accumulating tourists for a bit. We tried to capture it all for you in Leo’s photos, which can be found here.

Day 20 – The drive from Cavendish to Charlottetown, PEI.

Today we decided to move on to another part of the province and find a campground around the historic capital city of P.E.I.: Charlottetown. But before we left we went to the Prince Edward Island National Park entrance to upgrade our annual Parks pass to include Historic sites as there are many of these sites on this island like the lighthouses. We also wanted to visit the Anne of Green Gables Park and we were pleasantly surprised that entry to the park was free for pass holders. We already have half our money back of our pass upgrade! Are we Dutch or not! Leo took lots of photos of the park and I plan to make a special Anne of Green Gables photo page when we have a slow day.

On we went then to Charlottetown and our campground. After set up of our trailer and having a bit to eat we went to play tourist once more in Charlottetown. It is a very nice city with lots of historic buildings like Confederation Hall, the place were in 1864 the Fathers of Confederation agreed to form the new nation of Canada. This building is now the Provincial Building and seat of the Province’s government. There were also whole streets full of `traditional-looking` houses, which added to the uniqueness of this town. We took a stroll around the harbour, which again had a boardwalk and a fun petting zoo of ocean creatures for children.

To see what good `tourists` we were take a look of at our photos, which can be found here.