Only 5 nights left on this cruise. Where has the time gone? Since my last entry I’ve had two sea days and a stop in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I guess I’ll start with the visit to PEI.
Last year when I came to Charlottetown I went to learn about birds of prey; this year I took a tour entitled “Anne of Green Gables and a lobster bake.” Prince Edward Island was the birthplace and home of Lucy Maud Montgomery who wrote the famous book Anne of Green Gables among many others. First I should write a little bit about the island. PEI is named after the fourth son of King George III. It’s approximately 141 miles long and about 60 miles wide at its widest point. It lies in the Gulf of St Lawrence west of Cape Breton Island, north of the Nova Scotia peninsula and northeast of New Brunswick. It was here in September 1864 that representatives from other colonies in British Canada came and drafted the articles of confederation which created modern day Canada. Interestingly PEI didn’t find the terms favorable so they didn’t join until 1873. In the years before that the islanders had entertained various other options, such as becoming an independent country and they even met with delegates from the USA to discuss becoming part of the United States. (As an aside, I find that I am seriously lacking in knowledge of historical events having to do with Canada and its interaction with my country.)
Prince Edward Island has a population of around 180,000. It has evidently exploded in the last few years. That growth has caused problems with increasingly higher housing costs as the available places to live have become scarcer and it has caused a strain on the infrastructure, particularly availability of doctors. A medical school program has just opened at the local university so hopefully that problem will be alleviated.
My tour guide and driver were Cheryl and Leigh, both senior citizens and both PEI islanders. They were very engaging and full of knowledge and they also seemed to know everyone on the island. We drove first to the north coast which has pretty dramatic red cliffs and a few beaches. The cliffs are red because the soil here is mainly red sandstone. The island is completely dependent on ground water so everyone has a well. The primary economic driver is agriculture. The countryside consists of low rolling hills with the highest point only being less that 500 feet. Looking across the inland part of the island it looks like a patchwork quilt of greens. The crops grown include soybeans, corn, and potatoes. Cheryl told us that Prince Edward Island is the largest producer of potatoes in North America. I don’t know if that’s true; I always thought it was Idaho. What I do know is that they are one of the biggest exporters of mussels along with New Zealand. As we rode along the coast we passed forests of pine and some hardwoods especially birch trees. Many looked dead and Cheryl told us that a few years ago PEI was severely damaged by Hurricane Fiona. Many trees were lost and lots of homes were damaged or destroyed.
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| A little fishing harbor we passed on our ride through the countryside |
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| The red cliffs of Prince Edward Island |
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| The rolling terrain with lots of varying shades of green |
From the north shore we drove to the small community of Cavendish which is the largest seasonal resort area on the island and also the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery. In fact, despite the fact that she died in Ontario her remains were returned to PEI where she was born and grew up and she’s buried in a cemetery near the house she lived in. Lucy was actually quite a tragic figure I think. Her mother died when she was very young, she didn’t get along with her stepmother, and she had an unrequited love. She married a Presbyterian minister with whom she evidently didn’t have the best of relationships. In her writings she idealized parts of her life probably as a means to escape the reality of her real circumstances as she saw them. She died at the age of 67, officially from a coronary thrombosis, but a granddaughter in 2008 revealed that Lucy had left a note decrying her life leading the granddaughter to believe she took a drug overdose and died of that instead.
In Cavendish we stopped at the Green Gables National Historic Site which is owned and operated by the Canadian government. The grounds include a house that has been refurbished to look like what is depicted in Montgomery’s novels, gardens and a small barn with some old farm implements. The gardens are quite lovely and the house is a white-shingled building with only green trim. The interior is furnished as it is described in her books.
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| This contraption is a turnip pulper and seeder |
After our visit to the house and garden we went for a lovely lobster lunch at a nearby what used to be a farm producing butter. We each had a whole lobster, which we had to work to open (but we were given all the right implements). We were entertained by a very exuberant Islander who played a keyboard and sang local folk songs.
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| Looks good, doesn't it? |
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| Our entertainer while we ate |
After the lobster we had a yummy raspberry and whipped cream pie. To work off some of our lunch we had time to walk in the lovely garden called the Garden of Hope along the banks of the Clyde River. It was a beautiful, peaceful and pastoral place. Then it was time to board our bus and return to Charlottetown and our ship. It was a really enjoyable and informative tour.
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| Scenes from the Gardens of Hope |
Now what have I been doing on these two sea days? Mainly, as I entitled this post, we girls have just been having fun. There are a group of us who close down the Club every night around midnight (confession – sometimes we stay even later). We sit in a semi-circle in front of the bandstand and essentially we have our own private and individualized concert because we make requests and the band and trio very kindly play them for us. We dance a little, laugh a lot and have a really fun time.
Today we had lunch together in the restaurant, which is only open for lunch on sea days. We were joined by two of the loveliest officers, Jennifer and Mara, and by the two great singers from the Trio and Band, Melody and Rylin. I had arranged for a special menu a few days ago with the restaurant staff and Chester, my favorite Bar Manager in the world, brought us my favorite after dinner drink which is a dessert all by itself. Most of us have sailed together in the past and we all just like having a good time. Things like this are why I love to cruise. The friendships we make are as they say “priceless.”
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| The Girls at Lunch |
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| From the other end of the table |
So there is how I spent the last three days. I haven’t watched TV, read the news, or thought much at all about anything happening outside my little world here on the Sojourn and it’s absolutely wonderful. I will be sorry when the next five days have flown by, but there’s always another cruise waiting in the wings. Ciao for now.
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