June 13 - Prince Edward Island

Ladies and gentlemen you are in for a treat today! Most of the roads here thus far have shoulders, and so lend themselves very well to pulling over to take the random picture or two. I have a TON of pix to share from today's trip :) Since I am still scratching my head over why the pix will not align (as in side by side) and the blog will not allow me to move them around much, I will put most of the "random" stopping off the road and at tourist view area spots at the bottom. Today's post will be a long one.

I have surprised myself at how easily I adjusted to Atlantic Time; must be the ocean air and breezes up here! Sis, I have not needed to use the travel alarm I borrowed once!

Got up early again today, had my requisite in-room coffee (which surprisingly is not bad except for the powdered lightener type stuff), got cleaned up, and headed over for breakfast. This hotel may be a little rustic, but breakfast certainly was not! I had scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, a slice of toast, juice and coffee. They also had 3 types of cold cereal available, and an assortment of fresh fruit and yogurt. I wanted the hot breakfast to fuel up for today's road trip.

First destination was East Point. It is PEI's most eastern point on the island, where the Atlantic meets the St. Lawrence Bay. The weather forecast lied. It was chilly, and breezy (I am told there is always a breeze on PEI), and there were a few spotty showers this morning. Then the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day! I was so happy!

The drive was supposed to take about an hour. Between pulling over to play tourist and taking pix, and the construction, it was closer to 2 1/2 hours. Some major road construction going on.... But the scenery is almost otherworldly, and I cannot help myself from gawking. And it was so worth it once I got there! The lighthouse itself did not have much to offer, but there was a small cafe there so I got another coffee and a piece of lemon danish (it was pretty chilly out there!). But gorgeous, absolutely goregous. Took a ton of pictures.

East Point Lighthouse

Ocean at East Point

Ocean at East Point

Ocean at East Point

Ocean at East Point

Then I headed south towards Murray Harbour, which was supposed to be a beautiful place to stay and be. More construction; this time the pavement was being torn up. A 45-minute drive turned into 1 1/2 hours. But the scenery was magnificent. There really was not much to Murray Harbour; I took a few pictures (I think that is a pelican on the boat - he did not look happy to see me!).

Murray Harbour

Murray Harbor

Murray Harbor

I had intended to head over to Point Prim light house from there (remember - the oldest one on PEI), but by that point my car and I had enough of construction and delays, it was getting on in the afternoon, so I opted to head back to Charlottetown.

Figured I would check out at least some of the downtown area today while I was close to the hotel. Without a map (conveniently back in my room), I found it to be quite confusing - much like someone who was unfamiliar with the downtown Boston/Cambridge areas. I did not go in circles, but I did end up in the wrong lane at times unintentionally. Lots of one-way streets. However, unlike Boston, no one honked at me or cut me off. Again: even (most) drivers here are unfailingly polite. It is so refreshing. Especially when you are in the right lane and realize you need to take a left! People actually let you in.

What a concept.

Tons of stop signs everywhere. The overhead traffic lights in Canada are different as well: green is round, yellow is diamond shape, and red is square. Quite sensible.

I will tackle downtown Charlottetown tomorrow! I will take a look at the street maps, etc. (and make sure to bring them with me!) and make a loose plan. Have a somewhat leisurely day.

The weather is not supposed to be great again tomorrow, but one never knows. They were wrong about today, maybe they will be wrong about tomorrow :) It poured like crazy last night, thunder storms rolled through. My back is doing well even after today's drive, so something is working. Part of it is because I was able to pull off to the side of the road in so many spots and get out of the car and move. It is the long stretches for hours at a time that do me in.

I will leave you with some of the random pictures I took today. I hope you enjoy!

Potato Farm

More potato farms

Potato field, overlooking the Atlantic

Random roadside

Atlantic ocean at a tourist overlook

Random roadside picture

Random roadside picture

Random roadside picture