June 14 - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Alas the weather people did not lie today; it was rainy and cold (about 48/50 degrees). Rather glad I had decided to head towards downtown again today and do a little shopping. Unfortunately you will not get many pictures as the weather was not conducive to stopping and snapping pix (nor was the traffic). My goal today was to just drive around a bit, poke around and do a bit of shopping, and see what I could see.

Started with breakfast of course (I am getting a bit used to that!). Blueberry bagel, half with cream cheese and half with butter and blueberry jelly. A little fresh fruit, juice and coffee, and I was fueled up for the day!

Downtown Charlottetown is big. Huge! As I mentioned yesterday, lots of one-way streets, tons of stop signs everywhere. Here are a few pix to give you an idea. Aplogies for the quality; the paper on the map reflects the flash of the camera.

Map of downtown Charlottetown

Street map of Charlottetown

Some history on Charlottetown. This small island colony hosted the first meeting to discuss Confederation, which eventually led to the birth of a new nation - Canada. I will not go into Confederation here, although it is very interesting; if you are interested you can google it! PEI's history runs much deeper however. The major rivers were travel routes for the Mi'qmaqs, the original Native people, who followed the seasons.

Around 1760 the land came under British rule and was named in honor of (ta da) Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III. In the 1800s a boom of shipbuilding occurred. Today, Charlottetown is home to the PeI House of Assembly.

Your history lesson for the day :)

Below is a picture of Province House, Canada's second oldest legislative building. I drove along the harbour side; next to it is a pic of what the harbor front looks like in good weather (it was raining pretty steadily at the time I was there today).

Province House

Harbor front in good weather

Did some shopping; found myself a nice fleece sweatshirt. It is a lot warmer than it looks, and I will have to break one of my rules about washing all new clothes before I wear them. It is not a zip-up, but I liked the colors and it has a hood. I also splurged on a new pair of black high-top sneakers. They caught my eye, and I tried them on and fell in love. That was that!

New sneaks. Cool!

New fleece sweatshirt

I did get turned around in a few places - Charlottetown is very confusing to drive. Obviously made it back to the hotel OK and without incident! Planning an early dinner tonight at a local pub-type place just around the corner.

Tomorrow I will head out early (after a hot breakfast!) and take a drive along the west coast of the Island. The quirky bottle houses of Cap-Egmont call! Plus there is a lighthouse there I want to see. Then up to North Cape, which is PeI's most northern part of the island. There is another lighthouse there (of course!).

According to the Canadian Mapquest version, it should take a total of about 3 1/2 hours round trip. I am allowing a few extra hours for seeing the bottle houses and lighthouses, stopping for touristy pictures, and construction :) Here are a few maps that roughly outline my agenda.

Map of Cap-Egmont

Map of West Coast

Weather tomorrow calls for showers off and on (I am hoping it will be like yesterday, with massive breaks of sunshine in between!), and chilly of course; still around 50. But I have my new fleece, so I will be nice and warm :)

Going to get ready for dinner now. I already changed into dry socks when I got back from downtown. Third time I have needed to change into dry socks (and some people make fun of me for the number of socks I pack - this is why!).

PS..... No Dove bars :( Local grocery either does not carry them or was out. Big sigh.