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.

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

June 12, Part 2 - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

I have arrived safe and sound in PEI and settled in my room. This hotel is a little more, rustic, shall we say, than the previous two (and the lighting leaves a bit to be desired). However, it more than makes up for it with amenities the others did not. It comes with a microwave and a fridge that is a lot larger than the mini fridge in most hotels. Also the free (hot, as one of the managers pointed out) continental breakfast hours are more generous - they run until 10 AM!

When I rearranged the days of my trip, they had to change my smoking room to a non-smoking, but it was first floor with a patio so I could go outside. No big deal (they have no elevators here, and were upfront there was not anyone who could help me with my luggage). When I arrived, I asked if by chance a smoking room had opened up on the first floor. Why yes, it had! Not only that, it was a little less expensive, and the manager gave me the CAA (AAA) discount - I saved about $84 on the hotel room! Big time score!!!

The lobby was really nice, too, and the managers wore very crisp uniforms. And were, of course, very cheerful :) About 1/2 hour after I checked into my room and began to unload my car, the manager actually called my room to see if everything was satisfactory and there was anything I needed. Now that is service! She even thanked me for answering the phone before she hung up. How often does that happen??

The trip here was uneventful, and being Sunday there was no construction. I was right on schedule. I think the taxes here must be less than they were in Nova Scotia; it cost $10 CAD less to fill my gas tank from 1/4 to full when I stopped. That is a good thing.

I tried to take a few pix out the window as I was driving. Probably not the safest thing to do at 90 and 110 Kmph (55 and 65 Mph), and therefore a lot of them did not come out. Plus the day was rainy, and quite foggy in the distance. A few did, though. There was a cool field of windmills as I was leaving Nova Scotia, and they came out sort of OK (you will need to click on the pic to make it bigger).

 Here is a picture going across the 8 mile bridge onto PEI. It is quite something! You cannot see much out the side because of the concrete barriers, but it is quite a marvel. (The $46 CAD toll, by the way, is only when you leave PEI, not both ways.)

I would like to explore the eastern shore of PEI tomorrow - visit Prim lighthouse, the Murray Harbor area, etc. I will need to buy a heavier sweatshirt. Most of the tops I packed are for warmer weather, which is what they normally have here at this time of year. Today topped out at 56, as will tomorow. Tuesday it drops to 53, and Wednesday to 50. With off and on rain.

Not so great weather, but everything else is. I am glad I chose to drive here directly rather than take the Cabot Trail Loop. That would have been a 9-hour drive, and my back is feeling pretty good right now. Besides, with the weather today I do not think I would have been able to see all that much along the Loop. It would have been a lot rainier along the coastline, and heavier fog.

I also want to spend a day here in Charlottetown exploring the city and perusing and moseying about :) It is the capital of PEI, after all! I also want to do a little research as to why the soil here (again, lots of farms) and rocks are red. This cannot be due to shrimp!