Prince Edward Island

Ever in the search of cooler weather we continued north.  We crossed into Nova Scotia  and did not find much cool weather this summer as soaring heat waves seem present even in the farthest north corners of the planet.  We took the Confederation Bridge that links Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island.  This 8 mile bridge, the largest over frozen ice,   is far shorter than the bridge I take to go to Tampa  Airport to pick up friends but ours is not over the frozen North Atlantic.  

This little gem of an island was really more a piece of fiction that reality.  All I knew about PEI really came from Anne of Green Gables.  I think that is all that most people know of PEI.  We were headed for PEI National Park.  Three parks along the north coast of the island all seemed proper and haphazardly we selected Cavendish, forgetting its association with the Green Gable world.  The campground was along the north shore of the island supposedly the warmest beaches in Canada.  I never made it into the water past my ankles.  I knew I would eventually be in Vermont and enjoy swimming in warm not salty lake water (nothing more delicious).  

Don't think that it was as beautiful and clear as pictured in the images.  We had escaped Fundy National Park with a day of rain.  We arrived ahead of the rain and enjoyed a day or two of rain before it started pouring.  Fortunately, we took one of our tarps and used it to cover the eating area.  Forget that we were just camping with minimal equipment.  All around us other campers had mosquito pavilions that covered an entire play area and a full size picnic table and cooking area.  We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies even though I did not want any more things to carry.  We could take down camp in less than an hour and move on.  People with fancy equipment spent hours each time arranging their possessions.

From the images below you can see we did not suffer too much.  I had purchased a few begonia plants in New Brunswick which served to decorate our own campground as you can see in the picture with Limo below.

Marti had brought a few more things to make camping tolerable.  I made a little fun of her and her traveling equipment, but I always tried to remember that she was still doing this being over twenty years older than me and that, my friends, is what camping is all about.  We shared a passion for nature and discovering new places and in this part of the world this was the way to do it.

One day I woke up and Marti who is primarily a morning person had bacon and french toast ready for me.  What else can you ask?

The shore where we were was all about wonderful endless dunes.  The only problem was that we were surrounded by Ann of Green Gables World and all manner of other amusements that even included Mounties and it all seemed part of the Canadian equivalent to Orlando where tourist attractions wage war to attract paying customers.  

Part of the National Park this Ann and Aunt Shirley characters talk to visitors viewing the very real landscape of Lucy Maud Montgomery the rest is like a studio  set with numerous gift shops.

When you left the immediate area of Cavendish you discovered a most distinctive landscape filled with working farms, summer cottages, and fishing industry.

One day I escaped to Charlottetown to see the historic provincial capital.  I discovered a thriving town but most importantly I discovered the place where the Canadian  Confederation was first discussed and created.  The building was not really much but what it stood for was really impressive.  Canada is a unique country in that it recognizes its similarities and its differences.  Here is where that thinking started and the meeting room was the first place where French and English Canadians came together to make a new nation. 

On a less nationalistic note, I discovered a cottage I would have loved to call my summer home.

We were always near the water while camping, whether by a lake, a stream or an ocean.  At Prince Edward Island we were tormented by mosquitos and a storm of tropical proportions.  When the storm cleared the ocean crystal clear and the light was magnificent.  The full moon loomed.  No painting or artist could have invented the colors we experienced at the shore of PEI -Cavendish National Park.