Aug 23, 2024 - The Stanhope Campground has a beautiful red beach across the street from the campground which is great for early morning walks. After a relaxing morning Kev, Gerry and I headed to the gem of PEI...The Green Gables Heritage Site (Gino had a light bulb he needed to change). I read "Anne of Green Gables" in preparation for the trip and was surprised to find that I loved the book. It was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1908. She tried to get it published multiple times, but was continually rejected. It was eventually published once the author was listed as L.M. Montgomery, which helped, since in the early 1900's publishing companies didn't publish many books written by women.
Stanhope Beach
we had it to ourselves this morning
we missed the sunrise, but had a nice walk on the beach
beautiful red sand beach due to the high level of iron oxide in the rocks that formed the sand
Tiny's hiding in the trees
nice morning sun in the RV
Mirabelle the camp dog
Copies of all the translations of Anne of Green Gables. It has been translated into 39 languages as well as Braille
The farmhouse and garden
The "Green Gables" farmhouse was actually owned by the MacNeill family, cousins of Lucy Montgomery. Lucy's house was nearby, so she spent a lot of time here and it was a typical PEI house of the time period and probably similar to the one Lucy was picturing as she was writing "Anne of Green Gables"
a view from the green gables kitchen
maybe inspired Anne's room?
just the way I pictured Anne
the "haunted woods" walk
nice tree chair
lots of hydrangeas everywhere in PEI
on the way back to the campground we found a cute little vegetable stand where we bought some cucumbers and PEI New potatoes.
Later that afternoon at the campground we heard lots of sirens and horns blowing, so we walked out to the shore road and found a weird parade with a bunch of semi trucks, dump trucks and garbage trucks. No one there seemed to know what it was about!
Aug 24, 2024 - Woohoo, today is Kev's birthday and Gene & Gerry's anniversary. We started off the day right, with Kev's favorite...waffles for breakfast. The girls got us a small waffle maker that is the perfect size for the RV and we finally got a chance to try it.
the birthday boy
the beach looks especially red today
someone made an extensive bench out of drift wood
and a cute house made of PEI red rocks
looks like this took some effort
We drove 30 minutes to the largest city in PEI, Charlottetown (the population is 30,000, the whole island has a population of 150,000).
There was a nice walk along the wharf and there was one cruise ship docked there
Confederation Park. Charlottetown was the site of the 1864 conference that brought together delegates from the British North American colonies to discuss forming a confederation. They were afraid that since the Civil War was over the US would set its sights on the land which is now Canada.
Lunch at Brakish, with a beer flight to start with
Our first poutine of the trip and a lobster roll
Lobster trap benches everywhere
St. Dunstan's Basilica in downtown Charlottetown
the original cathedral was completed in 1907
in 1913 it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1919
a few blocks from the wharf was Victoria Row, a pedestrian street with shops and restaurants
St Dunstan's through the trees as we walk back by
I made a peach cobbler in the crock pot for the birthday/anniversary celebration
Happy Birthday Kev!
Aug 25, 2024 - For lunch Kevin decided he was making twice baked PEI New potatoes in the air fryer, along with cucumbers and peaches. It was quite the summery meal. After lunch we headed across the street for an afternoon on the beach. The temp was 76 and the water temp was 71. We were expecting much colder temps for the ocean, but we were told that the water from the St Lawrence gulf comes from inland, so the water is much warmer than expected for being so far north. It also has a shallow shelf basin that helps keep the water temps warm as well.
Yummy lunch
It was a beautiful beach day. And yes that person in the water is Kevin. He loves to get in any body of water we find.
In the evening we walked to the beach for the sunset show.
Our neighbor Marty, told us he was setting up his high powered binoculars if we wanted to see the sunset. It was quite cool.
the blue band next to the water is the shadow of the earth (that's what Marty told us)
Aug 18-20, 2024 - We left Sullivan late Sunday morning, drove 9 hours and stayed in Mansfield, OH in a Cracker Barrel parking lot. Monday morning we got up early and drove for 14 hours! We made it all the way to Augusta Maine where we stayed at a Walmart. Tuesday morning we only had a 4.5 hour drive to the Bay of Fundy National Park where we caught up with Aunt Gerry and Uncle Gene who had started the trip a week and half ago.
On the road again
Still thinking of Bob. This trip will be a mix of both happy and sad.
Route 90 was closed outside of Boston due to an accident and we took a detour through Belchertown. Not sure I'd want to live there.
We drove through a cloud in Maine
Our Canada crossing was uneventful. We were the only ones in line and there weren't any questions about chicken (wish I would have brought some, because now we have to find a grocery store).
Yay! We found the Diullos!
The town of Alma is a 1 mile walk from the campground. This is the view of the harbor from the campground
Holy Whale Brewery (an old church), drinking some Rhonda Reds
Mirabelle didn't know what to think of this moose
The Alma harbor is in the Bay of Fundy so it gets huge swings in the tides. They put the boats on metal lifts to keep them from tipping over when the tide is low and there isn't any water. This was mid tide and you can see the metal lifts under the red boat and the one next to it.
The Alma Beach is big when it's low tide
You can see the tide is even lower now, after we walked up the hill to the campground
Lep and Tiny back together. Site 107 & 108
Aug 21, 2024 - Today we're headed to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. It's 30 minutes from our campground. Low tide is at 8:08 AM and 3 hours on each side of low tide you can walk on the ocean floor, with high tide 6+ hours later. The Bay of Fundy has a tidal range of 52 feet, which is the highest in the world. The average tidal range worldwide is 3.3 ft. This large tidal range occurs because of tidal resonance in the funnel shaped bay.
driving through Alma we can see the boats at low tide, with no water under them at all
The view of Hopewell Rocks before walking down the stairs.
These formations are called sea stacks or flower pots
There were 120 stairs to get to the bottom
Lots of seaweed growing on the rocks and it was quite muddy in places
Mirabelle stayed clean
but not everyone did
selfie time
Gerry and I walked out to this viewpoint of Big Cove on our walk back to the visitors' center
And then we came back after we ate our picnic lunch an hour and a half later, and it was quite different
On the drive back to our campground I saw Anderson Hollow Lighthouse, was a short detour (OK we had to drive a 2.5 mile gravel road, that Kev wasn't thrilled about).
But it was a pretty spot
The lighthouse was in disrepair but it was a nice little side trip
View of the Alma harbor on our evening walk...low tide again
bench with a view of Alma
Aug 22, 2024 - Today we're headed to Prince Edward Island. It's a 3.5 hour drive and we need to stop at Walmart to grab some groceries. We'll be staying at a Stanhope campground in PEI National Park.
Last look at Alma on our morning walk
Leaving Bay of Fundy NP
Welcome to Canada. My favorite Castle cookies are on sale!
Lots of moose crossing signs in New Brunswick
The 8 mile Prince Edward Island Bridge. It costs $52 when we leave PEI
Cute little lighthouse when we got to PEI
Lots of farms on PEI
and really green grass everywhere!
Another lighthouse peaking over the dunes
a little better maintained than the Anderson Hollow Lighthouse
