The Island Experience

                                          Low tide at Summerside

Some more of those lovely rose hips

We arrived in Summerside on Tuesday evening to the happy news that we had been given a nicer room to enable another, longer booking. Our hosts at “Comme chez vous” (another beautiful heritage home) were two interesting men: Wendell, who works as a recreation therapist at a seniors’ home, and André, who teaches at the French language elementary school.

We spent an evening chatting with Wendell, a former nurse, (on the left) who had worked with to Abbott Pharmaceuticals for two summers implementing a project that he had initiated, to use community volunteers to rid their areas of mosquitos and black flies. By the end of the second summer he had over 40 communities on the island involved – and then the government put on the brakes, not allowing any additional projects. At that point, Abbott pulled out. Wendell thought that, had it continued, he would probably have been working with similar community based projects, world-wide, by now. It was a very interesting story.

André was the cook, and made us amazing breakfasts. They left for work before our  breakfast at 8:30, so had a neighbour, Rosemary, come in to put on the finishing touches and serve breakfast. The photos are from their website. I chose their B&B because of the photos of the food, and we were not disappointed. The first morning we had the "Mourning Dove" fruit bowl, with huge blackberries and strawberries, yoghurt and granola, followed by a tasty quiche. The second morning we had poached peaches served on some sort of lemon cake that was thoroughly soaked in the sauce (delicious!), followed by scrambled eggs and a portobello mushroom filled with some kind of jam/relish - again, excellent!

Rosemary was very engaging. She is originally from Innisfail, Alberta, and her husband worked on the Oldman River Dam and the Confederation Bridge. He is now working on a huge project in Kitimat, building a storage facility related to the pipeline.

Summerside was a bit of a surprise – many things were closed for the season, as they are all over the island after Labor Day, when the summer workers go back to school. We drove north to Lennox Island to see the MiqMaq interpretive centre. Their ad in the PEI booklet “overstated” their offerings, but we had a pretty drive. Finding a place to eat after a late afternoon nap was a challenge, as those restaurants that were still open tended to close early. The streets were deserted by 7:00. I cannot imagine what the young people do.

We had a wonderful lobster supper almost alone in a place on the pier. We were the last to be served for the night, and they reduced our dinner price from $29.95 to $18.95 (I think the cook had cleaned the deep fryer and didn’t want to have to make fish and chips!) It worked for us! In an adjacent area, they were rehearsing for a new dinner theatre production, “Titanic”, which opens at the end of the month in that venue. It sounded as though they were still writing and arranging the music, so not as entertaining as it might have been. The dinner menu will be based on actual First, Second and Third class menus on the Titanic. They are supposed to play for 10 days in Summerside and then to on tour to five other cities.

Of course the big excitement was the Elton John concerts scheduled for the 13^th and 14^th. Too bad we’ll be home by then.

Oh- traffic lights that have square red lights, circular green, and triangular yellow – perhaps there are alot of color-blind people on the island?

Although our day was quite pleasant in Summerside, it rained the next morning, and it appeared that it would be well ‘socked in’ for the day, but by 2:00 the sun had appeared and it was a beautiful afternoon. We had driven over to the Cavendish area, but the Green Gables national site, “Avonlea” and other spots did not seem appealing in the rain. We did visit an old Acadian church and  home, and considered returning for an Acadian meal, but the cottage we had rented for two days was too appealing. The first photo shows the old Acadian house and small barn that had been moved on to the property. The little structure in the middle seems to have been a covered well, as it has, on the hidden side, a crank to turn, and a portion of the 'roof' lifts up. Unfortunately we did not see inside the buildings as we were planning to return later . . . and didn't.

Also on the site, in a beautiful old brick building, was the Farmers’ Bank of Rustico, which operated from 1864-1894, a precursor to today’s credit unions. They actually printed their own money, which was accepted in Charlottetown banks. This site also had the oldest Catholic church on the island. We have seen so many gorgeous churches, many quite small, too many to stop for, and to include here.

By the time we headed home, the sun was out and the countryside looked much more inviting - so much so that we decided to stay put once we had checked in to our cottage, enjoying the sunshine on the porch before dinner.

colorful boat houses at New London, next to a very good restaurant

We were surprised at how wooded the landscape is. Many of the lots are long and narrow, with low brush in between, in the old style, and the sides of the roads were bright with many kinds of wildflowers.

We did manage to get lost twice on Thursday, as the narrow roads are marked with very small signs and the intersections are sometimes easy to miss - especially on our way back from Kensington where we had gone to buy coffee and sandwich makings for our day 'at home'. But, as everyone says, everything is close together on the island, and we managed to redirect ourselves and find our way home. 

It was showery today - thus the work on the blog, but time for bed now, after a wonderful meal and concert in our new location at Victoria-by-the-Sea.