A few rainy days in Stratford PEI

 

A slow-moving rain system has hovered over Atlantic Canada (mostly PEI and Nova Scotia) for a few days, making this a soggy long weekend. Once again we're grateful to not be camped in a tent. 

Always something to do though, especially when based in a nice dry van with access to a  nice dry house very close by. 

PEI mussels for afternoon tea one day

 

A birthday celebration with a special dessert:

Yes, a candle-laden birthday donut for me

The ladies ventured out to a local bookstore on a not-so-nice day:

The Scottish connection kicks in...

The bookstore "Bookmark"

Looks somewhat similar to a Scottish street

Our hosts treated us to a lovely restaurant meal for our 57th anniversary:

Each meal was different and all delicious

 

A couple of better shots of the wildflowers blooming in the roadside ditch at N&P's place:

Today Cathie and Nancy visited the Dunes Studio. We visit their grounds almost every time we're on PEI. <Dunes Studio link>

Always a great place to tour (free) both the grounds and the store:

 

Today even the ducks needed rubber boots

Across from the Dunes Studio is a more modest outlet shop for various PEI crafts and preserves etc, nice locally-made items:

All wooden pieces, called Parquetry I think

  

Back at home, more rounds in the perennial cribbage game. Overall very even matches, with the odd blowout for either side periodically:

The uniquely-PEI cribbage board

 

No doubt the rain has put a damper on a lot of holiday weekend plans. PEI in general has been very wet and windy, but not hit as hard as Cape Breton in nearby Nova Scotia. 

Walmart would be happy, given the number of shoppers we encountered when visiting Walmart on Sunday afternoon. About the most traffic we've ever seen in Charlottetown, all over the downtown area. 

Tomorrow morning we'll be leaving PEI, heading towards home via New Brunswick and Quebec.  Hoping for a bit better weather, it has looked like the NB coast has not been hit so hard with the rain as PEI and Nova Scotia.

 

A late-breaking video from Cathie's sister Donna in Okanagan Falls BC, from Donna's front doorbell camera:

 

 

 

 

A few days camped in Cavendish National Park

Storm damage in the park trees

 

We've had several pleasant days camped in Cavendish park, on the north shore of Prince Edward Island. The weather cooperated, sunny and cool for the most part. We didn't get swimming, but Cathie did dip her toe into the water at one point. 

We were camped near the main beach, always worth a browse:

Trees are still recovering from being battered by a couple of hurricanes in recent years

A few people braver than us were in the water, off in the distance

The most common type of beach activity

 

Birds were common. Crows and a seagull here.

 

This gull got a crab for lunch

"Go away, it's Mine!"

 

On Thursday it warmed up a bit for some swimmers

Still mostly beachcombers though

 

On Friday our stay at Cavendish ended for now. Maybe a good thing, as rain had set in overnight Thursday and is supposed to continue on and off through the Labour Day weekend. 

On the way back to Stratford to camp in Nancy and Pat's driveway once again, we met them for lunch at the PEI Preserve Company restaurant. 

Artistic stained glass work at PEI Preserves restaurant

Lunch enjoyed by all

 

 

A few days in PEI, visiting Nancy and Pat, and touring

 

Michael Thomas memorial. A renowned PEI runner.

As usual we've had some fun days in PEI. We're parked in the driveway of Nancy and Pat, one of our favourite camping spots. Nancy is Cathie's sister.

These pictures don't do Nancy's yard justice, but here are a couple:

Wildflower plantings in their drainage ditch

A bit of view of Charlottetown harbour from their front porch

Homemade lobster chowder. Lots of lobster...

 

 

Cathie and Nancy enjoying the chowder

 

On Saturday we attended a presentation of the "Come From Away" play in Charlottetown.  A very moving depiction of the townfolks of Gander Newfoundland hosting some 7,000 passengers from several transatlantic airline flights that were grounded due to the events of 9/11 2001. 

The play is performed by one cast, each playing several roles throughout the play.  No pictures were allowed during the play. It was all played on this one set:

On Monday the ladies went for their now-traditional pedicures and lunch out:

 

Tuesday Cathie and I decided to do some Island touring for a few days. No real plans except touring the Canadian Potato Museum in O'leary.  

An interesting tour, some antique equipment, potato history from around the world, and more descriptions of possible potato diseases than we really wanted to know. :))

Lunch was a highlight, potato-based of course: 

I had a chicken/potato soup 

Cathie went for a pulled pork baked potato that we likely could have split

 

It's always interesting to see a world map with pins placed where visitors are from:

Lots of US, Indian and European visitors

Hard to see in this somewhat fuzzy picture, but down near the bottom in the Indian Ocean there are 2 pins in the tiny Prince Edward Islands: 

Administered by South Africa and described as uninhabited except for some research teams and a number of species of penguin, I wonder what visitor placed the pins?

Here is a link to a Wiki article on the islands if you're interested in learning more: <Wiki Link>

 

As an EV (Electric Vehicle) owner I was interested to see a charger with 2 outlets provided by  Chargepoint and the Potato Museum:

Display of charging costs

I only put this picture in because of the charging costs shown. There's a flat connection fee of 25 cents for someone with a Chargepoint account, and 49 cents for a guest charge. From there on though, charging is free, provided by the Museum.  Nice price!

 

Once we left the Museum we decided to head south/east on mostly back roads.

A pretty tidal inlet

That cloud looked ominous but didn't develop

 

We also stopped in to the Island Traditions Store. They do basket weaving here and offer classes in basket weaving. We had stopped here a few years ago and got a couple of basic kits. Something to enjoy with the grandchildren at least. Our efforts didn't compare to the pros though:

 Here's a link if you're interested in more about the store offerings: <Island Traditions>

 

We had no specific plans on where to stay for a couple of days, and decided to see if we could get a campsite in the large campground in Cavendish National Park. We didn't really expect to, as entrance and camping fees for National Parks have been reduced all summer (until Sept 7) and they have been very busy.

However no problem on a weekday in early September. We took a site with electric and water for 3 nights:

A short video of some wave action:

 

More National parks are providing non-camping accommodations these days, sometimes called oTENTiks. The ones we've seen here in Cavendish are different from the mostly-canvas structures we've seen before in other campgrounds. I think these may be called Bunkies:

 

And finally, speaking of potatoes: we shopped for some supplies before our mid-week outing. Thinking of getting some PEI potatoes I checked out the shelves here in a Charlottetown Atlantic Superstore (near the Royalty Crossing mall). In this day and age I couldn't believe it:

Notice the prominent Maple Leaf on the shelf tag, and "Product of Canada". Then the even larger Product of U.S.A. on the bags! There were 2 varieties like this. In the home of Canadian potatoes. From a country that's trying to ban imports from PEI there. 

Pat posted this on a social media page he has, and within a day had tens of thousands of views and hundreds of outraged comments. We'll likely drop in to the store before we leave PEI to see if anything has changed. 

Good News update: the US potatoes were removed within a day or two of the Good News Facebook posts. That is Good News!