*END* of East trip, Aug/Sep 2016

Homeward bound today, we left our Lancaster ON camp at 7:10 for a Denny’s breakfast to start the nice sunny day. Breakfast was good, although we made the mistake of having coffee with it. The coffee wasn’t as good as ours, and it was $2.85 per cup! Don’t do that again.

It was up to 20C by 9am. We exited from Hwy 401 at exit 440 on Hwy 35/115 and over to Orillia via Hwy 12. This is a pleasant drive, and bypasses all of the “Metro Toronto” area. Up to 28.5C at noon.

We stopped at the Cabella’s store in Barrie, as I had seen an ad while in PEI for some hiking shoes on sale that sounded good (they are). We also found a basic fire ring for our outdoor firepit.

Along the way home we stopped at an A&W for takeout burgers, and reached home about 5:10 pm, vowing to NEVER go through Quebec again! (until next time, likely). 

Today's route:

We were quite comfortable overnight, and as an added bonus, the washrooms in the nearby Visitors Center were open when we checked them in the lovely early morning.

Our lovely overnite camp spot

The bridge from PEI to New Brunswick

At 6:50 am we were crossing the bridge back to New Bunswick, $46 toll. The toll is only paid when leaving PEI.

We were heading for an overnight in Les Jardins park, our traditional stopover park, near the New Brunswick / Quebec border. Not to be this time – when we got there, Les Jardins was closing for the season, not even allowing primitive camping! We had stayed there a number of times in the fall, so it never occurred to us this would happen. We were really thrown for a loop.

We decided to find a stop in Quebec along Hwy 132, but it was so busy on this Labour Day Monday we decided we could make it to Ontario in decent time, so just got back on the highway and headed southwest.

All was going well until we started to get within range of Montreal, when we encountered a massive traffic slowdown. Labour Day traffic we assumed, but as we finally exited, before reaching hwy 30, we could see it was all due to an accident at an overpass.

After navigating through urban areas east of Montreal, we did finally get back on to #30 southbound, and got to Glengarry Park in Lancaster after dark, about 9:30 pm. It was a very long and tiring day, partly our own fault of course for skipping through Quebec.

Today's route:

...and even more Charlottetown touring, and dinner at Kurt's

A lazy start to a lovely day. About 11 Pat dropped the 3 of us in downtown C’town on his way in to work for a bit. It was a really nice day for a browse at the market, set up along the streets in the core.

We 3 had a good walk, then met up with Pat at Peakes Quay for lunch:

We all walked around the marina some more. Cath and I each got a pair of Crocs at a season-end sale, and watched the Harbour Hippo tour boat haul itself out of the water.

Then we headed home for a relaxing couple of hours before heading out to Kurt’s house for a corn boil.

This is an annual event for Kurt, he invites some of his neighbors etc, and we were lucky enough to be here for it this year. An added surprise attraction was a birthday cake for Gord.

We enjoyed seeing a heron in the shallows in front of Kurt’s place:

We headed out about 7:15 to an overnight boondock in Borden, with a great view of the bridge to New Brunswick.

More touring, and a sail around Charlottetown Harbour

Another lovely day. Nan and Cath went for a long walk to their library and Stratford Market. They were able to take mostly paths and avoid the busy roads.

After lunch the 4 of us went out to nearby Tea Hill, where Pat flew his drone for a bit:

Then back home for afternoon Tea again.

In late afternoon we went in to the main Charlottetown marina for a sail around the harbour on Kurt’s Saga 36 ft sailboat. Kurt is Pat’s brother, does charters on his boat for the summer crowds, and traditionally treats us to a sail when we visit. Just 6 of us on today’s cruise.

Unlike some sails we’ve had there, it was quite breezy today. No problem for Kurt, but kinda exciting for some of us landlubbers. 
Cath even got to steer, sort of:

As often happens Kurt let me steer the boat, under close supervision of course. Does Kurt look nervous? I don’t think so, but I sure was at times:

After a pretty exciting 2 hr sail, we berthed the boat at the marina, tucked in to the snacks, and had a good visit.

In the evening we “traded” a couple of shows we each like. We watched an episode of one the Martels like, called Plebs. Then we watched an episode of one of our favorites, The Detectorists.

It got down to 6C overnight, cool enough to plug in the electric heater for a while in the morning.

Touring around PEI

Overcast and windy this morning, 15C. We got to play tourist for the day, as Nancy and Pat were both at work.

We left the house about 10:00, heading out North Rustico way. Cath enjoyed a browse at the Woolen Sweater Co. The North Rustico harbour is quite sheltered so was calm, but the open water was really churning. 

We stopped in at the Kensington bakery for a few necessities, then checked out a house I had seen advertised. It seemed like a good fairly modern 2-storey house on the outskirts of Kensington, for $147,900. The location accounted for the low price though, as it was on a busy main highway right near a roundabout.

Another Atlantic Superstore grocery got some business from us, including some more St Mary’s smoked salmon, gotta love that stuff! We made some lunch and ate it in their scenic parking lot this time. It had turned sunny by now, and was up to 16C at 1pm.

Once back home, Nancy took the three of us in their car to pick up Pat from work, then the 4 of us went to Cedar’s Eatery for a Lebanese style meal, very good. Later on at home we watched a movie (?) before heading out to the van for the night.

Here’s some of the local riff-raff at Cedar’s:

A day around Charlottetown PEI

The ladies headed in to Charlottetown today, stopping first at Timothy’s for morning coffee. Fittingly, Nancy’s son Tim works there so had a bit of a visit. Cath and Nancy browsed around several lovely little independent downtown shops, enjoying it while buying little.

Pondering Confederation

Nancy treated the two of them to lunch at Peake’s Wharf, an upstairs restaurant overlooking the main harbour and marina. Good food, good day, 22C and sunny. Meanwhile I was all on my own, so got to browse more interesting places like Princess Auto and the new Canadian Tire. :-) We had afternoon tea on the veranda again when we all got home.

On their way home, Nan and Cath invited 4 lobsters to a surf & turf supper with corn and Caesar salad, so good. The lobsters likely didn't enjoy it as much as we did. Then another evening for Cath and Nan on the veranda visiting. It poured rain overnight again.