Touring and Sailing on PEI

This blog covers 2 days, as I try to get back to publishing blogs in the evening, and only once per day.

First, here's a picture we received this morning of construction progress on our new place. This is a view of the back yards of the 4 units in Block 13:

Tuesday morning Pat and I had another really nice bike ride along the North Shore park, starting near the Cavendish National Park campground, ending at North Rustico. Only about 12 km, but a very scenic ride:

Looking at some Cavendish dunes

 

On the multi-use trail along the North shore

Looking back at Cavendish beach in the distance. Hard to see, but still lots of room on the beach.

 

The hole in the cliff happened recently. More erosion, but scenic for now.

 

More coastal scenery from the bike trail, another "busy" PEI beach

Near North Rustico, the statue is the Rustico Fisherman. The gull on top is just resting.

Later in the day we had a family sail on Pat's brother Kurt's boat. Kurt takes people out for day sails all summer here, on his 36 ft sailboat. The boat is called the Saga, and his business is Saga Sailing Adventures.

We usually just go around Charlotteton Harbour for family sails

I look taller than our nephews for once!

2 of Nancy and Pat's sons and a partner

 

I often get to steer

Captain Kurt and the helmsman. Who's steering this?

The happy family passengers. Tall nephews eh!

Wednesday morning we noticed a cruise ship in the harbour. This is common, but we hadn't seen one for a few days. A closer look revealed there were two of them. Only one at a time can dock, so another berth is under construction:

2 large cruise ships, overlapping

 

A closeup of the outer ship. Quite a paint job on the Aida.

Later Wednesday morning we went on a tour of a country house being restored by the Glenadale Heritage Trust. Lots of info at Glenaladale House web site. Today there were guided tours of the house. Our guide was a local lad, who had a lot of information at his fingertips:

Here he's explaining one of the main stoves

Fox furs, complete with heads

Some beautiful old furniture

Some quilts like our grandmothers made

A huge old family bible

A map in the bible from long ago

Likely not your first thought - it's a porcelain foot bath

 

The large dining room, and the coal-fired stove our guide was explaining in an earlier picture

 

The best view in the house - the 3rd floor bedroom for some of the house help. The wooden boxes and bottles are from rum-running days.

Although it needs a lot of restoration/renovation, the house is amazingly solid. There's barely a creak anywhere in the main house, even on the stairs. 

The house is built on a grand scale. All the rooms are large. Ceilings are 14 ft high on the main floor, 12 ft on the 2nd, and a mere 10 ft high on the undesirable 3rd floor, with a walkup attic above that. Lots of stairs.

Here, Nancy is modelling one of the many knitting projects Cathie has completed on our trip:

Our Cavendish ride: