Prince Edward Island - III

On the way to Charlottetown yesterday, we drove by the Confederation Bridge, which connects Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick. It is quite a marvel to see, but I was glad not to drive over it!


Charlottetown is a delightful place, small, picturesque. We walked through the streets, browsing in some of the shops, admiring the flowers. We went into St. Dunstan's Basilica, a large and beautiful Catholic church. Our friend and guide, a native of PEI, pointed out the Confederation Building and other historic sites.


There was a shellfish festival going on, and we considered going into the large tent set up near the harbor. We stopped by, but there was loud music playing, we weren't sure what foods were available for lunch, and there was an admission fee. By then it had begun to rain and the wind kicked up. We decided to have lunch instead at a little restaurant called Flex Mussels. After some more browsing we returned to Summerside.

A large group of us went out for dinner. The conference was formally over, but traditionally, this group enjoys a final evening together. We returned to the Shipwright where a few of us had eaten lunch on Friday.
There were kettles of mussels and raw oysters for appetizers, fresh oat bread and bottles of wine. The special was grilled salmon with herbs, a delicious vegetable medley and roasted potatoes. Larry had scallops. Others had halibut. There were jokes and laughter and reminiscing. It has become a tradition to finish off the evening with toasts and port. It was 11:00 before we left to return to Summerside.

This morning we checked out at 6:15 and returned to the airport at Charlottetown. We had kind of a crazy flight out of PEI. It's a small airport, so checking in and passing through security was no problem. In the gate area, we waited and waited, then the captain came into the waiting area and said that there wasn't enough fuel on the plane to get to Detroit, and more fuel couldn't be added until a mechanic got there at noon. (We were to leave at 8:30). The alternative was to make a stop in Bangor Maine for fuel. After a bit more waiting, he said that was the plan, but we had TOO MUCH fuel to land safely in Bangor, so we would be sitting at the end of the runway to burn off some excess fuel before take off. That took another 20 minutes so we were about an hour and twenty minutes late leaving, plus the extra time fueling in Bangor. We were thankful our schedule had included a three hour layover . . . with the time it took to get through immigration and customs and security, we had about ten minutes before we boarded! Did you ever hear of such a crazy thing? It's not like they've never done that flight before!! But the flights were smooth and uneventful, and we are grateful to be home.

Prince Edward Island - II

Saturday morning . . . hard to keep track of the days here. Today is the meat of the CE so the guys will be in sessions until 4:00. These guys put in some long days, no different from home, I guess. Breakfast is 6:45-7:30 and the sessions soon after.

Friday was absolutely gorgeous here, weatherwise.  It was sunny and warm, "severe clear" Larry would say. (I forgot to mention that Thursday was mostly sunny but very breezy, a continuation of the strong winds that nearly blew us away upon our arrival). I hung out in the room for a couple of hours, reading and writing email. There is a harbor front shopping area across the street, so several of us walked over and browsed.
 
I didn't buy anything but lunch . . . some of the shops have closed already and most will be closing for the season this weekend or next.

We drove several miles out into the countryside for lunch, a place called Shipwright. It is located in what must have been a farmhouse, surrounded by lovely lawn and flower gardens, and then meadows and pine tree woodlands. The chef is a young man, or seemed young to me, his wife an Anglican minister. There were four of us, one of my American friends and two Canadians, one from Calgary, the other from right here on PEI. She is the one who knows of all these charming places to visit and to eat.  
Since the associations have been having joint sessions for several years, we've all met before. This was the first time I'd spent extended time with them in a small group. Lunch was great, although we missed the Thai mussels by one order. However, the Canadians asked the server if there were any leftovers or if one accidently fell off a plate, could they have it? And the chef actually prepared about half an order from what was left over, so the mussel lovers were delighted! The chef bakes the most mouthwatering breads, yesterday it was oat bread. I had half a turkey sandwich on oat, with a cup of corn chowder. The soup de yesterday was a tomato pesto of some sort which two of the women had, and the other had their seafood chowder. We sat around the table until 3:00, a most meaningful time talking about our different but similar experiences as spouses of professionals, what it has meant in terms of careers and family, ways we have learned to take care of ourselves. Some of the most memorable times for me are these, purely spontaneous, you can't plan for them, they just happen.

We then drove through the countryside for awhile, stopping at a couple small pottery shops and a tea and preserves boutique. I forgot to mention in yesterday's account that we had stopped at a local ice cream parlor (actually there are about six of them across the island), called Cows. They have delicious flavors of hand dipped ice cream . . . but also gift shops with clothing and novelties. Some of the "cows" designs are quite creative . . . but I left them there.

We got back to the inn at about 5:15, just in time to freshen up and walk a short distance up the harbor to the Silver Fox Yacht and Curling Club, where the lobster feast was prepared for us. What a great time we had. The lobster was delectable. Our PEI friends were sitting across the table and gave two of us amateurs a step by step lesson in how to best crack open and eat them.
There was a bright red strip down through the tail of mine, which our local expert said was like roe. I gave it to Larry. The beer was plentiful, the food pleasurable, the company laughter filled. The Canadians know how to enjoy themselves!
After dinner, there was a band which played a wide variety of music, from the toe tapping Celtic and local ballads, to Elvis, John Denver, and the Tennessee Waltz. A couple of the tables were pushed back and the dancing started.  

Our PEI friend loves to dance and she and her husband did a great job pulling some of us more reluctant ones onto the floor at various times . . . I believe they succeeded in getting everyone in our party out at least once. Haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

We walked back to the inn at about 11:00. There was a hospitality suite in the Parlor Room, so we stopped in there for another half hour before calling it a night.

An observation regarding our accommodations: Recycling seems to be well established here. The soda machines dispense soda in glass bottles. All the rooms have three baskets, one labelled recycling, one labelled compost and one labelled trash . . . and each has it's list of the contents to be included. The rooms also invite guests to reuse linens.

Prince Edward Island

We flew to Charlottetown on Wednesday via NorthWest Airlink (50 passenger planes) Harrisburg to Detroit to Charlottetown. We will return on Sunday by the same route. We feel quite fortunate to be 20 minutes from the Harrisburg airport and to be able to connect to wherever we've wanted to fly. It costs a bit more, usually, but the convenience, especially with the new security measures, is hard to beat. ("Why would you go anywhere else?" asks Larry.) We walked into the airport around 11:00 a.m. There was no one ahead of us at the NW counter. We checked in within 5 minutes and headed to security where there were about 5 people ahead of us. We were at our gate within 15-20 minutes of walking through the doors. The flights were uneventful. We did have a three hour layover in Detroit. We used the time to walk over to the main concourse and exchange some currency, then went to the Irish Pub for a beer and a sandwich. (It was 3:00 but we'd not had much to eat yet and we knew we'd be in the air over dinner time.) The weather at Charlottetown Wednesday evening was 65 degrees, partly cloudy, but with quite gusty winds, so the planed bounced around a little during landing, but nothing real serious. Charlottetown airport is also quite small. The customs people were friendly, even a jolly lot. They asked the requisite questions, but were friendly and casual.

We had arranged for a taxi to transport us to the convention sight at Summerside, a 45 minute drive to the west. It was 9:00 p.m. here (an hour later than EST) and dark, so we weren't able to see the countryside. Our cab driver was a local and chatted away most of the trip. He seemed like a stereotypical maritime guy, weathered, curly gray hair with a cap perched on his head. He said he grew up on a farm with reigistered Holsteins. Potatoes are a big crop here and he told us that we will see brown fields. In preparing for harvest the potato fields are burned so the potatoes mature properly. This, I understand, is because of the short growing season which doesn't allow the potatoes to die down on their own, as they do in Pennsylvania.

We checked into our hotel, The Loyalist. Described as a country inn, it really does have that flavor, comfortable, friendly folks, lots
of flowers. Yesterday (Thursday) we joined a few friends from USA also here and did a bit of touring. This area is beautiful. There is a tranquility about the area that is palpable. There are green fields, we saw lots of potatoes, some soy beans, and lots of pastureland. Lots of pine trees along the roadsides. There are numerous dairies, and in fact, we drove by two farms known in the Holstein world for their good genetics. The fields often extended to the coast, so the cattle, green fields, blue water in the background is breathtaking. Over the last number of years, Canadian embryo association (CETA) and the American counterpart (AETA) have met together and since Larry was on the AETA board for about 5 years, he has learned to know several of the CETA guys quite well. The current CETA president is a friend and lives here on PEI, so we have been given some tips for places to eat.  
Yesterday we headed to the northern coast to a place called The Dunes. It is a gallery, pottery studio, gift shop and restaurant. We ate lunch there and the food was so good and so beautifully displayed that I took pictures of our plates!  
I had the soup of the day, sweet potato soup. Larry had mussels to die for.  
I also ended up buying some lovely sterling silver earrings and some pottery. We were able to have it shipped. Here's an interesting tidbit--local taxes there are 16+%. We could have it shipped for 20% and no taxes . . . so that seemed like a pretty good option. 


We drove back along the northern coast, where, by the way, there is a lot of erosion going on . . . has been for years. Our friends own some property along there and are losing ground annually. The soil here is red, and in fact, one of the local souvenirs are "dirt shirts", white t-shirts that have been stained a rusty red using PEI soil. We stopped briefly at Cavendish, Green Gables fame, but didn't have time to tour the site. We bought a set of the books.

Last night there was a President's Reception at a seaside restaurant. Our gang wasn't impressed with the fare and wanted some "real" food, so, again at the suggestion of our hosts, we headed a few miles west to Kensington, to the Home Place for another wonderful meal. The raw oysters were magnificent, I was told. I had a delicious seafood chowder. Driving along the water, we saw a lot of lines of bouys where something is being farmed or harvested, most likely oysters, we were told.

We all had tickets for a local theater production called "French Toast". It was comedy, music and dance of the Acadian heritage. I knew nothing of this history, but it is fascinating. Canada has it's own stories of deportation and struggle.