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.
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