August 21st: O Canada!

August 21st started out BRIGHT and EARLY with a drive out to Summerside and my post at the Canada Games. Tim Horton's coffee, a bagel, and a muffin in hand, I made my way to the Credit Union Place and their VIP room.

The volunteer work itself was fun-- I was able to meet a lot of interesting people from all over PEI and Canada, watch some great basketball (semi finals and medal rounds of both men's and women's), and got a chance to see places in PEI that I wouldn't have visited if not for the games. I'd certainly do it again without second thought!

This day, the 21st, went only up to the bronze medal games... so the VIP room was fairly quiet until evening... then, there were a few times when all three of us pitched in to keep the bar running, the coffee flowing, and the place clean. In general, though, it was a nice, light job and there was plenty of time for me to ask questions ("Uhm, I know the first seven words of your national anthem, but is is always in English and in French?" Answer: "No, only in certain provinces and in national situations like this one. Here on PEI, it's usually only in English.")

I didn't get to meet the other Americans volunteering (I was told that there was a married couple from NY in Accreditation... it may have been just us from US!) but there were more than just me. I also did get a lot of questions about how I was able to take care of the security check (I had to send them a criminal background check from the state of NJ,) and why I signed up (because I'm mildly crazy and like working on my vacations? I'm kidding-- I knew that it was going to be a great experience and it was!)

That night, satisfied that I hadn't eaten toooooooo much.... I made my way to Cows Ice Cream in Cavendish (apparently, named the "Best Ice Cream in the World" about a year(?) ago by an American travel company. They were not wrong!) I happily munched away on a fresh sprinkle cone with a scoop of "Don Cherry"-- creamy, yummy cherry ice cream with chunks of chocolate and bits of maraschino cherry.

I wasn't the only Canada Games Volunteer/participant/spectator in that parlor, either :-P

Carli of Green Gables, August 20th

A picture of pretty PEI (and me:)



Before I continue my story, a little bit of history:

Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908 and quickly became a success. In the 1930s, an American missionary to Japan brought the book with her and gave it to a friend of hers, who was a Japanese translator. This translator translated the book and, after WWII, when the government was looking for western literature to read in the schools, "Akage no Anne" was chosen. Now it's not only required reading in the Japanese schools, but beloved by them... and PEI is a popular tourist spot. Everywhere, everything was written in three languages-- English, French, and Japanese. I really hadn't seen many Japanese at the other sights this day, but then,

Then, I arrived at Green Gables.

Here didn't really have the same weight... sense of place... as the other locations. The house, barn, and paths are the real places-- the property of LMM's cousins that had inspired the fictional locations. But instead of preserving the history of the interior, the rooms were remodeled to match the books, making me feel as if they just Disney-fied the whole place. There was no Maud here... perhaps on the nature walks preserved by Parks Canada. Sadly, though, while walking through "Lovers Lane", as she called it, you could see right into "Green Gables Golf Course" right through the trees. Parks Canada tried, the nature walk filled with plaques pointing out the various flora and fauna, but that doesn't stop you from hearing the golf cart whirr by.

Still, it WAS Green Gables and I had to see it. The Japanese tourists were fun and nice-- some helped me get a picture in front of the house, one actually saw me looking into Anne's room and said "I take picture for you?"-- so, I have a picture in the house, too. One lady was intent on getting a photo of her daughter in EVERY inch of the house, from every angle, and the tiny girl was very patient through it all. All in all, it was a fun experience.



And the brooks around the house were lovely. I love brooks.

Then, I paused in my sightseeing for dinner, a Lobster Supper in St Ann's church basement. This was a five-course seafood extravaganza, starting with a bowlful of chowder, followed by a giant plate of mussels, salad, a 1-lb lobster, and a strawberry-rhubarb crumble. By the end, I had only a few bites of the crumble and only half of the potato and veggies that came with the lobster. But, oh, so good.

Smelling of lobster and with a short amount of time left, I headed back to Cavendish and to the site of LMM's Cavendish home (told you that I really made this a LMM day!). Though all that is left of the site is now a foundation (old, unlived-in homes crumble-- that we know), the family did a very good job of taking what was there and giving us something to visit-- and they paired the entrance with the Green Gables site so that people who might not visit otherwise now may decide to make the short trek over. No house, barely anything to see, and yet this place had one of the greatest senses of the writer than anywhere else. Here was where she, walking up the path, would see the kitchen light shining. Here was the tree that she would look out upon and love while she was writing. Call me strange, but I loved this place. And afterwards, a walk to her gravesite, a little plot in the Cavendish cemetery. Odd.... one reads her journals about her moments of depression, her desire to bring light and joy into the world, and just wonders if she knows how much people love her books and characters.

Anyway... getting away from LMM and onto PEI! All of this running around ended around 6:30, so I headed back to the inn to ask if there was a Ceilidh nearby on the Island that night.

(A Ceilidh-- pronounced "Kay-Lee", is a house party where singing and dancing and storytelling are performed by the hosts and participants. The one that I went to was a more "organized" form, without the dancing and with the musicians acting as storytellers as well.)

A local hall near the inn was holding a celidh that night with Mike Pendergrast and I made my way there early-- people were already filling in a half-hour before!-- finding myself a cozy little spot on a side bench. The music moved between slow ballads and fast, funny tunes, both maritime canadian and irish/scottish traditional. We were encouraged to sing along, clap... the energy was infectious. They even had a break in the middle for a 50/50 raffle and ice cream with strawberry preserves-- all proceeds going to the Women's Institute of Stanley Bridge, who then gives the money to various charities on the island. Then it was back to another hour of stories and singing and overall fun. I left the place almost dancing... and "The Star of the County Down" is still stuck in my head!

Annnnnd, with that, I came back to the inn, decided that I was waay too tired for the bonfire, and went to bed.

August 20th, continued

The Montgomery homestead... this was LMM's paternal grandfather's home, a place that she loved to visit. This home and her uncle's home at Park Corner (across the way), out of all of the sites on the island, still retain that sense of what they were back then. Looking from the front porch of Montgomery Manor, I can see how she could be so inspired to write of the world before her. Again, the hills rolled out before me down from the pulpit stone in the front yard towards a pond or lake so blue that it's unreal.

This was an old house that has been lived in and has preserved much of the original furniture and household items (most of that not out of historical significance--- rather, these items we used. The bookshelf from the 1700s, wavy glass windows revealing a set of Encyclopedias from the 1800s (?) and many of her signed books. The old family bible. Magog the china dog, from the 1700s of Gog and Magog fame. The china fruit basket from the real "blue chest". Her grandmother's rosebud tea set that looks just liike my great-grandmother's tea set (except that this one was complete.) And everything could be touched and photographed to your heart's content as the owners didn't mind--- afterall, they had been touched for this long and survived, hadn't they? (well, Magog was behind glass to prevent him meeting Gog's fate!)

The Campbell House at Park Corner-- the house that LMM had called Silver Bush-- was equally nice.

An aside, here-- something that really bothers me, and MUST bother the people here, is that, to get the tourist traffic, places like Silver Bush need to be called things like "The Anne of Green Gables" museum, even though nothing from the house was associated with Anne... except for the "Lake of Shining Waters" across from the house. Anne is only one book, while LMM peppered so many of her novels with true stories from her family history and her own history.

But, back to Silver Bush. Right at the entrance, you can see the infamous Blue Chest of Eliza Montgomery (renamed Rachel Ward in "The Story Girl")-- it's so much bigger than I had imagined and, upsstairs you can see the bulk of the contents that hadn't been returned to family. Her wedding dress and linens, beautiful crochet and lace work... all condemned to never see use. They also have a chest with crochet and lace by LMM and her family. I loved seeing work that looks so very much like those that my grandmothers still make.

The room where she was married was in that house-- people still get married there, particularly Japanese couples who are fans of Anne.

And then, with some time left on my clock before my dinner reservation, it was off to Green Gables...

August 20th-- LMM Day for Carli

First things first, just a up-to-date Carli update... I'm rosy cheeked from the sun, tired from sightseeing and the Canada Games, and full of foods I -shouldn't- be eating. So, obviously, I'm well. I've found CBC radio (you all knew I would!) and am happily listening to the CBC inbetween monitoring the course of the hurricane. I DO have a contingency plan for leaving the island on the west side via the Confederation Bridge on Sunday if he does decide to visit this island. And, as I drove back to the hotel tonight, I noticed that I've started to hear a slight Islander twang in my accent-- not too big a surprise, it was bound to happen... I'm an accent chameleon.

Anyway, Thursday:

I was up late in the morning and took a long shower in the tiniest bathtub I have ever seen, with the lowest shower head-- at about my nose at the highest point. I threw on my comfy green dress and sandals and headed down for french toast with strawberry preserves, and then I started my journeying.

First to Summerside, to pick up my volunteer uniform at the Credit Union Centre. Into the car I went, turned on my GPS, and I was on my way. I had seen very little in the dark the night before, so the beauty of the island hit me full force that morning. Five minutes into my drive, I had to pull over to take a picture. Soon, I learned that this practice, while safe because there were few other drivers on the road, was not conducive to getting anything done. Away went the camera (well, most of the time).

PEI: take the greenest, rollingest hills that you've ever seen. Turn all of the soil around and in those hills red or reddish-pink, add unexpected glimpses or views of water the bluest blue you can imagine, add trees and wildflowers. It really takes my breath away.

I did make it to Summerside, finally, and picked up my red and yellow uniform tops. Then, it was back on the road and off to site #1 of my travels: LM Montgomery's birthplace in New London. In this tiny house on this little province, one of the greatest authors of all time was born. This place houses a large collection of her scrapbooks and it was fun peering into them through the glass display case. The ladies who worked there laughed as I proclaimed my love for the Emily novels along with my assertion that if Anne, in all of her talkative glory, were real, I'd bop her and tell her to quit chattering. Right afterwards, they, too, confessed that their favorite heroines were not Anne, either.

Then, it was off to Park Corner and the Montgomery homestead. The trip out there had a major breath-stealing moment as a I crested a hill and, beyond that hill was a pool of the bluest, bluest water ever. Even moreso than what I described earlier in this post. It was as if someone took a sapphire and just dropped it, into the ground.

(On the way up the road from the Birthplace to the Homestead!)

(Senator Montgomery's Home.. that big rock out front is the "Pulpit Stone" that inspired the one in "The Story Girl")

(Silver Bush-- the Campbell Home)

(THE Blue Chest of "Story Girl" fame... though the real tragic love story belonged to a real person-- Eliza Montgomery and not the fictional Rachel Ward.)

Busy day and exhausted, I must get to sleep!

Last Night and Today (August 19th- 20th)

Uploading images has been taking me longer than I expected (can you say TOO good a camera? My little computer doesn't have the software that I use on my other computer to shrink the images, so I have to go through the web.. hence slower upload speeds.) Images might be a bit sparse until I can either do a speedy upload and post them all in one BIG clump or edit these posts to have the right pictures...

Sooooo.. "Let us start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...":

The flight in was good-- the plane was empty (there were only eight of us), the flight attendant was in a good mood, and we arrived early. The customs agent was incredibly nice and told me quick stories about when he was a Canada games athlete in the last winter games... in the Yukon. And the rental car girl was nice, funny, and had everything ready for me on the spot-- I guess rental traffic was light at that hour. And the car? Brand new, with a new GPS, no cruise control, and a nice cd player that I promptly put to use with an audio book.

It IS a 1:45-2 hour trip, after all. At 10:30 pm. It was either an audiobook or endless amounts of coffee, and the audiobook won.

The drive was uneventful. I loved seeing the Moose crossing signs and "WARNING, MOOSE!"signs all along the roads in New Brunswick, though I sadly (but fortunately) didn't see one antler. And the Confederation bridge was amazing... you drive on and on, almost forgetting that you are on a bridge. If I had less common sense, I would have stopped to take a picture of the bridge at night, but even my craziness has limits.

First impressions of the island when I arrived (beyond: "Ohmigosh, WHERE THE HECK is the GPS taking me???" thanks to its love of unpaved roads and avoiding highways. Only one unpaved road last night, a few today, though):

1. I passed the McCain potato processing plant just as I entered the island and for a while there, the air smelled of french fries... yum

2. It was too dark to have any other impressions, really. The (very!) polite truck drivers and I had our high beams happily lit up for miles.

3. The Inn where I am staying was lit up last night, the front porch shining in the dark. It's a really pretty place and a nice first impression for this weary traveller.

Aand... it's late here and I have to be up early for... Canada Games, so I guess I'm not getting into today, afterall.

Tommorrow is another day, I'll blog then!

Post 1 Night 1

I just created this blog a few minutes ago as a place to journal my trip to PEI, Canada, share pictures, etc.

(Since it's 2:30 in the morning for me, though... I'm going to sleep!) Hopefully, I'll write in daily!