Everywhere you go here in PEI there is magnificent views, Many trails to hike, which we loved and Tim managed to 4 wheel drive some of the trails. We walked through the 'Haunted Woods' which is the well known woods in the Anne of Green Gables story, where Anne and Diana walked through after Anne sprained her ankle and then fainted. We visited the original homestead of L.M. Montgomery and met her Grand daughter tending the veggie patch. There was a book store there held in the old school house where Anne tended school and taught. It really is amazing to see all the things that inspired her to write this amazing story and many others. Check out the blog that follows for more pictures.
Green Gables is as much a picturesque place as you would imagine. This house is a little smaller than the one that was used for the movie, but they did well to replicate the movie house as much like the real one as they could. The gardens are kept immaculately and the house is set overlooking the golf course and the haunted woods. Just behind the house is Lovers Lane that Anne and Gilbert strolled down many a time. On the left side of the house is the barn where Matthew would often work in. This Green Gables house was actually owned by L.M Montgomery's Aunt and Uncle and cousins and Montgomery wrote the story based on her visits to this house, she would walk from her house which was about 2 miles away through the hunted woods with her little notebook, where she would write sentences that came to her and then built a story around it.
Anne of Green Gables was actually not a new concept here in Cavendish before it was written, as Montgomery had heard that a couple in her church community had sent for an orphan boy to help tend the farm and by mistake they got a girl and decided to keep her. We later found out that there was a whole operation where they brought orphan children to Canada and either kept them in homes or had them fostered out. It's quite a sad story.
After the Gables we went to the Avonlea village, where we bumped into Ms. Rachel Lynde and a few other characters from the story in a little village that is made to replicate the anne story. They had a whole room full of old clothes and props and of course these amazing fur coats and hats to match and you could try on anything you wanted and pose and take your own photos! It beats spending a wad of cash posing in the Sovereign Hill studios.
We went to the beach to take Roxy for a swim, it is a bit of a trek to get there without a car but one that is worth the walk as you go through this rainforest and then on the other side you have the ocean. It is quite magical. We arrived at the red cliff face beach only to find that the end of the board walk, where you go to get down the beach, had about 16 steps, so unfortunately Tim could not get down on the beach. I took Roxy briefly down there for a swim, as soon as Roxy could smell the sea she was tugging Tim along in the chair, itching to get to the water for a dip. We got down there and had to find an area that was not so rocky, I let Roxy off the lead and off she bounded into the ocean. Within two seconds she was right back standing next to me. I couldn't understand it as usually I can't get Roxy out of the water for a good two hours. I walked to dangle my feet in and just about jumped a mile...FREEZING! That water was brain freeze temperature. Roxy tried a couple of times to go in but she just couldn't hack it, so we went for a little walk and spotted some shells and crabs for Rox to play with. A few days later after the weather had been hot, we went back to the beach and this time Roxy bounded into the water and I think was trying to beat Thorpe's record. She was one happy dog after her swim!
PEI is very famous for it's golf courses, there are many of them and each one is just so beautiful and well kept with amazing scenery to add. Of course the Green Gables golf course is ranked the best in all of PEI. I took many a photo of the different courses as per Timothy's instruction. There are two things I am always told I must photograph, tractors and golf greens, so enjoy the many photos of them on the following blog.
PEI is an eclectic little place, filled with many adventures to choose from. We were situated in a perfect place in our little cottage as we were right in the middle of Cavendish road which is the main stretch and on our right was all the L.M. Montgomery and Anne stuff and on our left was a bunch of amusement parks and a boardwalk area filled with shops, restaurants and other fun games. In front of us were fields and fields of potato crops and behind them was the beach.
We mainly spent our time walking the trails, going to the beach, sun baking, doing the tourist stuff and in general relaxing. On our last night we decided we would go into a town called Summerside to see the musical 'Anne and Gilbert'. This ended up being a very funny night as we called a taxi to come pick us up and our Taxi driver, Chuck, was a retired Baptist minister from Nova Scotia, who spends winters preaching near Daytona Beach and summers in PEI. He took us to Summerside and decided that he wanted to join us for dinner before the show so he took us to a little restaurant (a RSL style place) and ordered an appetizer that he had just discovered and desperately wanted us to try it. Chuck described this appetizer as a new delicacy that had just come out called "bruschetta". Tim and I did so well at keeping the laughter and smiles hidden as we did not want to disappoint the minister's latest discovery of delicacy. We had a nice evening with Chuck and each taxi driver we had from this particular company took us on a tour around the place, free of charge, so we got to see a lot of this part of the island.
Now much to our surprise, PEI was much bigger than expected, we did not realize that a car would be needed to travel most distances. There is an amazing wheelchair accessible taxi company called 'Pat and the Elephant' which was named so because 35 years ago, a disabled lady, Pat, was the first female to buy a car/van in the area and had it modified for her needs. She took it home to show her mother who was quite elderly and had affected vision herself, and as she looked out the window she thought there was an elephant coming up the driveway. Since that day the wheelchair accessible van and the company that grew later have been called 'Pat and the Elephant'. There are only six vehicles operating on the island and are very busy tending to the locals, so as a result we stayed in Cavendish and did not explore too much outside of it, and we walked about 5 km daily if not more. If we could we would love to come back to this island one day in the fall. You can see how beautiful this place is by the photos and to imagine it with all the trees being a rainbow of colours would be a photographers dream!
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