The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round (but not the A/C)

Last night we drove to Summerside on the other side of the island where we had dinner at the Brothers 2 Pub and then went to the College of Piping to see the show, Highland Storm.  The venue was a covered outdoor amphitheater behind the college.  There were 2 one hour Acts with an intermission between.  It was a fantastic show of piping, drumming, fiddling, dancing, and singing of Celtic (mostly Scottish) music.  About half of our group went to see it and everyone that I spoke with enjoyed it immensely.  If you ever come to PEI you really should see it.

We were ready for the tour bus to pick us up this morning at 8:15AM, only to learn that the time had been changed to 8:45AM.  I could have slept another half hour!  Our first stop was the PEI National Park, 13 kilometers of coastline on the northern side of the island.  There is a huge problem with erosion on the northern coastline due to large sheets of ice and high winds in the winter that chip away at the cliffs and beaches.  They are losing one foot a year!  If they don’t do something soon, there won’t be much left of the island in a few thousand years.

PEI has three counties - King, Queen, and Prince Counties.  There are about 30 golf courses on this island.  These golf courses are fairly well known among the professional golfers (so I was told) and the island is the number one golfing destination in all of Canada.  The last time I played golf was years ago, but I will never forget the hole-in-one that I made on the little Dutch windmill hole.

From the National Park we went to the “House of Green Gables,” which was the house made famous by the book, “Ann of Green Gables”.   It was a nice old house furnished in the style of the period but I’m not really into book so didn’t look around too much.  I also skipped the gift shop.  I don’t think I would wear an “Ann of Green Gables” T-shirt anyway.  I have seen the book before if that counts for anything.  I recall seeing a picture, perhaps on the book cover, of a house sporting two or three gables on the front when in actuality; the original house has only one.  Maybe the book should have been named “Ann of Green Gable” (singular).

The next stop on the tour was the waterfront and harbor.  The most interesting thing I saw there was an osprey nest.  You may remember when we were in Labrador I mentioned the utility pole that was “given” to the ospreys that nested there each year.  Well, there was a very similar situation at the harbor.   There was a utility pole, without wires, on the top of which was not only an osprey nest but a young osprey as well.  While we were there the mother flew in, regurgitated some fish for junior gave us all the evil eye, and left to go fishing again.  I was snapping pictures the whole time.  I have included a couple of the photos below. 

A couple of gift shops later we stopped for lunch at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company (www.preservecompany.com) on the Clyde River in New Glasgow.  Bruce, the owner, is of Scottish lineage and welcomed us dressed in a kilt.  His company makes and sells jams, jellies, preserves, teas, and teaware.  Their specialty is making jellies, marmalades, and preserves with cabernet sauvignon, Chivas Regal, Amaretto, and Champagne.  They also have an excellent restaurant.  I had a potato pie for lunch.

After lunch we went to the gallery of a local artisan.  I went in the front door and right out the back door to the garden.  I enjoy taking photos of flowers and there were some excellent specimens in the garden.  I stayed there taking photos until it was time to get back on the bus.  I have no idea what was in the gallery (aka gift shop).

The tour bus was comfortable enough during the morning, but after lunch it was stuffy and hot.  It was relatively cool at the front of the bus, buy it got progressively warmer towards the back of the bus.  Carol Ann and I were somewhere around the middle and it was very uncomfortable.  We seem to always get a bus with inadequate air conditioning.  Several people complained about it and requested that either the air conditioning be repaired or another bus arranged for tomorrow’s tour.  We were assured that we would have another bus.  If not, I believe that a few of us will refuse to go on the tour.

We were back at the RV park before 3:00PM and at 6:00PM a large group of us were sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather, along with “beverages of choice” and celebrating Mary Kathleen’s birthday.