Sun. Sept. 26/2010- Summerside-Alberton-North Cape-West Point-Mont Carmel-Summerside-The North Cape Coastal Drive.

Hi folks…check out our drive today by clicking here.

What a delight it was to peek out the curtains this morning and see gorgeous blue sky back again after the drizzle of yesterday.  We decided, because of the weather, to forego a matinee of the Anne of Green Gables show, and to drive the North Cape Coastal Drive.

We hoped to see the Acadian Museum in Miscouche but when we arrived shortly after leaving the motel, we found it to be closed.

Our first stop was at Green Park Provincial Park,

Green Park site

going anti-clockwise around the drive.  Here was the site of the ship-building museum.  However, it too was closed for the season when we arrived.  Undeterred, and spurred on by a full breakfast, Cynthia and I sidled round the chained gates and walked on into the site, leaving the car parked at the gates.  It proved a worthwhile walk, for it was pleasant strolling along the tree lined drive.  Soon we arrived at the site.  The only remaining original building was the red schoolhouse.

Red School-house

We enjoyed our walk, round in a large circle and back to the car.

Next stop was at Bideford, which brought back memories of my time spent in Devon, England.  We saw the Old Parsonage Museum, which used to be the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery when she was the teacher there at the one-roomed school.

LMM's house...now The Old Parsonage Museum

By the time we reached the quaint little village of Alberton, we were ready for a coffee.  We decided to try the bakery and coffee shop in the main street.  It was packed with locals, so we knew we were in a good place.  Our coffee washed down the cinnamon bun we shared and fortified us for some more driving.

Just a short drive from Alberton, and out to the coast, we stopped at Jacques Cartier Provincial Park, a windswept and very wild, beautiful place.  The gorgeous red sand beach was where, in 1534, the famous French explorer first landed on P.E.I.  He declared it to be “the fairest land ‘tis possible to see”

Beach at Jacques Cartier Provincial Park

With our little car purring away contentedly, we motored on to North Cape.  Both Cynthia and I were interested to see the Wind Energy Institute of Canada and the North Cape Wind Farm.

Entrance to North Cape Wind Research Station

As we approached from the south, the skyline was broken by the sweeping blades of the turbines.

Turbine-Our car at the base.

We decided our appetites needed to be sated first, so we grabbed a sandwich and then began to explore.  The Interpretive Centre provided a wealth of information-from the evolution of wind energy to today’s technology with a glimpse into the future of wind energy-in a series of creative and interesting displays.

The Vestas turbines are immense.  The blades of the props are each longer than the wing of a Boeing Jumbo 747 aircraft.

Turbine blade

The nacell, or housing of the turbine, seated right behind the props are about two thirds the length of a school bus, and about as high.

The nacell of a turbine

Each prop and turbine produces enough energy to power 2000 homes.  We believe the city of Summerside receives all its energy from some such turbines.

Delight of delights, as we crawled out of the North Cape Turbine site in the car, a beautiful red fox appeared in the ditch by the roadside right alongside us.  I don’t know which of us was most surprised, the fox or us, but he was gone before we could get the camera out of my shirt pocket (where it permanently resides since our missed moose incident in Nova Scotia).  Our sighting of the fox gave credence to the information we’d learned of fox farming on the island in bygone days.

By now we were on the homeward descent along the west coast of P.E.I.  motoring through this most beautiful province, sighting the sea from time to time, and buzzing along through farm after farm.  Scenery was idyllic to say the least.

We stopped very briefly in Tignish to see the Catholic church of St. Simon & St.Jude.  It houses a stunning Louis Mitchell Tracker pipe organ, one of only four left in the world.

The pipe organ

While we sat quietly and said some prayers, then gazed around, a door behind us opened and an old man came in.  He’d also come to sit and contemplate.  He was a local, one of the Acadians living in this area.  I waved at him and he waved back, but was obviously puzzled as his wave was tentative. As Cynthia made her way back out to the car, I went to sit with the man for a moment.  He told me he couldn’t place my face. When I introduced myself and told him where we lived and what we were doing in the area, he laughed heartily and said he could now understand why he hadn’t placed my face!  We chatted for a few moments more before we shook hands and said our goodbyes.

Motoring on down the coast road, highway 14,  we zoomed through the tiny community of Skinners Pond, the home of Stompin’ Tom Connors.  All our Canadian friends will know of Tom who is a singer of folk songs in this land.  Stompin’ Tom now has a road named after him in his village.  if we had blinked, we would have missed Skinners Pond.

Next stop was the P.E.I. Potato Museum at O’Leary.

Entrance sign

We had been told it was worth a visit and we weren’t disappointed.  The museum traced the history of the spud from its roots (pardon the pun) in S. America, right through Europe and back to North America.  There were sections on the growth of the vegetable, protection from disease and critters, and on the production of the potato.

Old tractor harvester

It was brilliantly displayed and documented.  Housed here is the world’s largest collection of potato related artifacts.  As the potato plays such a huge role in the economy of P.E.I, we could easily see the importance of such a centre.

Our last stop on the North Cape Tour before returning to Summerside was at the beautiful Acadian Catholic church in Mont Carmel.  This beautiful church is situated on donated land, right on the edge of a headland.

Church at Mont Carmel

From here, as we looked down the Northumberland Strait  we could see the Confederation Bridge, the beautiful new structure over which we’ll be heading tomorrow. We peeked into the church and were made welcome by some locals who were helping to set up the church for a rock concert put on by some of the local lads.  It was super to see the locals, young and old, working together to get things done.

The short, last leg of the trip into Summerside ended at one of the local pubs where we had a bite of dinner before heading back to the motel.   I wrote up this blog and got it off to you, then we settled in to watch one of our favourite programs…Lewis…on Masterpiece Theatre.  What a super, relaxing way to end up a great day. Goodnight and God bless.

Fri. Sept. 24-Souris to Charlottetown

After a quick coffee and muffin at the local Robbins, and a local tank fill we headed from Souris to Basin Head Provincial Park and Beach, 20 minutes north of Souris.

Basin Head Provincial Park Fisheries Museum (Closed for the season)

The Fisheries Museum was closed for the season, so we walked the board-walk to the beach where we saw pink sand and gentle waves.

Pink sand and gentle waves at Basin Head

The morning weather was cloudy but ok.  The old cannery building was also closed so we wandered the beach and looked for shells of different types.  We returned to the car and moved on to East Point lighthouse, which is a 64 feet high octagonal tower looking out over one of the most difficult areas of P.E.I. shoreline to navigate.

The Light at Basin Head

Three tides meet here from the Atlantic, the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence.  It was sunny and warm as we wandered along the headland, but the cliffs there are gradually eroding and the buildings have been moved once already.  We visited the gift shop which was equipped with two computers with internet access.  We then drove around the point and encountered some gigantic wind turbines which dot the landscape from Elmira to East Point.  At Elmira, we visited the Railway Museum which tells the story of the railways on P.E.I.  We found references to Trueman Pate, who is the father of Jack Pate, one of my golfing buddies.  Trueman had been interviewed and photographed in 1988 as part of a project done by the Canadian National Railway pensioners’ record keeping.

Trueman's in the book!

The project, a very well done one, provides and extensive record of the railway history.  The model railway in another building was a delightful bonus.

We drove on down the spectacular coast to Charlottetown, where we spotted a Tim Hortons and had some lunch.  After lunch we tracked down a Super 8 motel on the North Riverside of the city and checked in.  Then it was off to explore Charlottetown.  The downtown historical area is well maintained, attractive with large tubs of sunflowers lining the streets.  We parked and walked to the Province Building

Province House in Charlottetown

Legislative Assembly in the Province Building

which was constructed in 1843-47.  In 1839 a design competition was held and won by an Isaac Smith.  He proposed a three story neo-classical building.  All but one of the contracts for the building went to local contractors.  Sandstone for the exterior walls was brought in from Nova Scotia.

The Charlottetown Conference held here in Sept. 1864 gives Province House its unique place in Canadian history.  delegates from N.S., N.B., and P.E.I., were joined by Canadian government representatives.  For five days the delegates met privately in the Legislative Council Chamber and reached general agreement on union.  Conferences at Quebec (1864) and London (1866) hammered out the details which became law as the British North America Act.  On July 01/1867, the Dominion of Canada was born!  P.E.I. did not become part of Canada until 1873.

We visited St. Paul’s church, next to Province House and the warden of the church gave us the run-down on the superb acoustics of the building.  the church is currently hosting the P.E.I. Jazz Festival, probably because the sound is so good there.

Then it was off to the restaurant ‘Lobster On The Wharf ‘ where I attacked my first lobster but Cynthia stuck to fish and chips.  The feed was great!

Lobster attacker!

To see Martin actually preparing to attack his victim, click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/iFFGInYh4dk?fs=1&hl=en_US

More civilized picture of seafood eaters.

The long threatened rain arrived, so we drove back to the motel and settled in for the night.  Goodnight to you too!

See a map of today’s trip here. Close the window when done to return to the blog.

Thursday, Sept. 23.-Baddeck-Pictou (Caribou Ferry)-Wood island (P.E.I.)-Souris.

The sun was shining on us once again as we left Baddeck following our second night spent at the Baddeck Inn.  It was about 09.30 as we left this lovely village and headed west to Pictou and the ferry to P.E.I.  Traffic was light as we buzzed along.  After 90 minutes of pleasant driving we pulled into Antigonish for a break and a coffee.  Antigonish seemed to be a bustling centre with lots of new development going on New access roads ringed the town and modern buildings were springing up in the centre.  However, we had one thing in mind at this time, and that was to get on to the ferry.  Twenty minutes later we hit the road again and enjoyed the beautiful divided highway which links Antigonish to Pictou, where the ferry left for P.E.I.  Traffic was still light and we arrived at the ferry terminal about 12.30.

Ferry loading for P.E.I.

We’d heard that payment happened on leaving P.E.I. and sure enough, as we rolled up to the kiosk at the ferry terminal, we were told to roll on through to lane 10!  How nice would it be to pay one way to get on and off Vancouver Island?  There were lots of highway trucks waiting to get on to the ferry, but passenger vehicles were few in number.  The ferry was supposed to leave at 13.00 but we’d been told it would be delayed slightly due to windy conditions.  However, we were called to return to vehicles much sooner than expected, and the ship, much smaller than the ones going Nanaimo -Horseshoe Bay, left just after its scheduled time.  The bow to the ship (actually now the stern as we left) came down smoothly as the ship pulled away from its berth, and we sat back to enjoy the 75 minute ride to Wood Island on the P.E.I. side.

We had lunch on the ship and here comes the first minor peeve of the trip.  Never ever complain about the food on B.C. ferries until you have been on this one.  I ordered a cheeseburger combo…no, I”m going no farther with this, save to say it was brutal!  Eventually we left the ship at the wood Island side and followed the coast road up the east coast of the island.

(Now here’s an idea…how about a map of the trip?  Duh!  Come on Martin, help the people see where the places are located.  Click here folks to see the drive for today and then close that map window when you are done to get back to the blog.)

Driving up the coast the weather was gloriously bright.  We enjoyed some beautiful scenery.  We stopped at the coastal town of Montague for a pot of tea and a serving of home-made bread pudding.

Later, we stopped at the Cape Bear lighthouse and Marconi station where the first distress signal from the sinking Titanic was received.

Sign at Cape Bear

The light at Cape Bear

We passed many, many homes like the one in this next picture,

Typical home setting in the maritimes

Every home here regardless of size seems to be set in an acre of grass and it’s all mown.  I think all men here must either fish, farm or cut grass! Then, it was on to Souris, where we are now, actually staying at Rollo Bay which can be seen in the picture below.

Beach at Rollo Bay (Tide just ebbing)

Will write again tomorrow, but due to internet breakdowns in this place we are staying the night, it’s now very late and I need to hit the sack.  Goodnight and God bless.