P.E.I.: Day Eight

So the plan was to open this entry up with a photo of our new place, the Summer House, and in the foreground be the toy lawnmower that I swiped from the little bastard seven-year old.  But it just didn't happen.  (to be clear, I just didn't get a chance to take the photo today - I swiped that lawnmower like it was nobodies business!)
Today was another day of lovely weather so we headed down to a place called Victoria-By-The Sea, which is a very small town.   It might not even be a town - more a village.  The whole place literally has six streets.  Here is a map below.

It's a mixture of houses and shops (that are also part houses) more or less completely there for tourists - not really functional town type shops.  Oh and (as you can see above and below) a lighthouse!  We had lunch at a great place called The Landmark Cafe and then got some pretty amazing chocolates at Island Chocolates - Emily loved their cinnamon one (had some kick to it) and we're still going through our box.  We assumed that it was a chain, but after a quick google search I believe that there is actually only the one location.  We just may have to make an excuse to get back over that way…. hem….

After that we headed back to our neck of the woods for another lovely beach day. Ephraim loves running in the "rough waves", and silly me decided that we've taken "enough" beach pictures and missed some pretty awesome little moments - my favourite being Ephraim sitting in a large hole in the sand that Emily had dug and declaring it his "beach chair".  Priceless.

The more time I spend on The Island the more I'm fascinated with the idea that this is a REALLY seasonal place.  It could just be that I'm really just seeing the tourist side, but a large chunk of this place shuts down in September and doesn't re-open until about June.  And when the weather turns cold their agriculture and fishing must slow down as well.  I'm very very curious what it's like here during the winter.  Do people just work their ass off in the warmer months and then relax in the colder?  I must find the answers to these questions!  And another piece of useless trivia about P.E.I.  In 1976 they outlawed the use of plastic bottle to help curb littering (which I actually remembered when we were here for our honeymoon back in 2007), but then in 2008 they made them legal again.  This is another thing I'd like to know the reason/answer to.

Okay.  So tomorrow is supposed to rain - but we've got a rain plan!  And it's a fun one!  Stay tuned.  Today was the half-way point of our trip.