P.E.I.: Day Three

 

There is a saying about The Island that if you don't like the weather just wait for half an hour.  It's true.  Thankfully.  I've never been somewhere where if you look at the fourteen day forecast in the morning it looks nothing like the one in the afternoon.  On Wednesday before we left it was calling for blue skies for the majority of our trip and that estimation has changed several times since we've been here - we're hoping it continues to do so as a few rainy days are expected, but honestly, I don't think that there is a hell of a lot to do on The Island in bad weather.  We spent an hour or so searching the internet for options and came up with a few, but not nearly as many as you'd expect - especially in a place where tourism is key, and you'd want the people to have things to do on rainy days.  I'm telling you, anyone wanting to invest in a potential goldmine, build an indoor play centre in P.E.I.  So far so good, but if the weather turns you'll be sure to hear it from me :)

So this morning was cold and cloudy.  We went to a really nice playground in North Rustico while waiting for Avonlea Village to open at 10am.  Seriously, this playground was awesome.  Below here you'll see a photo of an outdoor gym area that's pretty damn neat.  If you look closely there are no weights, but look to the bottom of the machines.  They are each designed so that you pull/push a percentage of your own body weight.  Pretty damn awesome.  If we go back there I'll get a video demonstration for you to marvel/laugh at. 

After the park we headed to Avonlea Village in Cavindish, just down the road from our cottage.  It goes without saying that the Anne Of Green Gables legacy is something that has done awfully well for The Island.  It's pretty amazing how a hundred year old literary character has put a place on the map, an in such a romantic way.  I think it adds a fairytale charm to the The Island that no where else I've ever been to has.  I could go on and on about this and how it fascinates me, but I won't bore you.  Instead, The Village.  In a world: wonderful.  Seriously, especially for families with children.  It's set up in a way that it's almost like an on-going story and live theatre.  Through-out the day the "characters" do little 'moments' from the books, but then in-between then just walk around and mingle in character, and they do a damn fine and funny job of it.  Again, charming.  The place is open from 10am-5pm and I swear that you could spend the entire time there just immersed in the characters walking around.  It could just be that it's early in the season and there were less people there but I'd say that we actually got to know the characters a bit.  Below you'll see a drawing that one did for Ephraim, 'Charlie Sloan' who became Ephraim's friend over the course of our time there.  Top notch stuff.  AND our pass is good for two consecutive days, so we'll probably head back tomorrow afternoon to catch up on anything we missed.

After that we headed to Summerside to catch their Pre-Canada Day Olde-Fashioned Carnival, which was really really awesome.  It was packed as well with locals, and had awesome music playing the whole time (I bought two CDs today, one here, and the other from the band playing at Avonlea - I'll try to give them a little write-up at some point as well).  They had games for the kids - five cents each.  A really nice little way to end the day.  We went to an Italian Restaurant for dinner, but then left quickly when they weren't able to make a sauce that didn't have meat in it.  Which probably just meant that nothing they make there is fresh, so we gladly left and went to Sharkey's Seafood something-or-other which was just fine.  Not a top-notch seafood place, but nothing to complain about.  Emily is vegetarian so she doesn't eat fish (which is difficult in a place like The Island) and Ephraim and I are pescetarian (which essentially just means we're vegetarians who eat seafood - mock us if you will, I could explain the reasoning, but that's an entirely different long winded blog).
So all in all a lovely day and adventure.  More to come tomorrow!!! (oh, and I came up with my P.E.I. film idea... ;-) )