Anne of Green Gables June 16

 We rode a very pleasant 37 miles from Charlottetown to Cavendish, with a stretch of well maintained trail, a sunny ride through rolling farmland, a foggy ride along the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a  nice bakery stop about half way through the ride.  Cavendish is the town that Lucy Maud Montgomery fictionalized as Avonlea in her Anne of Green Gables series.  Those of us who grew up on the books and shared them with our children were delighted to visit the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Site right next to our motel.  We toured the house that had belonged to Montgomery’s cousin, on which she based the Green Gables house and walked in the woods that were described as Anne’s haunted woods in the book.  We agreed that it felt a bit like a pilgrimage. 

A foggy shoreline

A statue of a fisherman seen through the fog

If you are looking for Green Gables, a picture is enough.

The famous Green Gables

And a Lego model of the house

Lucy’s bedroom, which looks pretty much the way I pictured Anne’s room. 

The woods didn’t seem very haunted on a beautiful afternoon.

Forget-me-nots in the woods, appropriate for a day I will remember. 

Sightseeing in Charlottetown June 15

 We are staying in Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, for two nights, so today we played tourist.  It was so nice not to have to pack up this morning.  Charlottetown has a lovely historic district near the water and also is famous as the birthplace of the Canadian Confederation.  I was embarrassed to realize how little I know about Canadian history, as the founding of the Confederation was a completely new story to me.

Many well preserved old homes in the old city

I posed in the room that replicates the chamber where agreement was reached in 1867 that brought about the political structure of Canada that we know today.

Colorful flower beds outside a hotel

I had PEI Malpeque oysters in PEI!  Can’t get much fresher than that!

Beating the rain June 14

 We had another early start today, this time to get off the road before the rain began.  As we had only 30 miles to ride to,Charlottetown, we arrived in time for coffee and donuts at Tim Horton’s, and then opportunity to do a bit of exploring.  Fortunately, we could check in to rooms in a college dorm early, as the afternoon was very wet.  Dorms aren’t what they used to be.  We are two each in a three bedroom suite, complete with small kitchen.  Not only do I have a room to myself, we have parked our bikes in the extra bedroom.

We saw this little mouse near the harbor.  As a cruise ship was docked, there was lots of touristy activity in the old part of the city. 

The scales on this sculpture of a bluefin tuna are made of aluminum spoons, which reflected me in my bright raincoat multiple times. 

Love locks near the harbor 

Now that is an ice cream cone!

Lighthouses June 13

 Yesterday was a long day, so I didn’t try to blog.  We were up and out of our B&B in Pictou, Nova Scotia by 7:20 to make it to our 8:45 am ferry to Prince Edward Island.  We had our bikes and gear assembled by 10:45 for a 36 mile ride along the south coast, then up to Montague.  It was an easy ride in nice weather, with time for a leisurely picnic at a lighthouse.  We rode a few miles on the Confederation rail trail and found it in less than great condition, although great progress has been made in repairing it after Hurricane Fiona did major damage last fall.  As we were scheduled to ride 45 miles on it today, with rain predicted Nancy came up with a road route to Charlottetown, making for a long and late evening meeting.

PEI has at least 63 lighthouses, and I’m not sure if that number includes the decommissioned ones.

We learned that each lighthouse has a different blinking pattern, allowing ships to identify their location along the coast.  The ferry docked near the Woods Islands light, and we biked to the Cape Bear lighthouses, old and new.  The beam from the old lighthouse could be seen out 13 miles, while new solar-powered, and not ver photogenic light can only be seen for two miles. 

A few lobster traps by the road

                                                         Storm damage from Fiona

Wood carvings along the water in Fiona

Sunshine, short sleeves June 12

We were scheduled to ride 50 miles from Antigonish to Pictor, part of the way reversing a ride we did last week.  We knew there would be a dirt road detour easily in the ride, so we opted to shuttle a few miles, giving us instead a more gentle 42 ride.  For the first time since we started, we had sunshine all day and temperatures above 70 degrees, which made for very pleasant riding.  There was an ice cream stand at out lunch spot, and I had a lobster roll for dinner. All in all, it was one fine day.

This doesn’t count as roadside art, but I love some of the obviously homemade signs we see occasionally.

We had time to detour down to a rocky beach and walk along the water. 

Hope and I sharing our kid sized servings of ice cream.  We clearly entered ice cream country, as we saw four more ice cream stands in the ten miles we rode after lunch. 

We saw several stands of lupine along the road today.  This wasn’t the best one, just the best place to stop.

Cormorants were nesting along a causeway, giv no attention to us or the traffic.

Pictou is described as the birthplace of Nova Scotia.  Although the museum is closed on Mondays, we could see from a distance the ongoing reconstruction of the ship Hector, which brought the first Scottish settlers here in 1778.

Circling back June 11

 We were still not on our bikes as we drove back into Nova Scotia proper.  We are staying tonight in Antigonish, very near where we were a few days ago.  It is always fun to go back over a route.

Fishing boats lined up at Cheticamp this morning

A food truck spotted in Baddeck when we stopped to reconnect the bike trailer

We have been staying outside of most towns, so it was fun to be downtown in Antigonish this afternoon and see some murals decorating the walls. 

On the Cabot Trail. June 10

 It seems that the days I think I have the best pictures, we arrive at a spot with internet to weak to compile my blog, as was the case last night at the little town of Cheticamp.

We piled in the van at Ingonish Saturday morning to drive most of the Cabot Trail, a very scenic drive around most of the coast.  We headed northeast up the east coast, around the north end of the island, then part way down the west coast to Cheticamp. Part of the way, we were driving through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  We had clear skies for about two-thirds of the way, then the clouds lowered and we were fogged in for the final stretch.

We climbed from sea level to this overlook in about ten minutes, which goes a long ways to explaining why we chose not to bike.

                                     At another spot, we took an easy hike up to great overlook.

Another view from the overlook

Then it was back to sea level for more great views.  Everywhere I looked felt like a postcard 

Lunch was a bowl of very succulent mussels, one of my favorite foods. 

We walked a half mile boardwalk through a misty fen in the afternoon. We were hoping to see a moose, but no luck.  We also hoped to spot whales off the coast, but with the fog, we could barely see the water. 

We were a happy group at dinner at a pub in Cheticamp.  We hoped to hear Celtic music, but the group finished playing just before we arrived.  The recorded music was properly atmospheric.