Day 9 - Churches, Robots, and Rats

So guess what??? Tylenol Ultra for Migraines has caffeine in it!

Found that out this morning after a failed attempt at a good night’s sleep. My ankle was absolutely killing me last night so I took three tablets before I went to bed. A bit of math (~60mg of caffeine multiplied by three) would suggest that I had over 180mg of caffeine swirling through my bloodstream during, and obviously contributing to, my futile attempts at sleep. My brain was going 100 miles-per-hour, I think I can safely say that I have now dreamt about every single person that I know. I hope you enjoyed your adventures in space, the A-Team, or in PEI.

Took a driving tour of some of the historic churches on the north eastern area of the island.
The moral of today’s adventure is... Never judge a book by its cover, or, as the case may be, a church by its plain carpenter’s gothic revival facade.

Most of these churches look fairly plain from the outside, usually built from wood or, on the rare occasion, beautiful island sandstone (the same iron-oxide laced red stuff that I have been raving about. Never would one assume that the inside would include groined flying buttresses, intricately carved pillars and reliefs, and amazing ceiling paintings (not Cistine-esque, but damn good for a little island church). Tossed in a photo of some stained glass typography for Victor.


















The trip also gave way to another of my ‘island insights’, everyone is so trusting here. Every church we went to was empty, everyone had gone home, but the doors were unlocked. People leave their windows open when they leave their car in a parking lot. We pass houses all over with their front doors open, I’d bet good money that they won’t actually close them until autumn.

[2AM]
Just driving back from the Brackley Drive-In where we just saw Ratatatouiie and Transformers. One of the few remaining drive-in theatres in Canada, a very enjoyable experience. But now I’m going to bed, a nice relaxing sleep, undisturbed by annoying things like caffeine.

Day 8 - Ankles are stupid

I am happy to report that my ankle is not broken. Rolled it nicely, likely stretched and pulled some muscles and ligaments beyond their normal operating parameters, but didn’t do any permanent damage. Give me a few days, along with a handful of tylenol and an ankle brace, and I’ll be out beach walking again. If nothing else, I am comforted that I still have my other foot to tap at next week’s ceilidhs.

So yes, as for photos, all I can really give you is a quick summary of my day (well-iced ankle beside my laptop with a DVD of House):


As for the rest of the family, they did some laundry (thank you mom and dad), went to the beach, and played their usual evening card game. Nothing too eventful from what I heard.
Hope to have more for you over the following days. The weather is supposed to break in the next day or two so I’m hoping for some non-hazy photos taken comfortably on walks during the middle of the day, an impossibility up to now.

Spelling, grammar, and other things that really don't matter...

I feel it necessary to offer up some excuse for this blog being rife with excessive spelling/grammar/vocabulary errors. (For those of you who are familiar with my grammatical tyranny, I am sure that this blog has provided you with enough ammunition to counter my comments for the next 20 years)

Simply know that most of these posts were written at 1:00AM while I was half asleep, very warm, and distracted by huge jumping spiders, earwigs, and "budda bugs". I will slowly work my way through the list, adding the remaining entries and editing the existing ones, but it might take a week or two.

Thanks for reading.

Day 7 - Short Man Like Tall Ships

Got news earlier this week that a flotilla of tall ships, including the Bluenose II, would be sailing in to Summerside this morning. In a miraculous feat, I was up and out the door by 9:30AM and we were out on a scouting mission to find the best position to watch the procession in to harbour. After numerous back roads, big enough for two cars only after one driver ditches his vehicle in to the trees on the side (these are the absolute PEI experience), we found a beautiful cliff/breakwater/lighthouse combination where we could watch (and photograph) the ships as they came in. The rental agency was hesitant to let me drive their car, I resented this at first but I am now thankful as the backroads of PEI are one hell of an experience; I am very thankful to ride shotgun with my father at the wheel.

So anyway, the ships! It was another hot and hazy day which, when combined with a lackluster Sigma lense that lacks clarity at the best of times, made for some rather underwhelming photos. Still, I present to you the picks of the crop so that you might experience some of the awe that I did when these vessels passed by me. The first ship is the Bluenose II; I didn't include any photos as it wasn't particularly awe inspiring after they dropped their stern sail (I don’t remember my sail terminology) and ran in on engines well before they were in range of my telephoto lens. I don’t know much about the other ship, apart from the fact that they were flying the stars and stripes. But the fact that I don’t know the name doesn’t change the fact that it was a beautiful ship. And I’ve gotta tell you, when one of them fired off a blank from a cannon out in the bay, it was quite surreal.





Have to include a seemingly random photo of a hermit crab to show you one of my dad’s favourite past times (mine as well): tide-pool watching. From our position on the breakwater, we could look down on the calm side in to fresh tide-pools where shrimp scurried along and hermit crabs had battles royale.

We took the long way back along the North coast, the cliffs of Cavendish are absolutely beautiful. I hope to walk under them at least once before we leave. Also had an opportunity to walk inside and outside St. Mary’s church in Indian River. It was a short experience, I left hastily when my father tapped me on the shoulder, right in the midst of my indoor panoramic shooting, to let me know that a hearse had just pulled up outside and the mourners were starting to pour in. Felt a bit guilty about that, but it is a commonly acknowledged tourist site and there weren’t any large signs warning of the impending arrival.

Plans for an evening beach walk were foiled as I, in a demonstration of my absolute mastery of the art of walking, managed to take the final step out of our cottage with my foot somehow rolled 90 degrees from where it ought to be. I was, and still am for that matter, in a considerable amount of pain (though it is now dulled by a couple of the Ultra-Uber-Super-Fantastic variety of Tylenol). It doesn’t appear to be broken, I can move it without screaming, but I definitely messed it up pretty well. I am desperately hoping that it heals quickly as it’ll make beach walking nigh impossible for me if it remains at its current strength.

Worse comes to worse, I promise photos of the odd looking trails in the sand as I drag my broken body across the dunes in a last-ditch effort to spend more time on the beach.

Day 6

It is hot here, 32 degrees during the day with humidex pushing well above that. You all know me well enough to know that heat and I don’t get along particularly well. Thus my throughly planned out morning to get in the shower, get my hair well cleaned, and then get in the car for a trip down to Charlottetown for a haircut, hopefully before I had time to sweat my hair in to a disgusting tangle that I’d feel guilty about presenting to the barber. Too many details? Well too bad, it’s too damn hot for me to be civil, haha. The plan went almost to plan, though dad did hold up our departure with a long morning walk on the beach (not that I can blame him for that, it is amazing out there). I’m now short and spikey again, feels better than the mop.

Our Charlottetown excursions over the past few days have been purely utilitarian (bread, bug spray, and booze), today was our first foray in to the downtown. The outskirts of Charlottetown are not particularly nice; At times, they actually remind of me the more rundown areas of Calgary (Forest Lawn without the hookers and drug dealers). The downtown is the absolute antithesis of this experience. We find a proliferation of old buildings (late 1800’s), fun little shops (If anyone wants anything from the Cows or Anne shops, you have eight days to email me and add things to my shopping list before I go back for my gifts and souvenirs), and a nice boardwalk along the harbour. I didn’t get many photos this time, the sky was hazy with the heat, and so was I...

Went for a late evening walk on ‘our’ beach (Stanhope). Dipped my feet in the water for the first time this trip; The water was cold when I first stepped in but my feet soon adjusted and I found it quite pleasant. Occasionally you find an area of very warm water, somehow undisturbed by the wave action and the rising tide. Here are some of my favourite photos from the evening, as well as an animation (my first attempt, all handheld with a slowly faltering camera) of the waves under the sunset. [NOTE: Blogger doesn't support animated GIF... you'll have to wait until I'm home] I hope I’m making you all jealous, I want traveling partners for my east-coast road-trip in a year or two.





Those who have been watching this blog will have noticed a substantial dump of info this morning. We found a LAN gaming shop (mom and dad thought it was more of a cave) where I could get online for a bit and upload the last few days. I am one of these people who is horribly annoyed by gamer talk. Yes, I go to a yearly LAN party. Yes, I do play the occasional online game with friends. But I am NOT a gamer by the accepted definition. But, I’ve gotta say, if all gamers had an east-coast accent, I’d be okay with it. I was sitting beside two fellows, likely playing Battlefield 2 or something similar, who were very in to the game and were talking with the all of the lingo... except they were doing so in their born-and-raised accents. My sister and I had to stifle a laugh when one of the players, after what I can only assume was a particularly violent death, burst out with a loud “Son of a Bee-Sting!”. The experience was complete when the attendant/owner (nice guy) asked if I was “from away” when I was paying up after I had disconnected.

I’m not from somewhere else when I’m on Prince Edward Island... I’m from away.

PEI Day 5

Went for a drive, found a new beach on the south side of the island (____ point... my memory is very bad), family swam while I took photos. Honestly, The rest of the day really faded in to the background after tonight’s visit to a local Ceilidh (I’ve seen it spelled so many ways... all that’s important is that it is pronounced kay-lee).








I couldn’t tell you what a classic ceilidh is, all I know is that I’ve wanted to go to one ever since I learned how to pronounce it. Tonight’s event was a sweltering little community hall packed with 150-200 people (mostly tourists... I want to meet more locals) and a small stage at the front, just large enough for the three musicians who would play throughout the night. The ‘big’ act was Cynthia MacLeod, a very talented (and rather beautiful) fiddler. She was accompanied on guitar and vocals by a fellow whose name escapes me at the moment. The ‘special guest’ for the evening was a school teacher from the island who played solo (guitar and mouth organ) and with the other two throughout the night. The atmosphere is very relaxed, requests are encouraged and humour is infused throughout the night. But the music, oh the music, is what we came for and it certainly did not disappoint. Celtic, Island, East Coast... whatever you want to call it, that’s what it was. The floor pulsed as 150 feet tapped in unison, the fiddle rang out clear, the guitars (6 and 12 string) were masterfully played, and the drum (Beran?) was just plain cool (I’ve always wanted to learn to play one of these drums). Marri-Mac, Oh Danny Boy, Lord of the Dance, Rigadoon, The Phantom Ship of the Northumberland (????) Strait, and many other classics kept me smiling. With Ceilidhs happening on Mondays and Wednesdays in Brackley, and Tuesday and Thursday in Stanhope, I see the opportunity to attend at least five more of these before I go. I doubt I’ll make them all... but I’ll try, be assured of that.

PEI Day 4

Woke up ‘early’ today. The family knocked on my door at 10:45AM to let me know that they were heading out to the beach to go swimming. Jellyfish were still around, there is talk of relocating our family’s swimming activities to the south shore.

Today was a day without much of an agenda. We went for a nice long road, working towards my personal goal of exploring every single highway, byway, and driveway on this island. Lots of houses and lots for sale; Though no prices were listed, the trends would suggest that we could buy a huge house on a huge lot overlooking an ocean cove for considerably less than what we could sell our house in Calgary for. To put it bluntly: I’m 90% convinced that if I can find solid work out here, I’m packing my belongings and heading east permanently. I love this place.
I went over to the nearest internet connection (a little shop at the entrance to the provincial park we are in) in order to upload all of the journal/blog entries and photos of the last few days. I paid $4.00 for half an hour on a particularly glitchy internet connection and only managed to get day one and part of day two up in some semblance of their proper order (I’ve been writing and laying-out rough versions these posts every evening at the cottage, it takes a bit of work to make blogger.com do what I want). Day three, four, and five, as well as edited versions of one and two, will likely come when I head in to Charlottetown and find a nice coffee shop to connect from.

I’m not particularly proud of today’s crop of photos. Most were captured as we were driving down roads much too small to safely pull over. All I will post for today is a lupin. These are purple flowers that inhabit many of the fields and ditches across the island. It seems to be the fifth color in the island color scheme (earth red, potato-plant green, ocean blue, sky blue, pupin purple). I hope to redeem myself with some better shots of the little houses, blue bays, and rolling fields over the next few days. Morning light seems to be what most of these scenes need, unfortunately this means waking up earlier than 10am...




Dad and I went to the beach at 10:30 tonight. Oddly enough, it was too bright for really good star-gazing or fox hunting. Once our eyes adjusted, the waxing moon (sitting about 35-40 degrees above the horizon) was casting strong shadows across the beach and making it nearly impossible to look south without losing our night vision. Normally the solution would be to wait for it to set, but this might take a while. It is midnight right now and the moon is still blazing bright in the sky. With it being in its waxing stage, we may find that the completely dark star-gazing may evade for most of the rest of the trip, the moon likely becoming full at some point in the next week or so. Not good for star gazing, but it certainly was beautiful with the glowing moon and clouds silhouetting the rugged dunes.

In past trips, the foxes have been a pleasant addition to our daily events. Evening walks often include one of the red and white creatures running across the path or eerily staring out from the bushes, only being seen as two points of light when our flashlight happens to catch their eyes. We saw some eyes and heard some noises when we were down on the beach, but we never actually saw our quarry in all of its furry majesty. But as we were driving back, I did catch some eyes on the side of the road. After some particularly skillful and dangerous (at any other time of the day in any place other than here) driving in reverse by my father we set our headlights and flashlights on a fox-like creature. To me it seemed longer and thinner than our usual foxes, and it was either very dark brown or black with white only on the tip of its tail. Also unlike the foxes, it’s eye glow shifted with the angle from the familiar white/yellow to an (I’ve got to admit) slightly more menacing orange/red. Hope to talk to a park ranger at some point this week and find out what this may have been. In Alberta, we’re used to having a plethora or mammals around us; As I remarked in the car on the way back, a book called “The Mammals of PEI” would be about ten pages long, three of those being varieties of cows, four being varieties of mice and voles, an entry for the coyotes, and entry for the foxes, and an entry for our mystery creature. I love this island, but the Rockies it is not when it comes to ecological diversity.

PEI Day 3

The call of Harry Potter necessitated another trip in to Charlottetown. Also allowed for a booze run (I feel comfortable saying that only because most of the people reading this know how unlikely I am to “get my drink on”).

I didn’t hit our beach today, got back from the Charlottetown excursion and simply felt like lazing around (it is a vacation after all). Dad and Laura tried to go swimming but the jellyfish had invaded over night, ruining their plans.

The highlight of the day was a dinner at New Glasgow. Now, of course, the major draw was the prospect of bottomless clam chowder, bottomless steamed mussels, and a perfectly prepared 2lb lobster (I went small... I’m getting the 3lb next week); But one must mention that New Glasgow sits on the banks of the Hunter river, one of the most picturesque locations I have ever visited. My adjective bank is limited when it comes to PEI as it is not a particular quality in the sights that makes them so notable; It is the quantity of the those qualities that makes the scene what it is. The greens are so green in the trees, the grass, and the crops. The blues are so blue in the ocean, the river, and the sky. And the red dirt is such an absolutely rich red. None of these render well enough in photos or in words to accurately convey the beauty which they combine to make. Toss in the rustic homes nestled in amongst the groves of trees on the banks of the river and you have got yourself an absolutely perfect scene (unfortunately the light was all wrong for a photo... I hope to go back one of these mornings and capture the scene closer to what I actually saw).






After dinner we drove north (through some beautiful farmland) to the cliffs at Cavendish, arriving just in time to watch the sunset. I’m a sucker for sunsets, they take up a good portion of my personal photo collection, but I can honestly say that this easily ranks as one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have ever seen. I have the distinct honor of watching the sun drop behind the Rocky Mountains every evening, a beautiful sight without a doubt, but to watch the sun sink over the Gulf of St. Lawrence is an entirely different experience altogether, one that I hope to experience many more times before I’m dragged away from this place, kicking and screaming.