Sunday, October 25, 2009

I Heart Prince Edward. The Island.

For the three of you interested in the rest of my photos from last weekend's adventure on PEI - here are a few of my favs.
I left my cute little inn at 11 am and made my way back towards New Brunswick. Not wanting to drive out on the same road I drove in on, I took little detours whenever I found a highway that looked interesting.

Mostly I was hoping for a shoreline drive.
Found one on Hwy 19:
Loved these big homes on a penninsula. Obvious lack of large trees: Don't you love this:
Nary a mountain in Atlantic Canada. Just rolling hills. I could live with that:


When the sun came out, it lit things up brilliantly:


Some folks sell pumpkins at the side of the road, others sell fire word at the cemetery:


Max's camp name at Stillwood was Argyle:


(Seriously. I must have passed 100 graveyards last weekend. They have an awful lot of dead people there.)


A little ways down the road was this park, and seeing I was hoping to get some Atlantic beach pics, I thought I'd drop in:



I drove down this road:






and was the only car in the parking lot.
Clearly this park is for families with children, right?:
I mean, there IS playground equipment here.
But you tell me. What kind of scarey-ass park is this?
That grass? Just ends.
AT A CLIFF.
No fence. No warnings. No barracades. Nothing.
Just let your kids swing on the swing set, then run off the cliff:




There is a set of stairs INTO THE OCEAN.


The water is deep there. Like way over your head deep.

The entire park is on a bluff that drops into the ocean.



WHO BUILDS PARKS LIKE THAT?



I got vertigo just peering over the edge. .
And the grass-sod was not firm on the ledge ... it was breaking away.
I was freaked. So I left.
.
This spot was cute though:



(Hey! I thought. We have a Victoria on our side of the country's island too.)

More churches. But because the weather was overcast, and because it was uber windy, they stopped looking 'quaint' and started looking haunted.


Finally found a light house:


The town was desserted, but I bet these cottages are busy in the summer season:






View from the shore:
(Lonely, no?)





'nother church. This one wasn't baptist. Know how I can tell? THIS denomination added the red paint:


(I guess it matches the red roads.)
By the way, this was my travelling companion - a seat full of maps:

After I crossed back into New Brunswick, this is what I saw at the side of the hwy:

'nother cemetry.
This one was Methodist.
A little grander than the cute ones on the island.







When Clint was little he wanted to be called Bowser. (A Mario reference.) This headstone reminded me of those days:



Obligatory spooky grave yard pic:


This was the building next to the hotel I stayed at:


Unfortunately, due to the season, Hopewell Rocks Park was closed. But I did get to see this:

Know what? Red sand/rock contributes to the appearance of having a blood-soaked ocean:

From there, I kept driving past gorgeous hillsides:


and abandoned homesteads:

...determined to get to the Bay of Fundy before dark.
I barely made it:




(Low tide means that boats are not in the water.)


The park attendant told me I was the last visitor to the park of the day (and I think the only visitor to the park that day) so she let me drive through for free:

Have you heard of the Bay of Fundy? I hadn't. I only went because I wanted to take a picture of the word "Fundy" for Drew who is a fundy. (Student at the Fundamental school.)
Actually it's pretty famous. "Home to the highest tides in the world, the Bay of Fundy is a 270 km (170 mile) long ocean bay that stretches between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Canada's east coast.
Each day 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tide cycle - more than the combined flow of the world’s freshwater rivers!"


Driving through the covered bridge was an experience I can add to my list of things I've done in this lifetime:



If you ever go to New Brunswick, check out the National Park. It's probably breathtaking in the spring and summer.





City of Alma on the Bay:
SOOOO weird seeing fishing boats resting on the ocean floor:


I was thinking I'd have some lobster while in this lobster-fishing-village, but there wasn't a single restaraunt open. So I had McDonald's when I got back into Moncton.


And just as the light was fading, one last church-with-steeple pic:

Based on my vast travel experience from sighseeing for 48 hours in the Maratimes, I recommend:
1. Visit this end of Canada before Oct 15. It gets dark quite early, so there are only so many things to see before the fading light limits your fun.
2. Get some good maps.
3. Don't eat at McDonald's. Come on... you're on a holiday...
4. Be open to exploring small seashore towns, dirt roads, country lanes and scarey-ass "family" parks.
5. Let your mom know you're OK because she's bound to worry.

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