Maritimes: Goodbye PEI, Hello Cape Breton

 Thursday morning, we bid farewell to Prince Edward Island.

Anne bidding us farewell.

Entering New Brunswick

Entering Nova Scotia

We stopped in Oxford, the wild blueberry capital of Canada.

Megan, Me and U with the Blueberry Man

We drove to Cape Breton.

We had initially planned on driving via the coast and stopping at the Celtic Music Center in Judique. However, between spending a bit of time shopping on PEI and a storm coming in the next day, we decided to head straight for Chéticamp and the Cabot Trail. We drove as far as Pleasant Bay. Here are some photos of the spectacular scenery from our drive.

We really wanted to hike the Skyline Trail and figured Thursday was our best bet due to the weather forecast for Friday (the trail ended up being closed Friday due to the wind). We are glad we did it although if we did it again, we would likely just hike the left leg as that is where the better views were.

Megan, Matthew, Me and U

Matthew, Megan and Me hiking down the trail.

Happy Megan

Matthew and Me hiking up ahead.

View of the Cabot Trail from Skyline Trail. The kids said it was like the Road to Hana but on a hill.

Boardwalk out to the headland.

U, Me and Matthew

Do you see Megan? She opted not to walk down all the steps, enjoying the view from the top.

It was a nice place to watch the sunset. A park ranger was kind to take some pictures for us.

Megan and U

Megan, Matthew, Me and U

U, Megan, Matthew and Me

Picture we took from a viewing platform in the moose exclosure (to protect the young trees from the moose).

The Cornerstone Motel. There is a little food prep area around the corner and we had a nice view of the river from our window.

Enjoying the pastries we picked up at the local bakery.

Maritimes: PEI Day 2 Anne of Green Gables and More Beaches

 We started at the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place. They have a nice informative area where we learned a lot about LM Montgomery. Like she shares a birthday with Me--Maud is 102 years older! Maud definitely had a poetic way of speaking and she sounds a lot like Anne (or maybe it's the other way around...). There are a lot of other similarities between the two as well including getting a teaching license in one year instead of two, teaching on the island, being prolific writers, mom dying when young and being raised by someone besides parents (although in Maud's case it was her grandparents and her dad did have some involvement in her life). Maud used the names of some of her favorite places like "Haunted Wood" and "Lover's Lane" in the Anne books. Maud's house with her grandparents was also the post office, which made sending out her manuscripts without others knowing easy. One reason we really enjoyed PEI is that it helped us visualize the setting for the books better. 

Lego model of the House of Green Gables.

Me, Matthew and Megan with the House of Green Gables. LM Montgomery did confirm that Green Gables is based on this house, which belonged to her cousin and later her niece.

Matthew, Me and Megan

A few pictures from inside the house.

Anne's room.

Matthew and Megan with Green Gables.

U dressed up as Anne. The clothes were a bit tight.

Me

Anne and Diana, bosom friends forever

Megan and Matthew in the Parks Canada chairs.

We first walked on the Haunted Woods path.

U around the site of LM Montgomery's school. It was quite close to where she lived.

This chipmunk was happy to find an orange peel.

We visited the Cavendish cemetery. LM Montgomery wanted to be buried here so she could look out over all her favorite places. She left Cavendish in 1911 when she married and only came back for visits. She always said that she loved Cavendish best.

Her gravesite

We cheered for this little bug while it crossed the road. It did successfully make it!

We visited the site of LM Montgomery's childhood home. This is a desk from the home. 

Here is the foundation of the home.

Megan with the apple tree under which LM Montgomery wrote some of Anne of Green Gables.

Me with the well

The prolific garden

Nice view of the fields as seen from the house.

ABCs of Anne of Green Gables

Me and Maud

Mushrooms! It reminded us of when Megan and Matthew were mushroom hunters.

Me and U with Diana and Anne

U, Megan and Me walking in Balsam Hollow, which includes Lover's Lane.

Here we go...

Megan, Me and U (with a sleeping Matthew...)

Pretty leaf

Megan swooning at Lover's Lane.

Megan building with Legos by the House of Green Gables Lego display.

Matthew built some as did U although we don't have photographic evidence of the latter.

This picture of Anne was already there.

So U made a Gilbert to go with it.

Megan made this beautiful rainbow.

U with a nice view over a lake and village.

New London Lighthouse, which was used in the 1985 Anne movie.

Matthew, Megan and Me with the lighthouse. It looks like the lighthouse may not have been painted since the 1985 movie...

The Lake of Shining Waters. This is by the home where LM Montgomery got married. Maud did confirm that it was her inspiration for the Lake of Shining Waters. It is very picturesque.

We drank our yummy raspberry cordial by the Lake of Shining Waters.

Matthew, Me, Megan and U

We drove to Thunder Bay Beach and walked along it a bit. It was a lovely beach!

Megan, Me and Matthew

A piping plover

Me and sleeping Matthew

Me and U

The sea foam was really cool.

We went to New Glasgow which was lovely.

Matthew, Me, Megan and U at the New Glasgow Lobster Supper. We really enjoyed the experience.

Delicious mussels! They had a stronger flavor than most mussels we have eaten.

Salad platter we all got: green salad, potato salad and coleslaw

U had lobster.

All ready to eat.

Megan's yummy pasta.

Me got maple salmon.

Matthew has ham.

The meal came with unlimited appetizers (including rolls, soup and mussels), salads, drinks and desserts. This is the assortment of desserts we ordered: chocolate cake, apple pie, raisin pie, strawberry shortcake and lemon meringue pie. Delicious!

Watching the sun set in PEI National Park.

We went over to the inn for tea and cookies.