Come Play on Our Island!

This is Mike milking the Cows cow! Cows is the best place on earth to get scoop ice-cream! They are a wonderful place to hang out, eat ice-cream and browse through the store. The merchandise is wonderful. T-shirts depicting events and things that are local, and that are cow related! They have mugs, stickers, magnets, notepads, shirts, sweatshirts, you name it!! You can shop at COWS Prince Edward Island to see their merchandise! I'm a big fan!

This is Mike and I on our seal watching cruise in Murray River, PEI. We went there on Monday, July 5, 1999. We were guaranteed to see seals, and we did see about 7 of them. Some of them were large, some small, and even one white one. It was an excellent cruise! It lasted about 2 hours or so. The guide/captain informed us that early in the morning or later in the evening are the best times to see the seals for they are lounging on the sand bars. When the tide is in, as it was when we were there, they are out in the bay feeding. After the cruise, we headed out to Murray Harbour to have the best hot fudge sundae in the world!!

This is the longest covered bridge in the world. It is located in Hartford, New Brunsiwck. It is 1275 feet long (my estimation... can't remember the exact length). This bridge is over a hundred years old. It is paved now, but hasn't always been. There is room for one lane of traffic only. There are no traffic lights at either end to indicate safety to traverse the bridge. You must simply watch for oncoming traffic before crossing! Mike took this picture, almost good enuf to be a postcard! We crossed the bridge on July 2, 1999.

We spent our last full day in PEI at Basin Head Beach! As you can see from this photo of the stats sign it wasn't too nice a day... however, in the end it did turn warm, and I got a nasty sunburn on my back, not nice for a LONG drive home to Ontario! (about 2000 kms) Basin Head is known for it's "singing sand." The sand has a high silica content, and thus "sings or squeaks" when you walk on it.

This is a view of the beach from the top of the chanel (which you'll see next photo). It's a lovely beach...

This is me, sitting on the edge of the chanel. By the time we left that afternoon, the tide had come in (it was just out when we arrived). The channel of water you see there was about 2-3 feet lower in water when we arrived!! I don't know how deep it is at high or low tide, but at both times, there were teenagers and children jumping off the bridge behind me into the water. I was too chicken to do that myself!

What you are looking at here are small fishing shacks. They have been set up at Basin Head beach, and each one has a picnic table inside. You can take shelter from the sun or rain and have a picnic in there! I called the "the picnic huts" because that is what they are. There is a little playground for children right near them as well.

This was our view from the car (rather the roadside) as we left Basin Head Beach. It's a great depiction of the red sands in PEI!

This is Mike standing with some up to date lobster traps. We are in Murray River, PEI. We took this picture while waiting to board our boat for a seal watching cruise! We missed the lobster season by 2 days when we arrived in PEI. Had we been there duruing lobster season, these traps would have been in the water, and not up on the wharf for repairs and storage preparation. Lobster seaons runs from around the first of May until the 30th of June.

This is Kristi-Anna at the wharf in Murray River. There are some older traps here in the photo, altho I am not sure that you can tell. The ones that are square are newer, and the round ones, which are near my feet, are somewhat older. A family friend is a retired lobster fisherman... so we get the inside scoop!

Lobster fishing is one of the main industries on Prince Edward Island. Along with that industry are other fish industries (shellfish as in the photo below, tuna fishing - I saw one when I was little, it's an amazing thing!). Farming is also a big industry on the Island. During our travels we saw many potato and tobacco farms as well as an abudance of hay and cows!

A mussel farm in Murray River.

This is Murray Harbour, home to the best hot fudge ice cream sundaes! It is one of the places I *must* visit while on PEI, for it was here that I was first introduced to this wonderful Island! Mike is down on the shore in this photo, collecting sand for me in a glass Pepsi bottle! I am going to use the bottles of sand in my herb garden(in the bottles) to display them :) As you will note, the dirt/sand here is red! That is one of the things that intruiges me most about PEI :) I'll tell you a story about the red roads of PEI. It's part of "Anne of Green Gables - the Musical" that plays every year at the Confederation Centre of the Performing Arts in Ch'twon PEI.

Anne "::gasp:: Mr. Cuthbert, Mr. Cuthbert, your roads they're red!"
Matthew "Why yes"
Anne "Red hair and freckles have been my life-long sorrow but why are your roads red?"
Matthew "Well now, I remember a fellow telling me once it was the iron in the soil gettin' rusty but I don't supposed he could've meant it."
Anne "Do you suppose it could be the wounds of tragic destiny, dripping from a blood-stained family tree? An evil spell that did compell the founders of this island--to meet their doom and perish horriblely? Picture now the viscious strife that started raging, way back in the olden days of yore! It's family with family in fueds engaging, drenching all your local soils with gore!! There as far as I can see, I've just cleared up with the mystery of why your roads are red perpetually!"
Matthew "The answer's found, not in the ground, but in your imagination!"

This is one of my favourite photos. We were staying at my Aunt's about 2 blocks from Peake's Quay. This is Mike and Kristi-Anna sitting on the wharf after an ice-cream cone from COWS - PEI's Best Ice Cream! We were relaxing and watching the boats in the harbour. After this picture, we realized that several jelly fish had surfaced - clear ones, purples ones, brown, and red ones too! We stopped counting at about 17, but more surfaced!

A little more about Peake's Quay. It's a mini-boardwalk really. There are some neat shops along there. Some places had handmade quilts and other decorating delicacies for the home. There were postcards, t-shirts, food, a harbour cruise, pewter, candles, and the world's BEST ice-cream too! That's just a little bit about the tourist haven of Peake's Quay. Mike and I biked around there one evening, and spent some time (and lots of money!) there, relaxing and enjoying the view!

This is an advertisement for a restaurant two blocks from where my Aunt lived. Mike grabbed the guys legs and stuck his tongue out at me... *click* he didn't know I was ready!! We didn't eat there, but it sure smelled good every day when we walked by!

On our trip home, we stopped at the Magnetic Hill in Moncton, New Brunswick. It's an optical illusion that allows you to believe that you are going uphill while your car is in neutral! It's quite the phenomenon.

This is Kristi-Anna and her friend Katrina on the steps of Katrina's apartment. Mike and KA stopped to visit there on the way home staying for 2 nights. We visited the Jazz Festival in downtown Montreal, and did a little shoppin'!

Email Mike and Kristi-Anna to let us know what your thoughts are on PEI!

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