Prince Edward Island

Lighthouse at Brackley Beach

(Long Post Warning, But Lots of Pics!)

There are a lot of childhood dreams that many of us never come to realize, and for practical reasons. My friend Brooke and I had the same childhood dream of going to Prince Edward Island, Canada. I'm sure most girls will instantly recognize the place as relating to the Anne of Green Gables books and movies, and that is where our desire stemmed from. The author of the books, Lucy Maud Montgomery, grew up on the island, fell in love with the island, and placed nearly all of the books she wrote on the island. I LOVE the books, and have always wanted to see what I was reading about. If you've read the books, then you also understand. If not, you should read the books.

So when I moved to Boston and realized I could feasibly drive to P.E.I., then I asked Brooke if she wanted to plan a trip with me. We decided it was either now or never, as things of this nature usually are, so we did it!! We drove last Wednesday to the island (it's about an 11 hour drive). We stayed for three days and drove home on Sunday. It was absolutely AMAZING! I can see why you'd have to be an author such as LM Montgomery to really put the beauty of the island into words. Pictures do not do it justice. Most of the island looks just as it did over 100 years ago - just beautiful farmland with red fields between green trees and grass. In her books, Montgomery talks about the red roads, and they really are. The sandy beaches and cliffs are red as well. I really can't tell you all we did in the 3 days, but I'll at least explain the pictures to give you an idea. We took about a million pics, and it was hard to narrow it down, but here goes:

This is in Cavendish. This represents what we saw everywhere as we drove around the island, although our pics weren't able to fully show the rolling hills you could see in the distance. Every field looked freshly mowed or plowed, there wasn't any garbage on the roads. It just looked unspoiled and well taken care of.

An old saw mill. It rained the first 2 days we were there, which made this particular river turn a nice shade of red-orange.

We only had one day of sunshine, which was Saturday. So we finally got to see the sky and experience a sunset over the water. Beautiful.

This picture of Brooke represents how we felt on the inside during the entire vacation. It's one of those places you visit that is exactly how you imagined it to be and more. This picture was taken at the Avonlea Village.
More beautiful landscape.
The garden and view at Green Gables.
Brooke and I looking very wet at Green Gables. We had both straightened our hair that morning, but were sporting curly dos soon after we went outdoors.
The red beaches.
A crumbling boardwalk that we walked out on, while friendly fisherman waved at us. I think it's more for seagulls than for people at this point.

In Avonlea Village in front of the Fishing Shanty.

We dressed up in period clothing at the Avonlea Village and took pictures. Brooke looked fantastic. We had fun dressing up.

They had a barn dance at Avonlea Village. One of the girls needed a partner, so I jumped in as a boy. I did pretty well, and Brooke was able to get a nice shot of my rear-end.

This is a funny picture to end on, but I'm too lazy to move them around. But don't I look good in this hat? The lady at the Avonlea store helped me to arrange my hat to give me more "attitude".

We really had the best time in the world, so thanks Brooke for coming with me! It was so strange to be without our husbands and kids. We really started to feel like young girls again (not that we're that old, right?). We had a little spa night at our hotel, we shopped, and did basically whatever we wanted when we wanted to do it! It was weird, and we're still recovering from the trip, but it was worth it! I definitely think everyone should visit this incredible island!

"The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden, So that's What We'll Do"

We did get our garden planted this week. At least mostly. I can't find a few seed packets that I bought a few weeks ago, but hopefully I'll find them so we can finish planting tomorrow. The girls had a great time helping Daddy plant. Samantha is a perfectionist, which makes her a fabulous gardener already. She loves helping the plants grow. Anna tries very hard, and got better at planting seeds as we went along. Of course she was only allowed one seed at a time, and there was a slight problem when she started picking up the seeds we'd already placed, but she always gives every ounce of her energy into everything she does.


My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. It was a great day. Paul and Samantha made this beautiful chocolate cake from scratch, and Paul frosted it himself. Both he and Samantha were very proud, and it turned out to be very yummy! Paul also made dinner and let me have a Sunday nap, so what could be better than that?
A few weeks ago we walked out our back door to find a turtle sitting right in front of us. The girls were very excited. Anna didn't want to leave the turtle's side. Turtles really are so cool. He was very friendly, as far as turtles go.