Milling about Charlottetown and recovering at Brackley Beach

 

Amber (Josh's sister), Ed and Matthew have met us here in PEI. We are staying in a large Airbnb and driving everywhere. Where ever you want to go on PEI - it is an hour away. When you drive somewhere Google Maps lays down the blue lines in a spaghetti fashion, there are just so many route options.

We went to Charlottetown, which was so busy! All of Canada has converged on PEI, instead of travelling to Florida - as directed by Mark Carney we hear. It took forever to find a parking spot. We finally found one and then we walked around. The tourists seemed confused about where to go, usually there is a clear destination but here people just head to "Charlottetown" and mill about. I saw some people going on someone's front lawn to take a picture of their sculpture. I guess they decided it was noteworthy in the absence of anything else.

We saw a church that looked impressive and went in there. Elsa was so impressed she said she got converted!, oh oh. Charlie wasn't thinking such spiritual thoughts, he was rapping on the marble wall "Looks sturdy." Josh thought the stained glass looked weird, too modern. It does look a little odd.

Judging from the tourists' garb it's mandatory to buy a t-shirt or sweater with "PEI" on it. We went to the town centre to pick some up. Charlie chose a "Dirt Shirt" which is dyed from the red soil around PEI. I didn't look at the price and when I heard "$40" at the till I balked. 

    "We could just buy a white shirt and stomp it into the dirt!" I exclaimed. The lady at the till had definitely heard that one before. They were selling like hot cakes however, the store was packed. So fyi, feel free to sell t-shirts rolled in dirt to make some money. 

Elsa chose a pristine white sweater. Charlie and his "Dirt Shirt" are not allowed within 5 feet of her. She tested this theory out by rubbing her sleeve on his shirt and now there is a dusty red mark on it.

We also saw our Ottawa friend Jenny here, there are so many people, you are bound to know someone! Hi Jenny!

After buying our shirts we headed to do the other mandatory activity here - buying ice cream. We went to a food truck and got "rolled" ice cream. I went to a park bench to reserve it and waited. It is a very intensive process to make this ice cream and if you are impatient it is painful to watch. Elsa and I have been sharing a lot of food and she brought our bowl of ice cream over and told me to get my own spoon. She walked all that way with one spoon! A heated argument ensued, we were both grumpy from sharing a surprisingly small veggie burger earlier (portions are usually quite large here). This was henceforth know as the 'Spoon Incident' and we bring it up in low moments. 

If you get a chance try 'Rolled Ice Cream'

There has since been a 'Raspberry Cordial Incident' between Charlie and Elsa. Family, you can't live with them, can't leave on the airplane just yet.

    After all the town time we went for some down time at the beach. The nicest beaches in Canada are here I think.

    The dunes around PEI were irrevocably changed by Fiona's wrath. People still talk about her cruel devastation that affected so many creatures and trees. She was absolutely heartless and ruined many shorelines and environs. People point at the snapped trees and say "Fiona did that," with tears in their eyes. Oh dear, I should clarify, I'm not talking about my sister Fiona. No, I mean the tropical storm Fiona. My sister is quite strong but she's usually in a good mood.

    Elsa dug a hole. This is not unusual in our family. I had heard that beach holes kill more people than sharks so I wanted her to fill it in. Amber informed me that this is due to people getting in the hole and then it collapsing on them. That made me feel better as Elsa only managed to make a Gull size hole. At most it could break someone's leg, or crush a Gull stupid enough to stand in it. We did put a log over it when we left to prevent that.

    After that we went to another delicious Lobster fry. 

Birds 'n Mammals

Gulls - many gulls everywhere, none that stood in the hole.

Double Crested Cormorants - I haven't seen a Greater Cormorant among them yet

Swamp Sparrow - behind the dunes there are paths everywhere, on these paths are very aggressive mosquitos. I braved them to get this Lifer.