Sunday, July 14, 2013

Vacation post!

Hi everyone!

Now that I'm pretty much settled into my new place, I have time to pop in to share a few of this year's Prince Edward Island vacation pictures with you! I had a bit of a rough time emotionally at the beginning of my vacation (running away from Fathers' Day by myself didn't work as well as I thought it would...), I enjoyed my vacation in general, which is not hard to do when you are in Prince Edward Island for a week and spoiled weather-wise!

My favorite place this time around was definitely the Greenwich Dunes section of Prince Edward Island National Park, which was right across from my cottage on St.Peter's Bay

     Greenwich Dunes with the freshwater lake that sits inside the dune system
                                          Greenwich beach, just on the other side of the dunes
                                     Greenwich Dunes with the floating boardwalk in the distance
                                                       Sand dunes on Greenwich beach

If you would like to learn more about the Greenwich sand dunes, you can visit the pages dedicated to them on the Prince Edward Island National Park website here . I cannot recommend a visit to this area of PEI National park enough if you are ever on the island, it is a breathtaking place filled with hiking trails. Be warned though, there is only one washroom at the entrance to the park. I assumed there are more at the official entrance to the beach, but that is quite a long walk away once you are on the beach and to get there if you have used the trails to walk to the dunes you are looking at a good half hour. So be sure to used the washroom when you get to the entrance to the trails and ration your water use accordingly if you are like me and you need to go often. I found out about the single bathroom the hard way and have been warning everyone about it since then lol

Another favorite pastime of mine when I'm in Prince Edward Island is to go for drives along the island's scenic heritage roads. These are roads that have existed for over one hundred years and have been kept in their original condition in order to preserve some of the island's original character. They are wonderful to visit, but you do have to be careful not to drive over 20 kilometers per hour on them as they are dusty, narrow and often have ruts in them. I damaged the front right wheel well and bumper on my rental car on the old Princetown-Warburton road on my last full day of vacation and ended up having to be towed back to Charlottetown to get a second rental car after going through a rut at about 15 kilometers per hour. I was on a section of the road that I should not have been on though and that was only made for tractors, so it was my own fault for not paying more attention to the map.

                                                                 Millvale historic road
                                 Princetown-Warburton Road, well worth the insurance deductible :)

And lastly, I was in Prince Edward Island at the height of lupin season, much to my delight! My love affair with lupins began when I was very little and my mother read me the story of The Lupin Lady. My first lupins were brought to me by an elderly lady who owned a cottage by a lake here in Quebec that we used to rent every Summer. She brought them to us when she found out how fascinated I was by them and from that time on we have always had some in our gardens. I bought a small pouch of lupin seeds during my vacation and will be planting them in my garden here in the fall. I'm also contemplating planting a few seeds by my father's grave at the cemetery to see if they will grow. Can you imagine my delight though during my first visit to Prince Edward Island when I was 15 and we came across entire fields of late-blooming lupins? I was beyond thrilled and that is saying something for a blasé teenager!








My lupin fixation was more than satisfied during my week on the Island :) 

I hope you've enjoyed your second little glimpse at Prince Edward Island, I'll be back soon with some pictures from the day I spent with my Sweetheart in Quebec City and also some pictures of my new home once I'm totally done setting up. I still have some pictures and things to hang on the walls and also my dad's CDs to sift through and alphabetize with mine. Once all that is done I will give you a photographic tour :)

Monday, July 1, 2013

Canada Day



Happy Birthday to my astonishing, diverse, beautiful country and Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadian! I'm so happy and proud to be Canadian, I wouldn't want to live in any other country and even if I ever do, I will still be Canadian right to my soul :)