Trixie Goes to Green Gables

It's been a couple of days since my last post and I meant to write one last night but we didn't get home until late last night.  Darn it! There's an amazing lightening storm right now and I have been trying to capture a picture of it with my camera, unfortunately, my poor little point-and-shoot camera cannot capture it. 

We spent Sunday at the cottage relaxing.  I went for a walk on the beach while the tide was out and took pictures of a crab and to show how much larger the beach becomes while the tide is out. 

I finished reading One Day by David Nicholls on Saturday.  The story was well written and I enjoyed how it captured both of the main characters, Emma & Dexter's life for one day each year and for over twenty years.  I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this August.  Sunday, I started reading The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo or Men Who Hate Women by Stieg Larsson.  It's hard to keep all of the Vanger family members straight and so far, I have different theories as to what happened to Harriet Vanger.  I have read over 300 pages and am still waiting for Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander to meet.

Adam and I went out for supper with his parents on Sunday.  We drove to Kensington and went to a pub for dinner, which used to be the Kensington Train Station.  Sadly, they had stopped serving dinner when we arrived, which was around 7:00 pm.  A couple at the pub recommended a restaurant down the road at an Inn called The Home Place, so we went there for supper instead.  Apparently, The Home Place restaurant is well known for its Coconut Cream Pie.  Our waitress told us when people call to make a reservation that they also reserve the pie.  I had two appetizers for dinner, the soup of the day - Creamy Curry Squash soup and Lobster Stuffed Mushrooms with cheese.  The soup was amazing and had just the right amount of curry with the squash.  The Lobster Stuffed Mushrooms were divine.  I was content after those two dishes, but of course I had to try their infamous Coconut Cream Pie and I was not disappointed.  It was fresh and homemade with real coconut pieces.

Yesterday, Adam and I drove up to Cavendish and beyond it to The Great Canadian Soap Co., a family run business that makes handcrafted soap from goat's milk.  We took pictures of some of their goats and they even had baby goats.  They are so adorable.  We bought quite a bit of soap, some of it is souvenirs or gifts.

After our purchase, we drove back towards Cavendish and stopped at destination point for the day, Green Gables, made infamous by Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.  It was L.M. Montgomery's cousin's place and it was the inspiration she needed to write Anne (with an 'e') Shirley in Anne of Green Gables.  The area is very quaint, but not super spectacular.  I wished is once a bluff just like the movie.  Adam and I wondered what happened to the set stuff used for the movie. We walked the Balsam Hollow Trail and the Haunted Wood trail, which isn't haunted and cuts through a golf course.  I read the book so long ago and watched the movie whenever it aired on TV and it's left an impression with me.  Anne Shirley's character was stubborn, smart, not afraid to speak her mind, and had a great imagination.  She was an inspiring character.  So, I am glad to have seen it as it is an important place in Canadian literature.  We had ice cream at the little shop in Green Gables and I had one scoop (a great sized scoop) of something s'mores and it had little bits of marshmallow and chocolate in it.  I loved it.  Adam had a scoop of blackcherry cheesecake and he thought it was okay.

After Green Gables, we stopped in Cavendish for dinner and ate at Pizza Delight.  And, no, we did not order the garlic fingers, but now I wish I had.  Geesh!  Apparently, they are AMAZING!!!!  We split a 12 inch Works pizza and it was just right.  After our pizza we went to the shop next door, Cows Creamery and had ice cream for dessert.  It was alright, but nothing extraordinary.  I had a scoop of birthday cake (tasted a bit like cake, but not overly so) and a scoop of raspberry something and it was non-descriptive.  Adam had a scoop of chocolate mint and it was excellent.  I tried it, okay, I helped him finish it.

We relaxed today at the cottage and went for a walk along the sand dunes.

Driving to North Cape

I have had complaints about not referring to my boyfriend by his given name, which I will do in this post.  Tough crowd!  :-)

So, Adam and I drove to North Cape to see the Wind Farm.  There are about 50 wind turbines in this area and on a clear day we can see them from our beach shore.  They are tall, sleek and shiny white.  The blades were turning slowly today.  They appear to be more spread out than the wind turbines on Wolfe Island, Ontario.  There are so many on Wolfe Island in a small condensed area. 

On our way there we stopped at MacDonald Shore Diner for lunch.  I wanted to try something different so I selected two to choose from, scallop burger or the clam burger.  I went with the scallop burger (toasted bun & tartar sauce) and french fries with gravy.   Adam ordered the fries with the works (ground beef, peas, gravy and shredded cheese).  The two ladies who worked at the diner were very friendly and efficient.  The diner is popular with the locals as people kept coming in and ordering take-out.  After my lunch I ordered an ice cream with one scoop each of Island Fantasy and Almond Toffee something or other.  The Island Fantasy was a bit of let down, it was just vanilla and chocolate stuff.

Hangin' at the Cottage

My boyfriend worked yesterday on cleaning out the fire pit and recreating a new pit.  Presumably, one of the neighbours burnt glass and other stuff in the fire because there was a bunch nails and broken glass in the pit.  I helped some with raking and pulling the broken wheelbarrow (no tube in the tire) to empty the cold ashes.  We went for a much needed and deserving swim after all our hard work.

I sat out on the deck this morning and felt the warm sun beat on my face while I drank tea, ate my breakfast and read my book.  I'm currently reading One Day by David Nicholls and it's a great summer read. It covers a friendship over twenty years and the chapters flow into another.  I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow morning.  My boyfriend and I went for a bike ride today.  It was hotter on the asphalt and there was a strong cross wind and head wind.  We stopped a store for water and a drumstick.  We stopped along the way to take some pictures of farm, lupins and of the water near the fish plant.  We came back to the cottage put the bikes away and put on our swimsuits for a swim.  The sand was hot on my bare feet and ran to the water to cool my feet before I put down my towel.  The water was so refreshing and warm.  I love the feel of sand sinking underneath my footsteps.  I floated around in the water on my back and stared at the cumulus clouds and blue sky for a little while.  We spent the rest of the day reading some more.

A Day in Summerside, PEI

My boyfriend and I decided to head out and wander around Summerside today.  We took the scenic drive, which is a bit longer, along the water to Summerside, PEI. It was a pretty drive with views of the water, green landscape and seeing different coloured houses, such as purple or blue with white trim.  I really like seeing the houses in a variety of colours.  It looks so warm and welcoming.

We went to Spinnakers' Landing, a district of shops at the waterfront.  It's very cute! We wondered in and out of the shops.  I thought of buying salt water taffy for home but figured I should wait because I would eat within the next two weeks.  I did buy some nice smelling soap.  After we walked up and down Summerside's main street (Water St) - the whole two blocks of it.  We also did some shopping on Granville Street.

After all of our shopping, or I should say my boyfriend's shopping [;-)] we went to Gentleman Jim's for supper.  We asked our waiter what the best dishes were and I had the fisherman's platter (salmon, scallops, shrimp, rice, green beans & carrots and garlic bread) and my boyfriend had the Big Daddy's Steak (steak, green beans & carrots and garlic bread).  Dessert was strawberry shortcake for me and NY cheesecake with cherry sauce for him.  It was an excellent meal and for a great price.

The sun started to set on our drive back to the cottage and we returned to a view of pink and purple sunset.

PEI Bound

My boyfriend and I left Ottawa last Thursday for our trip out East to Prince Edward Island.  It was sunny and warm when we left in Ottawa when we left so we drove with the top down until some spot in Quebec where the clouds threatened to open up and rain on us. My ice cream for the day was soft swirl cone.  We navigated around Montreal as we didn't want to travel through those crazy routes.  Our final destination on Thursday was Québec City in the Vieux-Québec (Old Québec) neighbourhood.  We walked around the cobble-stone streets in the pouring rain looking for a place to eat and finally settled on a place where we both had steak.  Yummy steak.

On Friday, July 1st, Canada Day, we ate breakfast at our hotel (Port Hotel-Royal Suites) and the service was very poor considering there were about 10 people dining in the restaurant and there were at least a couple of servers.  We even had to ask if we could get coffee and tea, they never asked if we wanted anything to drink.  Finally, after our long breakfast, we left Québec City, took a ferry to Levis and drove further east into New Brunswick.  The highway in New Brunswick opened up and it was just us with few other vehicles.  The roads were much better in New Brunswick than Québec. Since it was getting late and we were on vacation we decided to spend the night in Moncton, New Brunswick and celebrate Canada Day.  We checked in to our hotel (Delta Beausejour), which was downtown and right in the middle of the Canada Day celebration.  There were two stages with live music and loads of people walking around.  We went to The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse and nabbed a table just as people were getting up to leave.  We ate and had drinks and sadly, we missed the fireworks.  We walked around after our late supper to see what was going on.  I managed to get a swirl cone from an ice cream truck just as it was about to close.   

Saturday, we got up early and went for breakfast in our hotel's restaurant.  We had the buffet and it was so tasty especially compared to yesterday's breakfast.  It almost matched the Chateau Laurier's buffet spread.  We walked around downtown after breakfast and finally, we packed up and head out on the road again to PEI.  We drove across the Confederation Bridge, which is the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water, from NB to PEI.  We stopped on the other side of the bridge to take some pictures and drove the rest of the way to my boyfriend's parents' cottege near Maximeville, PEI on the Northumberland Strait.  We have a great view of the water from the many windows and deck.  

We drove into Summerside and tried the ice cream at Scooter's Dairy Bar.  I had pineapple-orange and it was refreshing and fresh.  We bought some groceries and I was in ice cream heaven at the store, so much selection to choose from.  I brought a flavour called Sticky Buns that is caramel ice cream, cinnamon, brown sugar and chunks of sticky bun.  It's very cinnamon and Nina, you would love it.  We returned to the cottage and went for a walk on the beach while the tide was out.  

We drove to Saint Ann's Church for a lobster supper on Saturday night. The chef special for the night was $37.99 instead of $39.99 for homemade seafood chowder or soup, mussels, caesar salad, 1 & 1/2 lbs of fresh lobster in the shell, with hot melted butter and it comes with fresh baked rolls, choice of potato, vegetables, dessert and a tea or coffee.  Dessert choices were strawberry shortcake (which I had), strawberry&rhubarb crisp, lemon meringue pie (which I had because it was the end of the night and the waitress was super special).  I wanted to try all of the desserts because they all sounded so good and were homemade.  I asked the waitress if they had a sampler plate.  The answer was no, but the waitress liked my idea of a sampler plate.

We spent yesterday and today relaxing at the cottage.  Yesterday the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm.  We spent most of yesterday outside on the deck getting some sun and walked on the red sandy beach as the tide went out.  We looked for sand dollars, but only saw clam shells and a few hermit crabs.  I also spent some time swinging in the chair hammock while I read.  Life can't get better than this. 

Tomorrow is a day for a exploration. 

Trixie's 2011 Spring

It's been a while since my last post, but I have been busy this winter and spring.  Last year, I registered to participate in the 2011 Weekend to End Cancer, which is a 60 km walk over two days on June 4th and June 5th.  I had to raise a minimum of $2,000 for the event and all proceeds go towards the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.  I began fundraising last Fall by having a garage sale, offering my services throughout the fall and winter, which comprised of cleaning up a yard after trees were cut down, painting a friend's bedroom, getting groceries, providing a lunch, and cat-sitting for another friend, etc.  I met my goal and raised $2,420 in total.  I spent practically every day this winter and spring walking and walking.  One week I walked a total of 60 km followed by 50 km the next week.  The time came earlier this month to walk 60 km over two days.  It was supposed to be 32 km on the Saturday and 28 km on the Sunday, but we ended up walking 30 km on Sunday.  I enjoyed the walk and the feeling of accomplishment after 10 months of fundraising and 6 months of training.  

  

In between my fundraising and training, I managed to go away for 3 getaways.  In March, Vicki and I went to wintery Wolfe Island to visit Lady M.  We told Lady M our travel stories from Morocco and Spain.  And, we shared some travel tips with Lady M for her trip to Morocco in April and May, such as bring a couple rolls of toilet paper and keep small Moroccan Dirhams (MAD) for the public washrooms. 

Two weeks later in March, my boyfriend and I went to Montreal for a long weekend.  We had a great time walking around Old Montreal, the Port, down St. Catherine Street, and visiting art galleries. We visited the Biodome and saw parrots, lynx, and penguins.  We found a cute ice cream shop called Chez Catherine that opened the week before.  We were each given a free strawberry dipped in chocolate.  We decided to have steak one night for supper after seeing so many steakhouses, and we went for supper to Vieux-Port Steakhouse.  It was a lovely evening and a lovely meal. 

 

 

In April, my mom and I went to Trenton to visit my sister D.  We stayed up late talking and talked more in the morning.  We went to Belleville to see one of my niece’s artwork on display at the library.  We drove to Bloomfield for ice cream and to wonder around the shops, but for some reason the majority of the stores were closed that day, even the ice cream place.  It was nice to see my sister, and her family. 

So what’s next?  My boyfriend and I are going to Prince Edward Island for a couple of weeks.  I can’t wait to relax on the beach, read some books, eat lobster and ice cream and visit Anne of Green Gables.  Perhaps I will get a peek of Prince William and Kate. :-)

Escriba's Lemon Tart

Pretty Mosaic at Park Guell

A day at the Beach in Barcelona

Nina and I decided to walk to the water today and walk alongside the Mediterranean for our last day in Barcelona. In total, we walked for 6 hours today to and from our B&B. On our walk we came across a nice building in pink with white/cream design and just beyond it we saw two enormous eggs atop of a building. We wonder over to see what it was and it was the Palau de la Musica. The balcony railings look like they are made out of glass and each column is decorated in a stunning ceramic pattern. We peeked in through the windows and it looked fabulous.
 

 

 
From here we walked down another lane-way and came across Barcelona's Arc Triomf near a park. We sat here for a couple of minutes to watch families walk or bike by, watched people running or in-line skating.

After this we carried on to Barceloneta which is where the beaches and ports are located. We stopped for a quick lunch, chorizo on fresh baguette. Apparently, Nina can't get enough of pork. :-) We walked down to the beach, alongside the beach on the boardwalk and we even felt the water, which wasn't too bad, but not warm enough to go swimming. Although some crazy fools were in the water. It was 18 degrees celsius while we down at the beach and some people were wearing winter coats. Nina and I were carrying our jackets.

 

We stopped at shoe store on our way back and I tried on some boots, but I didn't buy any, although I was practically stuck in the one boot. The zipper got stuck and the saleswoman struggled and fought with the zipper down to a certain point and finally pulled the boot off my foot. I felt so bad and I looked at Nina and said, "now they hate me". We left there rather quickly after that.

We walked back up La Rambla and returned to our room. We packed up our measly belongings in our one bag and planned to eat supper at Cafe Adonis for our last night. We even had a free drink coupon from our B&B. Turns out it was closed. We walked up the road and found a bar/restaurant and ordered a pitcher of sangria and pizza. The sangria is so much better than the one Vicki and I ordered in Essaoiura. Nina said it was excellent and is sad to only have tried it on our last night in Spain. We couldn't taste the wine in it. Yummy!

Tomorrow we return to Canada. A lot of things have happened in the last three weeks and I have been to many different spots from a snowy winter-land, to rainy Fez, the Sahara desert, over the mountains, stayed in the mountains, to a sea-side town, crazy Marrakech and finally, Spain with it's beautiful architecture and easy metros. I wonder what awaits for me back in Ottawa.

Parc Guell

I took more Imodium pills this morning and it seems to be working, although I still experience cramps and my tummy still grumbles. I call it "A Storm is Brewing in my Tummy". It makes that kind of noise. Nina is feeling better today.

We decided to visit Parc Guell today, which was bought in 1900 by Eusebi Guell. He hired Antoni Gaudi to create a place of houses for the wealthy, however, the project flopped and was abandoned in 1914 after Gaudi created roads, walkways, two gate houses that are called/look like Hansal & Gretel houses (Nina calls them gingerbread houses - see one of the pictures), bridges, and the famous tiled curving bench.
 

To get to the park, we walked up a steep hill and certain sections of it had escalators. The hill reminded us of the steep roads/hills in San Francisco. Once we made it to the park, we took our time walking through it and enjoyed the warm sun on our faces and arms. We sat on the Banc de Trencadis (the tiled curving bench) for some time and watched people come and go. Strangers asked Nina to take their picture for them, this had to be the 4th time since we've arrived in Spain. Nina finds it funny they come to her because she doesn't like taking photos and according to her, she takes bad pictures.

 
After visiting the park we took at metro to Catalunya near La Rambla and searched for Cafe Viena. Nina read in a French article and according to the New York Times Cafe Viena's Iberian ham baguette sandwich is the best. The author of the NY Times article said it was the best sandwich he ever had. Sadly, the author is missing out on great sandwiches or hasn't had many in his lifetime. Nina says, "It was good, but not the best I ever had." she liked the baguette. I didn't think much of the sandwich, it tasted like other regular iberian sandwiches from other restaurants. It was overpriced (6.45 Euros for one sandwich) compared to other places, probably because of it's fame. I still prefer my 1.00 Euro sandwich at the Museo de Jamon in Madrid and the mini baguette sandwiches from the bakery across the street from the B&B.

After our sandwiches we walked along La Rambla and saw more performing artists including one on the toilet, which had special meaning to Nina and I. We were in search of two other food places from Nina's article, one of them was called Papabubble www.papabubble.com and they make assorted hard candy. We watched them roll out a big mound of sugar that is white/pale yellow on the outside and white, red and green in the middle. The one man would stretch out the mound and cut off a piece and passed it to his co-worker, who rolled it out in long sticks. I looked at the end of the long stick and the red and green colours turned into a red apple with a green leaf in the centre. It was so neat!

We wondered around after Papabubble and went into some shops and walked down lane-ways/side streets near the waterfront. I tried a different ice cream flavour today, but I can't remember the name of it. It was a mixture of flavours and I didn't know what flavour I was getting next - coconut, cinnamon, chocolate. I really wished I knew what was in it. The ice cream isn't anything extraordinary here in Barcelona (so far, I haven't had an amazing flavour), however, it is everywhere. My family could easily put a dent in the ice cream here.

Take a Walk on La Rambla

Nina and I walked and walked today. First we walked over to La Sagrada Familia and went to the gift shop, which was a little disappointing as it was very small. From here we walked along Avinguda de Diagonal and admired apartment buildings and their window shutters in different
colours and their balconies ranging from petite ones that can only hold plants, to bigger ones with a cafe table and much bigger ones with awnings. The balconies are either rectangular, cute semi-circles or topsy-wavy ones with fancy metal (a Gaudi building).

We finally broke down and went to a pharmacy and bought Imodium. I hope it works. After our visit to the pharmacy, we walked down Garcia street and saw where the rich shop. As we walked by Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, etc, Nina said to me "these people have bags of Gucci or Burberry and I have a bag of Imodium". It provided us with a good laugh. People were lined up outside of Gucci and the security guard only let a few people
in at a time. I hope the had good sales today. We went to shoe stores and looked at boots. The Spanish have amazing boots here. Even the little kids wear fantastic leather boots. I'm so envious of the kids and their footwear. I tried on a pair of boots at Camper but they didn't fit right. Nina tried on some shoes but they didn't fit well either.

We saw two different works by Gaudi today. The first one we saw is called the La Pedrera on Garcia street. The balconies are stunning with it's curves and different dimensions and fabulous metal work. The second one we saw on the same street is called Casa Batilo, which has blue, green, and mauve tiles and curvy window frames and balconies.

 
We walked down La Rambla and it was packed with people as was Garcia street due to the sales starting today. It's similar to Canada's Boxing Day sales. La Rambla has mimes and people dressed up in costumes (see one of the pictures) and some try to scare people as they go by, well these two sure did. Some kids were scared to walk by them.

We walked by ice cream place after ice cream place. I tried one called Torrones and it was lackluster. We also went to the Mercat Boqueria, which is a market selling fresh fish, meat, fruit, and candy and has small places to order a drink alongside your tapas.

Finally, we decided to walk back to our B&B and went to the store for water and coca light, and the bakery across the street for a sandwich. Now we are relaxing.