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.