Our Summer Holiday - Part 1

We spent the last two weeks of the summer on an incredible family holiday to the east coast of Canada where we toured around Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It was a holiday of togetherness and exploration; each day, after we had slept in and lingered over our morning coffee, we headed out to experience something or someplace new together.

We took almost 2000 pictures on this trip (I'm excited to scrap everything though a little overwhelmed at the sheer volume of pictures to go through) and want to share quite a few photos here so I am going to split my story into two posts.

I'll begin with Prince Edward Island, where we spent most of our time. After eighteen hours in the car we arrived on the island which is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. I said many times as we stood on yet another seashore and tired to take in the beauty all around us, that everywhere we looked was like a picture, though a picture would never do it justice because you could not capture the breeze, the smell of the air, the sense of calm....

It was exactly as I imagined it would be - the sea, the red cliffs, the sand.

We visited the northern most point of the island, and while you can not see it here, there were seals bobbing up and down in the water. It poured the entire time we were driving to the point, but as soon as we arrived, it tapered off to a drizzle before becoming a beautiful sunny afternoon. There was an old wooden bench on the top of this cliff, and I could have sat there for hours just breathing in my surroundings....

One thing that I was most looking forward to on this holiday was the beaches, and they did not disappoint. On our first morning there we walked for kilometers along the shore collecting huge, beautiful seashells. Of all the beaches we went to, we never found as many undamaged shells as we did at this particular beach, and even when we returned later in the week, there were no where near as many large shells on the sand as there had been that first morning...we must have been there at the exact right time for excellent shell collecting.

Watching the girls collect shells, it was funny to see how differently they approached it - Bridget was very selective while Claire threw absolutely everything into her bucket.

At yet another beach, the girls waded in the warm tidal pools nestled at the base of the red cliffs: exploring the shallow waters for shells and crabs, jumping out of the way as the waves washed over the rocks, laughing, and excitedly showing things to each other. I was so happy to see my girls enjoying the natural beauty of this seashore with such curiosity and wonder.

On our last afternoon at the seashore, we wandered on the sandbars together as the tide went out, saw a starfish on the ocean floor, and Bridget found five hermit crabs, which she kept in a bucket and reluctantly returned to the water at the end of the day.

I absolutely love the ocean and being on the beach. Gosh, I could have stayed on these beaches forever, laying on the sand, feeling the wind on my face and the sand between my toes, listening to the waves on the shore, feeling the sun on my skin....so calm and restorative...and beautiful. Take me to the ocean anytime, please.

Washing the sand off our feet, we also spent some time at Green Gables where we had the pleasure of meeting Anne herself and touring her home. In Anne's room we saw the slate and the dress with puffed sleeves exactly as it was described in the book. As a little girl, I loved Anne of Green Gables and always wanted to visit here, so this was a bit of a childhood dream-come-true for me. Having watched the movie with the girls, they were excited to see the "the real Green Gables" and loved running (and shouting) through the forests around the home.

To round out our Anne of Green Gables experience we took in the musical one afternoon, a fantastic show with great songs that the girls are still singing..

No trip to Prince Edward Island would be complete without a lobster dinner, and we enjoyed one right on a lobster boat. Bridget was very skeptical when she saw the lobster's eyes looking up at her from her plate, but she gave it a good try before declaring that she was "not too keen about lobster". We ordered chicken for Claire, because we knew there was no way she would eat lobster. Myself, I can't say I love lobster, but I did enjoy the authenticity of eating it on a boat anchored in the Charlottetown harbor.

Five days on the island was more than enough time for us to fall in love with this beautiful place; we had not even driven back across the bridge and we were already talking about when we will come back.

One thing I absolutely loved on the island was the handmade culture. As we drove, we saw so many signs for galleries and artist shops, and every gift shop we went into had a large selection of handmade items; the lady working at the gift shop at the north point of the island was even crocheting behind the counter. As a maker myself I was so excited and inspired to see this.....

Prince Edward Island was also where I had the best fish and chips (Kensington Pub, Kensington, PEI) and seafood chowder (The Olde Dublin Pub, Charlottetown, PEI) of the trip, and perhaps ever. Believe me, I tried a lot of fish and chips and chowders to come to this conclusion.

And that brings me to the end of my story about beautiful Prince Edward Island. Thanks for sticking with me, this has been a very long post. I'll be back soon to share with you about the rest of our trip.