Travel Journal: Saturday

Welcome back to the Travel Journal! Days are skipped and mixed up, vacations taken randomly, and this blogger sighs and rolls her eyes and attempts to remember what happened 3 weeks ago.

Thankfully, Saturday was kind of a lazy day. We had bicycles...and a headache. There may have been some jet lag going on {4 hour time difference- who are we kidding!? Of course there was jet lag!} and also I suspect some allergies/sinus pressure. TMI? Sorry. The point is, we kept it low-key until the afternoon.

After a lunch of granola bars and canned fruit {breakfast  lunch of champions, right?}, we hopped on our fun bicycles and headed to Charlottetown. What an adventure! Biking is fun because, ya know, neither Dahlia nor I have biked since we were wee lasses... otherwise known as teenagers.*ahem*

What's really fun is re-learning to bike while looking at a map. Or rather, re-learning how to stand still on the ground with a bike underneath you while looking at a map and trying not to look like a goober. Mission sorta accomplished.

Anyway, Downtown Charlottetown is quite lovely! There's a mall, a couple used-book stores, the waterfront, and oodles of yummy restaurants and cafes. Oh, and there's a basilica! A real live basilica, just like we were in Europe!



Isn't that incredible!?

Anyway, we decided to try an Italian restaurant for dinner. Best. Idea. Ever.



We didn't get a picture of the appetizer-bread because...we ate it too fast. It was The Best Focaccia Bread Ever. I think it was two inches thick, maybe three. See the black plate in the background? Oil and balsamic vinegar, baby. Heck to the yeah.

Now that you're all drooling, here's a funny story. We split a pizza and had leftovers, and just as we were heading home, a huge black cloud rolled in. Oh no, we thought, we'll be biking home in the rain. In order to avoid a soggy box of soggy pizza, I asked the nice waitress if she had a plastic bag we could put it in. Here's our conversation:

Bek: Excuse me, do you have a bag we can put this {box of pizza} in?

Waitress: Sure, here ya go.

Bek: Thanks so much. We're biking home, so...

Waitress: Oh, God-looove-ya! Have a bag!

Just got a Canadian blessing. Victory.

Thankfully, it didn't rain, so we did not have a soggy box of soggy pizza. We were very glad of this, and so celebrated by watching The Patriot. Because that's a typical Canadian movie?? Idk. Moving on.

Well, that was Saturday! Tune in tomorrow to hear about Sunday's great adventures, which include losing a church, a picnic, and more Cows ice cream! :)

Oops

Oh. Hey there.

 *awkward pause*

*eye contact avoided*

Well, sorry for skipping out of the Travel Journal. Really, it was going along great {thanks for all your comments!} when unexpectedly suddenly randomly my family left on vacation. Oops. I had been so looking forward to the PEI trip that I honestly hadn't planned farther ahead.

Don't worry. I won't leave you hanging! Saturday is the day I left off, and Saturday is the day I should be able to pick back up. Have faith.

In other news, I started making this cool Tardis purse with a crochet pattern. The first step was 40 stitches for 30 rows...otherwise known as sucking my life away while I make this thing. But never fear! I'm a mere 4 rows away from finishing...the first 30 rows. Sigh. Anyway, the moral of this story is that I read the rest of the pattern, and the purse requires sewing. Snap. I don't sew. I crochet in order to not sew! Jeepers. We'll see how it goes. I may or may not mention this ever ever again. Don't bring it up if I don't. Lol jk for realz.

Is there a way to finish this post notawkwardly? Potentially. Enter the amazing skills of Pinterest. Here, laugh at this while I slink away and hit "post." Juuuuust kidding... not. Ahem.


                          Pinterest is being a poo-head...    


           ...and won't tell me where to find these two images.
                                   

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Last one, I promise...

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Travel Journal: Friday

{Be sure you're up-to-date! Read the Travel Journal for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!}

Three goals for Friday: locate The Guild theater for the show in the evening, walk on Singing Sands, and return the rental car... another mode of transportation was also on our list, but if nothing came up, we had our feet. :)

In order to accomplish Goal One, we drove to Downtown Charlottetown. It's really, really cute! But it was slightly drizzling and we were tired and there was no parking and THERE'S THE THEATER but now we have to turn around and park and buy a bus pass maybe and ei yi yi.

Long story short, we parked and went to a pharmacy to a) purchase bus passes and b) inquire about renting bicycles. Both were accomplished, and we were soon setting off to find McQueen's Bike Shop, located "about 4 blocks down Queen Street."

Let me tell you, those Canadians are sweet and friendly, but distance-estimating isn't their thing. We went about 5 blocks and were about ready to give up when we asked a passing guy if we were remotely close to McQueen's on Queen's, and he told us, "yeah, about 4 blocks down." Oi.

Anyway, we found the bike shop and were able to rent a couple bikes for a good deal.Here's a funny story: I had to go back inside to have my seat lowered. Here is my conversation with the bike dude:

Bek: Hey, since I have short midget legs, can I get my seat lowered?
Bike Dude: Yeah, sure, got the tool right here. How's her {Dahlia's} saddle working for her?
Bek: {slightly distracted by the use of the word "saddle"} Oh, it's fine. Her legs are 6 inches longer than mine anyway.

Here are our cute bikes! Note the baskets in front! And my bike had a wannabe bell.




Well, we rode back to our parked car... and the trouble started. The tires of the bikes were wider than the car's hatch. Somehow we managed to wiggle, push, curse, and maneuver our bikes into the back of the car. Never again.

Well, with 2 goals accomplished already {1.5 technically}, we set off down the road in search of Singing Sands. We had lunch at a great seafood place {the only seafood we had the whole trip, even though we were on an ISLAND!} and it was quite delightful. They had blueberry juice...fabulous!


And the chowder... really, really good! I teased Dahlia about being a "foodie" because she took pictures of all our food, but really, can you blame her? Look at that yumminess!

Those french fries were especially enjoyable.

After our lunch, we continued on our way. As mentioned above, Canadians {or maybe it's just Islanders} are not particularly good at directions or highway signs. So we were cautiously optimistic when we approached the place where our map told us we should see Singing Sands. We drove down approximately 5 dirt roads, thinking they would take us to the beach, but it was all to no avail.

Enjoy this map and note the right side for our location. Basically between Souris and East Point, the coast has sand that sings.

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We did, however, reach the eastern-most part of the Island! Dahlia faithfully recorded these moments.

Another lighthouse! :)


I made a friend...


...and then Dahlia got friendly too.

Once inside the Cafe that my "friend" is directing us towards, I asked the lady behind the counter for some help. We only had a couple hours before we needed to return the rental car, and our hearts truly desired to hear some sand sing. These were her directions, no joke.

If you want to go to the popular beach, go down to Souris and turn at the top of the hill. Or, if you want the easiest way... hmm. Did you see the sign for Elmira Road? Well, just past that is a General Store. There's a road right there that will take you to the beach. Good luck!

Oi stinking vey.  So we figured if we found said road by said General Store, we would try it; otherwise, we had to head back. So off we went, and we actually did find the road! It was right next to 2 other roads that we had tried, but it actually looked more like a driveway, so we hadn't tried it. Rats.

I think part of the Anne movies were filmed on Singing Sand. It's perfect!


And the ocean! Ah!!

Once again, a feet picture proving we were there together ;)

We went home to return the car happily, because we had found Singing Sand. It really does sing, too, bee tee dubs. You have to run on it, not walk. Speed is of the essence...

Friday night was a performance of "Anne and Gilbert" and it was SO well done!!! So wonderful. We were singing its songs for the rest of our trip {and even at Family Camp!}. Here is Dahlia and me at the show:

All dressed up!

If you ever have the chance to go see this play, GO! It's really magnificent.

Here's the song we sang all week: Gilbert Loves Anne of Green Gables

When I go over this trip in more detail, I will share with you our taxi adventures to and from this show. Maybe tomorrow, since Saturday was...well, I'll let you find out tomorrow :)

Travel Journal: Thursday

{If you’re just now joining the Travel Journal, you can check out Tuesday and Wednesday here!}

I think Thursday was the day that we said, “Let’s wake up early and get a move on!” and then we woke up at the time we wanted to leave… yeah. But at least we weren’t tired!

At Bideford Parsonage Museum, we asked for recommendations to go see a lighthouse, and a couple different ladies told us to go to Victoria-By-The-Sea. No joke, that’s the name of the town! Isn’t it cute?! So we started Thursday by visiting Victoria-By-The-Sea. We toured the out-of-use lighthouse, shopped in a glass artist’s shop, and tasted some chocolate from the chocolate factory!

Isn’t that lovely!?

In between, we passed some lovely little sights, such as…

…the town hall

…PEI’s biggest tree

…and this cute hotel!

After being thoroughly delighted with Victoria, we headed across the Island to tour the Cavendish Boardwalk.

In case the first sign didn’t catch your attention, THERE’S A SHARK IN THEIR ROOF!

After tasting COWS Creamery Ice Cream {the best ice cream in Canada!}, we headed down the road to Avonlea Village.

We watched Anne and Diana have “tea” together, listened to a maritime band, and went on a wagon ride!

sorry for the blurriness of this image :(

The driver of this wagon was quite nice. We were waiting for our turn and he said to us, “Two lovely ladies with a beautiful view behind them and it’s a gorgeous day…what more do I need?” He was a nice old man- never you fear about creepers!
It was also cute that the horses were trained to start moving not with a “giddyup” or a slap of the reins, but with kissing noises! Cute.

The musicians we watched were very, very talented, and the leader announced that they would be performing a ceilidh {pronounced “kay-lee” with a bit of an Irish accent} later that evening.

I was thrilled! This was one of the things I had read about, and here we had already heard the talent of the musicians, so now we had to go! We had some time to kill though, so here are some pictures from our evening.

In case you doubted Anne, the roads really are RED!

We found a quaint little town village nearby and explored the dock.

Because we had, thus far, no picture with both of us in it…

…here’s proof that we went together!

And here’s more proof… also indication that we paid for our visit to Avonlea.

Isn’t this village beautiful {albeit run-down}?

Finally, it was time for the ceilidh. We paid our $10 and got a seat along the wall. Then…we were lost in the wonderfulness of the music. These people are so, so talented! I only got a couple pictures because after a while, I gave up. So here are the two pictures from this evening:

The guy in the middle played accordion, guitar, and piano. The guy on the left played guitar and fiddle. The lady played the violin the whole night, but she didn’t need to play anything else. It was so amazing.

Oh, they also had a girl come and step dance to a couple songs… basically river dance, but as a solo. Then that same girl sang a song for us. And the violin lady’s dad joined the performers with his trumpet? horn? Dahlia will help me remember. Anyway, talented group of people!

After this fine performance, we drove home and collapsed in our beds. Thursday was wonderful!

Travel Journal: Wednesday

Well, first let me bring you up to speed with Tuesday night: We arrived.
Here is our hotel room:

This is the view from my bed… the front door is on the right.

Here’s Dahlia journaling about our travels. She really was the best at journaling on this trip; I just pretended ;)

Ok, so we got there and went to bed. Thus ended the first Tuesday.

Wednesday we dragged ourselves out of bed {4 hour time change…ugh!} and went to breakfast in the office of the hotel, then we walked across the street to the airport in order to pick up our rental car. Full tank of gas = good to go!

Our goal was to go to Cavendish, which is believed to be what L. M. Montgomery {or Maud, since we’re on a first-name-basis} turned into Avonlea. But first, we stumbled upon The Great Canadian Soap Company! They make soap with goats’ milk- how cool is that!?

So we continued on our journey to Green Gables. After following a map and the highway signs {these signs would say “Highway 2 RIGHT” and then when you get to the right, there would be no mention of Highway 2; just the name of the road. Confusing!}, we finally made it! Here is our first sight:

Isn’t it gorgeous!?!?!?!

Once there, we tasted Raspberry Cordial!

Please note that Anne’s face is on the bottle. It’s legit.

Then we took a tour- such fun! We went in the house {more pictures to come} and then walked around the grounds… as in, we went in the Haunted Wood and walked down Lovers’ Lane! Gah. The nerd-dom is killing me, even now!

Here Dahlia is haunting the Haunted Wood.

After visiting Green Gables {which actually was Maud’s great-uncle’s place!}, we had lunch at this fabulous place called “The Sandbox.” We took a picture outside, and Dahlia audibly wished “…that there was a way to make {my} head bigger.” Thanks.

After lunch, we decided to head back to the one stoplight in Cavendish and find Maud’s grave. What an adventure. I will come back and share this story at a later point in time, I promise! And to guarantee that I will keep my promise, here’s a picture of not her gravestone.

We had planned from the beginning to go to Wednesday Evening with Lucy Maud, which was really fun! Getting there was another adventure, and the person we met there was quite the character. But since I wanted to put pictures in this post, so you get pictures today, adventure-stories another time. Cross my heart.

Anyway, we made it all over the Island! And we made it back to our hotel at the end of the day, so points for us!

Can’t wait to share more with you tomorrow, and to share more about Wednesday’s adventures! Perhaps this one week trip will take up two weeks of “journaling!”

***I promise that you will get all the details! My plans for this evening had to be modified, so this isn’t as in-depth as I was planning, but let’s just spread the fun out another week! Thanks for your patience.***

Travel Journal, Two Weeks Later

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There's no place like home!

Also, there's no place like Prince Edward Island. Or Green Gables.

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Isn't it gorgeous!? Come on!

My goal this week is to post kind of a day-by-day travel journal as if I was there now {or blogging two weeks ago!}. Both Tuesdays were travel days, so I will share the few pictures from our flights.


                                  courtesy of Dahlia

Dahlia has a knack for starting with pretzels and ending with letters...obviously we had some long flights!




And here is the view of the sunrise from our airport seat. Dahlia took this picture as well.

Now that you've got the travel pictures, how about some travel facts? Here goes:

• We flew 6,421 miles round trip.
  
• We spent approximately 14 hours in the air {this excludes our 3 layovers}.
  
• Together, we consumed basically a gallon of apple juice and a half gallon of cranberry juice. Someone likes to mix her fruit juices...
  
• Sleeping occupied us for about 2% of our flights; the rest was trying to sleep. Just kidding...sort of. We read, talked, looked out the window, filled out customs forms, and watched a couple movies. Oh, and Top Chef Masters was on. I secretly really like that show...shh!
  
• Both of our travel days started with 7 am flights, hence the picture of the sunrise. We were too excited to sleep on our way to PEI, but thankfully our flight back to the States was just long enough for a REM cycle. We landed feeling refreshed and ready to go through customs and security.

Well, Tuesdays were momentous days because we went places, but picture-wise, they were pretty boring. Tomorrow, however, holds plenty of promise :)

All Moved Out And Ready to Rock

Well, we moved! Samara and I both said that Saturday was way less stressful than we had anticipated, and we got a lot more done than we had planned. Score and score!

Our place may or may not look like this for a while...

           

via

...but at least there was none of this:

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All in all, success!

Now that all that moving in and getting settled business is behind us {HA!}, I'm outta here. Actually, I really am. Dahlia and I are going to Prince Edward Island tomorrow! Augh!!! So excited!!! We're going to tour Green Gables and have tea with Maud and tour museums and check out the red roads and see two different musicals and basically have the best time ever in the history of good times. Stand back!

However, this trip really sneaked up on me... I'm not packed yet. That is how not prepared I am.

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You can find me here on top of my suitcase tonight, thanks, see ya then.

Oh yeah, and after our little Canadian excursion, it's our church's Family Camp... as in, no blog posts :( Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I promise that pictures will be up as soon as possible and you will see both our new place and the adventures in Canada.

Until then, bon voyage!

One of Those Days

Today is one of those days where...

• the alarm is already set for as late as I can handle it, and still the snooze button manages to get hit.
• the sky is gray and it's somewhat sad after several weeks of glorious warmth and sunshine
• surprisingly the bad-hair-day isn't as bad as expected...in fact, today no one has asked what happened on top of my head. I'm taking this as a very positive sign

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• try as I might, nothing comes to mind for Funny Friday. Sorry, peeps. Another time.
• the rest of the week is catching up with me and all the late nights are hanging out in the bags under my eyes. Samara said it best: "moving is like Finals Week for grown-ups!" This is how bad it is: today, I actually went to Mickey D's and ordered a coffee. Me. Bek. Drinking coffee. Oi.
• the to-do list in my head has been running for so long and has changed so many times that my tired brain has given up and is simply concentrating on moving. The end. Just get moved, Bek. Like a boss.

And because I'm not at all worried about Samara and my cooking skills...

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Happy Friday!