PEI, Lighthouses & Someone Famous!

We are back from a wonderful week in PEI. I had forgotten how much I loved the place. It's a long posting for the blog, but worth the read, so make a cuppa and put your feet up! 

For those of you not familiar with the island, it is famous for potato growing (it is the home of McCain's), Anne of Green Gables and many, many lighthouses. Not only that, it has some of the most beautiful beaches in North America. Everything there is so pristine and manicured, every lawn looks immaculate and weedless. The countryside is very much like the UK with endless hills and sweeping pastures. Another interesting little thing we found was that the island has embraced the concept of electric vehicles, although still in its infancy, there are recharging stations across the island. When the locals aren't busy mowing their lawns or fishing I am guessing they must be picking up any trace of litter as there is none anywhere. It's a place where you really don't have to lock your doors.

Our first day and arrival on the island was beautifully sunny, we took our time getting to the Motel, which was located just outside of Cavendish on the North Shore. We stopped at a couple of harbours and a lighthouse on route (one of 22 lighthouses we hunted out during the week).

The next day was gloomy and got worse throughout the day as we caught the tale end of Hurricane Leslie. It was extremely muggy with a warm wind and in the afternoon the rain was torrential. It didn't let up all afternoon, and pretty much put an end to doing anything, although we did visit the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Park Corner. This is one of many Anne attractions you can visit. The following day the rain and gloom continued into the morning, but thankfully it cleared away by the afternoon and from then on it was a blue sky week with temperatures around 24 degrees, I think I topped up my tan a little with all the walking around we did.

We did all three scenic drives on the island, and took in pretty much every inch of coastline. You can see how the island is divided up into easy to follow routes on the small map below. Click on the map to find out more about the island and these drives.

So many highlights, too many to mention here, but I pretty much have a favourite lighthouse on every route. Some the the best beaches I was mentioning earlier are along the Central and Points East drives along the northern shore. I think it's safe to say that there are at least three spots we found that would be perfect for a holiday home. Now all we need is that lottery win!

We headed back home yesterday, quite reluctantly it must be said and we opted to get the ferry back rather than driving back across the Confederation Bridge. When visiting the island you only pay when you leave. It costs around $70.00 for the ferry and around $52.00 to take the bridge taxes in (but what you save in fare you lose in fuel as you have to come back further from New Brunswick). Anyhow I digress...We took the one o'clock ferry and headed straight for the canteen as we were pretty hungry. Once we had sat down and were tucking in, I was slightly distracted by some people sat on the next table. I thought one chap with a Scottish accent looked familiar and then dismissed the idea, my thoughts were randomly drifting as my eyes moved to the left of the Scottish fellow, not really noticing the other man sitting next to him, I was staring past him out of the window, then suddenly my eyes fixed back on him, the backlight from the window wasn't helping and I must have pulled some pretty weird faces as I began the 'is that...?' question in my head and slowly I began to mutter....'Oh my god', then again slightly louder, 'oh my god'...by which point Rob was curious as to what I was oh my godding about and said 'can you see the lighthouse?' I said 'no', and I think I also said 'oh my god' one more time, before grinning inanely, at which point man I had been fixating on said hello, I then giggled and blurted out loudly, 'I thought it was you, but I couldn't quite tell against the light'...And there he was...Robson Green. Apologies at this point in proceedings to all Canadians and Americans reading this blog (I know you are you out there, I check my stats) as you will have no clue who this man is. But to my loyal following in the UK...especially some of my female friends, I am guessing you would have been as excited as I was! I was in a heck of a state by this time and was trying so hard not to keep looking over but Rob will tell you, I was beyond excited.

After a short while he and a couple of his crew, got up and headed for the deck, as he went past he tapped me on the shoulder and I said to him, I have to ask, what are you doing on the PEI ferry bound for Nova Scotia? He said he was making an around the world documentary on extreme fishing, which you may or may not know he presents on Channel 5. This documentary will be out later in the year. After Rob and I had finished eating we too went up on deck where Robson was being filmed just relaxing on the deck with a book. I was rummaging around in my camera bag for my camera to take a shot of him but before I could get organised he was up and moving again, as he came past I asked him if I could get a photo with him blurting out my mother-in-law Moira (yes you Moira) is a huge fan and then remembered to add on the end, that I was too. He kindly obliged and Rob took the photo. Which I am sort of posting here, I couldn't have looked any worse so I have cropped most of myself out, sadly my many chins are still included. Never mind extreme fishing, he bagged a bloody whale on this ferry ride! Now ladies, so you get the full Robson experience...He is as lovely as he is on TV, he eyes really are that blue, he is taller than me and he smells gorgeous!

A very exciting end to the trip. If any of you had seen me you would have killed yourself laughing.
After the photo had been taken I had several Canadians come up to me and ask me if he was famous and what did he do, so I proudly spouted on about his TV career still buzzing from the whole encounter.

Now remember the last famous person I documented seeing was Bob Geldof at Gatwick airport the day we emigrated. Famous people be warned, I spot you, no matter where you are :o)

After we dumped all the bags and I chucked some washing in the machine we headed off to pick up the cats. They were pretty pleased to be home and out of that boarding kennel I can tell you. It took them a while to settle down but I think they are back on track now although Hamish has now developed an even louder meow than he had before, it now borders on insane! Next time we go away I am booking them into the Cat's Inn, it looks a damn sight nicer than this last place and there is no way I am putting them back in there again.

I took a whole heap of photos this past week, the editing will be lengthy, so I will post a few at a time, here are some to kick things off....And Robson of course!

Cape Bear Lighthouse - Marconi Museum Inside

Bagnall Mill Hunter River

Evening light on the shacks at French River

The Chowder House at Point Prim

Robson Green, Me & the Chins!