we're home again from our island excursion. tanner, poorer, closer, i think, and really ready to be back in our familiar surroundings and routines.
something surprising: northern Maine is gorgeous. i never knew. but driving up through the entire state, i really got to see the countryside. so many hills and lush green land. we stopped on accident in Medway, ME, and discovered such a sweet little town with an adorable country store where we purchased all kinds of treats: sausages, apples, jalapeno poppers, water, potato salad. we ate it all in the parking lot since it started raining just as we tried to hold a picnic. then it rained just about every day for the rest of our trip.
we stayed at a sweet little inn. i had wanted a kitchenette to help us save money (i had extravagant ideas of cooking dinners for ourselves... we used the microwave... once) and our accommodations turned out to be very large. next time i think i will plunk down the money for a room with a jacuzzi and a mini-fridge and do without the stove and sink and cupboards. in any case, we had three beds, a couch bed, a large bathroom, a large tv, a table for two, and the afore-mentioned kitchen. it was really lovely, but you learn as you go, eh?
(people really do speak like that up there. a language that is a definite descendent of celtic/british origins. they all say "aboot" and "oot" and "eh".)
first night we ate at a restaurant called Brothers Two. excellent food with such a friendly waitress. actually, we didn't meet an unfriendly canadian the entire vacation. i ate the PEI island blue mussels, smothered in melted butter, and j. had the lobster bisque. mmm. island red beer, too.
so we had about five hours of sunshine the entire time. our first day we traveled to charlottetown where we walked under our shared umbrella and poked our heads into various shops, including a bookstore where i bought "The Mill on the Floss" and a store devoted entirely to anne of green gables kitsch where we were subjected to listen to the soundtrack to "Anne of Green Gables, The Musical." after hearing two songs off the soundtrack, i was eager to never go to see the musical--i love the books and the wonder works productions too much to ruin the story like that. j., of course, sang his own version of those two songs throughout the rest of our vacation. we tried to eat at various pubs in charlottetown, but most were closed, so we ended up at an open-air place called Brennan's or something where the front windows were open to the streets where the rain was pouring down on the patio tables. had keith's beer (another local brew) and egg/chicken salad sandwiches. every meal in PEI except the one Wendy's meal we had cost us more than thirty-five dollars. even a cup of soup cost at least six bucks. i think everyone on the island got together and set their prices: cup of soup, $6, sandwich, $10, everything else, $13-36. i'm not kidding.
we did manage to keep our cooler packed with inexpensive yet tasty lunches. a local grocery got us some lunch meats, apples, lettuce, potato salad, yogurts, etc.
the second full day we traveled to "anne's land", Cavendish. the countryside was incredibly beautiful. reminded me somewhat of vt, with rolling hills, fields, cows, farms, and such. anne's land itself is very touristy. to view the remake of Green Gables, you must first pay $18/person. far too much for a view of a house. then, to see Avonlea, recreated, you must pay another $18/person. j. and i stood on the outside and peered over the fence to where a crowd was gathered in front of a schoolhouse and they were recreating the scene where gilbert calls anne "carrots" and anne crashes her slate over his head in return. i probably spent a good two hours of our trip relating various stories from the anne books to j., who's never read them.
we passed by the cottages where j. and his family had vacationed in '95, and stopped to shoot a short video of him dunking on the hoop there. the owner came out and offered to let us park our car in the yard and walk down to the beach from there. this was probably the only real sunshine and beach combination of our entire trip. red sand, red cliffs. so lovely.
also this day we traveled down the middle of the island to a place called the Cheese Lady's Gouda. this is a farm where they make their own gouda cheese. after a cheese tasting that included all varieties of herbed and aged gouda, we watched a video on how it's made. we bought a lump of herb and garlic gouda as well as a lump of something called fenugreek gouda.
our third day we drove to the eastern side of the island to find a place called the trailside cafe. when we got there, it was slightly sunny. but as we ate our picnic lunch the clouds rolled in. we rented bicycles from a lady in the cafe and took off down a trail, thinking we'd probably go for about six, maybe eight, miles. it started drizzling at some point, but it sort of felt nice on our hot backs, and i'd wrapped the camera in plastic, so we kept going. and going. we went past marshlands as goldfinches swooped ahead of us across the trail. some black and white dragonflies seemed to want to race in front of us at various times, staying ahead of us by four feet for stretches of forty feet at a time. we were stopped by a friendly trail patrol at one point, and he asked us so many questions i thought he was going to tell us we couldn't be there, but he really was just that friendly. ah, canadians. we kept going until we'd come to st. peter's bay, and by the time we returned to the trailside cafe we'd gone 25.2 miles, or 40 kilometers. our palms hurt, as well as our seats. but i think we're both pretty proud of ourselves.
we finished that night with cold beers and huge portions of fried seafood.
our final day on the island was another grey one. we read in our room for the morning before driving to chelton beach, ten minutes away, where we sat bundled in sweaters and pants, reading, for three hours until the sun came peeking out enough from behind the clouds so that we could strip to our bathing suits and stick our feet in the water.
our final meal was back at brothers two. more lobster bisque and beer, and huge burgers smothered with all kinds of toppings. our first waitress recognized us and stopped by the table to greet us.
our trip home was pleasant, after paying the $40.50 toll to get off the island. we stopped in Medway again, and bought the most unhealthy, tasty snacks we could find: pizza, jalapeno poppers (again), snickers ice cream sandwich. we talked a lot and took videos and j. did an impression of george f. that i found hilarious.
so now we're home. i'm halfway through "the mill" and we've greatly enjoyed the comfort of relaxing in our own space where we don't have to pay for everything and it's not a struggle to figure out where our next meal will come from. after looking at our checking available balance we've resigned ourselves to "eating our cupboards" as a. would say and to not buying anything but milk and bread for about two months. but it was a good time, eh?
