Down East with the Cousins

[Jeff]

Sunday: The Acadians of PEI

Our plan for the day was to take a break after the long day up to the North Cape yesterday. Located just four miles north of the campground is the Acadian Historical Museum in Miscouche that details the lives of the Acadian families on PEI.

The trip turned out to be a true educational experience as it discussed the Acadian Expulsion from PEI after the British victory over the French at Fortress Louisburg in 1758 during the Seven Years War. After that the Acadian population on Isle St Jean had increased substantially after Acadia (Nova Scotia) was surrendered to the British and the French population forced to flee. PEI at that time was part of the French territory of Cape Breton and came under British control who expelled the 3600 French residents.

Of the 3600 approximately 1/3 died on British ships that either sank or saw epidemics break out, another 1/3 escaped to the mainland or hid on PEI until they could return, and 1/3 were exiled to France or the French territory of Louisiana.Over the next 150 years the Acadian culture on PEI was diminished to a few families who remained isolated in small communities on the Island but saw their way of life threatened by their lack of communication and growth with the modern world and the Canadian government's insistence as English as the primary language in schools after WWI.

Today the flourishing Acadian way of life reflects the efforts that have been made to establish French as a second language in local schools, observance of Acadian celebrations, and historical research of the Acadian families on the Island.

We left the Museum to make a quick trip out to Lower Malpeque on Malpeque Bay,home of the Malpeque oyster. The Oyster barn at the local fishing harbor was a great place for oysters (Jeff) and mussells (Sue) and were selling oysters to go for $6.00 a dozen so Jeff took a couple dozen home for dinner. We had dinner at the campground and then sat around a campfire with our neighbors from Ontario and Detroit watching another beautiful sunset.

 

[Jeff]

Monday: Charlottetown, PEI

This morning it was moving day, we left Summerside to move to mid-island to spend the next couple of days visiting the capital of Charlottetown and Green Gables in Cavendish. The trip was a long 27 miles! After getting settled and having lunch we headed to Charlottetown to do a little sightseeing for the afternoon, have dinner, and attend the evening Festival presentation of Anne of Green Gables.

One of Charlottetown's major accomplishments was hosting the first Canadian Confederation Conference in September 1864. This conference led the way to the formation of modern Canada and is beautifully presented using graphics and audio-visual presentations at Confederation Hall on the waterfront.

The Charlottetown Conference was planned to be a discussion of maritime union of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI but due to a constitutional crisis in the province of Canada a delegation from Canada arrived to propose consolidation of all British North America. After 9 days of meetings and debate it was decided to continue the process with a meeting in Quebec City that eventually led to the final approval of Consolidation in 1867. The movement continued with the purchase of the Hudson Bay Company's vast holdings and the addition of British Columbia on the west coast. Newfoundland and Labrador become provinces in 1949.

PEI was undecided on joining but local lore describes the process as the island being railroaded. PEI had built a railroad whose debt became unmanageable and joined the Canadian Confederation under the condition that Canada assume the debt!

One interesting sidelight was a very informative presentation by a nearby lobster house owner on lobsters including how they grow and reproduce and how to cook them.

We then toured the waterfront and the cosmopolitan business district to pass the afternoon. The final stop was at Province House to see the Confederation meeting rooms.

Dinner helped pass the time until the 7:30PM curtain on the Anne of Green Gables musical. We got back to the m/h around 10:30PM and will be spending tomorrow in Cavendish.

 

[JerArdra]

Jeff,

Your travel notes are great...good narrative and great pictures.

Thanks, JerryF

 

[Jeff]

Thanks Jerry.

As you and Ardra know the hardest part is to get started every day, once I do it is fun. I am doing two a day, our blog as well as the Forum so it takes a couple of hours, usually after Sue hits the hay.

 

[KodiakRV]

You've got me looking over our photos of our visit to PEI in 2002.  Two of our favorite memories there were the Anne of Green Gables Village on the north side of the island and St. Ann's Lobster Supper not too far from there...

 

[Jeff]

Tuesday: Anne of Green Gables

Today we made the obligatory PEI trip to Cavendish, PEI and Green Gables to hear the official presentation of PEI's most famous resident, the fictional character created by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne, in the eyes of most PEI residents, represents the life of a young heroine in PEI at the turn of the 20th century.  LM Montgomery was born near the north central coast of PEI and like her character was orphaned at the age of 2 when her mother died of polio and her father moved to Saskatchewan to start a new life. Anne was brought up by her strict grandparents who undoubtedly helped color the characters in her first book.

Anne's imaginative character's home, Green Gables, is portrayed on the farm of Montgomery's relatives who owned the farm as Montgomery was growing up nearby. The property was purchased by the Province and made part of the PEI National Park in 1937. It is the main tourists attraction on the Island and surrounded by theme parks, shops, golf courses, and resorts.We started the day by stopping in New Glasgow for an outstanding breakfast at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. The company offers the best of the Island's high quality preserves, food products, exotic teas, and gifts.

The trip from New Glasgow to Cavendish, home of Green Gables, took about 20 minutes. We enjoyed a couple of hours on the grounds touring the house and grounds and watched a couple of videos telling the Ann of Green Gables story as well as a documentary on L Maud Montgomery's life. Next was grandma making sure her granddaughters will be well-versed on Anne when she ships their latest gifts.

After returning to the campground for a swim we headed back to nearby North Rustico for a lobster supper at Fisherman's Wharf which includes a 30' salad bar and all the seafood chowder and mussels you can eat. A couple pounds of mussels and a lobster is a big meal even when you have to skip the chowder and dessert. (Skipping does not apply to Sue!)

For the four days that we have been on PEI we have planned on attending a fiddling and Keltic dancing show and today we drove by a sign advertising The Sky Family Inn that was doing a program tonight.It turned out to be very different evening as the very entertaining show was wound around a musical revival meeting that the family does full time. Not many of the attendees were there for the revival but we did enjoy the music, comedy, and dancing. The comedy included a Newfie, Ann of Lean Stables, and an Acadian who played his saw. Fiddling here is both Irish and French Acadian and very exciting.

Tomorrow we move to the east end of the Island to spend a last day exploring and then board the Wood Island ferry over to Nova Scotia to meet Terry, Betty, and Russ who are coming off Newfoundland Thursday.

 

[Jeff]

Kodiak:

Yep, your post was a good intro for the day. We chose The Lobster House over St Anne's because of the musells. ;D

 

[Jeff]

Wednesday: Seal Cove Campground

We have moved to the southeast coast of PEI near Panmure Island, our last move on the Island before taking the Wood Island Ferry to Nova Scotia Friday morning. We stopped in Charlottetown for fuel and groceries on the way down here, the first diesel we have purchased in Canada. The prices have dropped a bit in the past couple of weeks so we paid $5.35(us) a gallon.

We arrived to heavy rain this noon so sat back and waited it out before leaving for a brief tour of Bear Cape and a stop at the Rossignol Winery in Little Sands to check out the local samplings. Sue ended up with a couple of bottles of PEI Blueberry Wine that she plans on sharing with Betty Brewer this weekend.A trip around the PEI coast always means another lighthouse. We took photos of two of the five or six we saw today.

We also stopped by the ferry which is about six miles from the campground to check out the procedures for boarding. They do not accept reservations for vehicles over 20' so we plan on arriving early for the 9:15AM ferry as it is not as crowded as the later ones on Friday.
We had dinner at home enjoying the view out the windshield of the sun shining on the mussel buoys bobbing a few hundred feet in front of the motorhome at the mouth of the Murray River. Mussels are grown on just about every protected estuary on PEI and are delicious. PEI accounts for 80% of Canada's mussel production and rivals New Zealand as the world's leader.

The mussels are grown in mesh sleeves (socks) that are suspended from longlines run from moored or anchored buoys. As many as two tons of mussels will be harvested from each long line by boats with winches during the summer or by cutting holes in the ice during the winter months.

We will travel out to East Point tomorrow with stops at Souris (Soree) where one set Jeff's maternal great great grandparents were born and at Georgetown. Georgetown is a quaint seaside town where more of the wooden boat industry existed in the 1800's.

 

[ArdraF]

Jeff,

Interesting.  I had no idea how they caught mussels.  Also, the first photo is cute.  So quaint!  BUT, that coach looks entirely too clearn.  Not at all like you've been on the road for a while! 

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Jeff,

Interesting.  I had no idea how they caught mussels.  Also, the first photo is cute.  So quaint!  BUT, that coach looks entirely too clearn.  Not at all like you've been on the road for a while! 

ArdraF

Ardra:

Thanks, the lighthouse does sort of reflect our image of PEI.

They grow mussels in the socks, I believe they have long exhausted supplies of wild mussels not only here but in the Pacific NW.

The motorhome gets wiped off after the overnight rains when I feel in the mood. Much easier to keep up with than the original fiberglass.  8)

 

[Jeff]

Thursday: Our Last Day on PEI

We spent today traveling out to East Point Lighthouse on the NE end of PEI. The east side of the Island seems to have more agriculture and fishing industry than tourism but it is a beautiful part of the Island.North Lake Harbor lays claim to being the largest tuna fishing harbor in the world (probably contest by Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) and offers deep sea tuna fishing charters. Just beyond the harbor is another set of wind generators, the first since North Cape. At East Point itself is East Point Light House, the last pre-Confederation (Octagonal shaped) light built that we climbed with a guide to hear of its history. The eight points of its side are one-piece logs that extend to the top of its 48' height. One of the reasons for changing the construction about then was that the wooden ship building industry had used most of those large trees in ship building.

We backtracked from East Point to Basin Head to visit Basin Head Fisheries Museum, without doubt one of the more interesting visits of the day. PEI fishing, especially for lobster and crustaceans started out as a way to supplement a living from the small farms of the era.For years large fleets of cod and mackerel schooners from Massachusetts fished the shores of Prince Edward Island which locals ignored partly because of the large investments required of deep see fishing. PEI did develop extensive industries of lobster, mussels, oyster, and scallop harvesting that exists today long after the fishing fleets are gone.

The lobster harvest of PEI and the Maritime Provinces is a testimonial to the experience and regulation that has encouraged and protected the lobsters for over 100 years. Canada's regulation of both the amount of lobster caught and of the processing industry to protect the quality of PEI's products leads the world in its effectiveness.

The museum has a beautiful collection of displays and models showing the environment of the various sea creatures and fish as well as the equipment and boats used over the years by PEI mariners.

Our next stop was Souris (Surry) just down the coast to try and find any trace of one set of Jeff's maternal grandmother's maternal grandparents who resided there in the 1850's. Unfortunately the Souris library is open on Tuesdays and Fridays so we were out of luck except for lunch at the Bluefin Cafe and a photo of, what else, the Souris Harbor Light.

We spent the afternoon working our way back down the coastline which involves a lot of loops out to the ocean following the rivers and bays of the east coast. Each bay seems to have a small seacoast town and harbor so it was a picturesque trip. A couple of hours at the motorhome and a short drive down to Murray River for diner finished our day.

Today confirmed the impressions we have formed of PEI. It is a quaint, friendly island that seems able to maintain a tranquility in the modern world. What really stands out is how neat everyone keeps their property. Small, older homes reflect the effort to maintain their appearance, almost all homes have large, well manicured lawns and gardens, and you seldom see property with any accumulation of junk or trash.

It is definitely a great destination to spend more time enjoying, something we hope to do in the future.

 

[Jeff]

Not having WIFI at our fingertips each night has sure destroyed my posting routine! We have moved to a park that was having problems this morning when we arrived but are now back up and running so I will try to get updated again before the ferry leaves in the morning.

Friday: Cape Breton Island and Alexander Graham Bell

Our trip across the North Umblerland Straits took only 75 minutes but seems countries away from PEI. We left the ferry at Caribou, Island, NS and headed east to the Canso Causeway to Cape Breton Island. On the ferry Sue learned of a Ceilidh (Kay Lee) Festival along the ?Scottish? (North) Coast of Cape Breton. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the folk music and dancing so plan an attending another show later this weekend. We did see some of the beautiful Cape Breton coastline in beautiful weather so it was an enjoyable ride.

We were headed for the North Sydney/Cabot Trail KOA to meet RV Forum friends Betty and Terry Brewer and Russ Mahoney who have been on Newfoundland for the past month. We checked in and then drove back across the mountain to meet them at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck.Bell was a prolific inventor who was known for the telephone but invented or perfected an amazing array of inventions ranging from the Iron Lung to the Hydrofoil. The Museum is in Baddeck, NS because Bell and his wife fell in love with Cape Breton during a stop here and returned every summer for over 40 years. Their home is still owned by the Bell family who donated much of the material to the Museum which was built by the Canadian government to honor its distinguished summer resident.

We had a very enjoyable two hours there and then returned to the campground and spent the evening with the Brewers and Russ having dinner at a nearby restaurant and filling each other in on all the ?hot spots? we had each seen or were about to visit.

 

[Jeff]

Sunday: French Fortresses and Scottish Coal Miners

The rainy weather forced a change in plans so instead of driving the Cabot Trail Betty and Terry joined us for a trip out to Fortress Louisburg south of Sydney.

Fortified in 1713 to protect French Cod fishing interests on Cape Breton Island Louisburg became a bustling center of French military and commerce through the mid 18th century. The fortified town included a French government that answered to Quebec and France.

The rebuilt Louisburg National Park consist of about 1/5th of the original fortress and does an excellent job of presenting 18th century life in the French colony. During the time we spent there we enjoyed a tour of the fortress as well as seeing military demonstrations, public punishment of a servant girl for stealing, and a chance to visit with various residents of their life in Louisburg. The fortress was captured twice by the British colonists from New England in 1744 And 1758.

After the second surrender the British destroyed the military walls surrounding Louisburg and later it was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The Canadian government turned the area into a National Park and restored the original construction in 1961 for future generations to appreciate the early French culture of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island.

Leaving Louisburg we traveled east to Glace Bay to tour the Cape Breton Coal Miners Museum and coal mine that descends out under the bay as it follows the seams of coal. Coal Mining began on Cape Breton with the French Soldiers using iron bars to chisel coal out of the cliffs for heating fuel in Louisburg. After the British took control of Cape Breton coal became its primary export as the large coal deposits of clean-burning coal were mined and shipped back to Europe.Mining in the early 1700?s was a back-breaking job that kept the miners indebted to the company with little hope of improvement. The workers were paid for the amount of coal they produced and initial hours were 12 hour days six days a week for .80 to $1.50 a day with hardly enough money left for food after paying rent to the company and buying coal to keep warm on winter.

Working conditions were horrible. To maximize production tunnel height was determined by the thickness of the coal vein. Miners spent 10-12 hours a day working bent over or on their knees in the damp, dark, 4 ? foot high tunnels. The 30 minute tour we took was uncomfortable for men who just walked through; the misery of a lifetime of toiling there was almost unimaginable. Eventually the Canadian government took over the mines of Cape Breton and eventually closed down all coal production in Nova Scotia as production and safety costs exceeded the value of the coal produced.

We returned to the North Sydney KOA where we met Russ for dinner at the Cedar House Restaurant just across the bridge from the campground. It had been a long day and we were ready for bed!

 

[Jeff]

Monday: Lobsters and Ceilidhs

The weather has been horrible here with periods of heavy rain for hours followed by drizzle and fog so for the second day we scratched plans to travel the Cabot Trail around the northeast end of the Island. We opted to drive into North Sydney and do final grocery shopping before leaving for Newfoundland and saw our ferry which was in on the passage before ours. We also stopped by the Arm of Gold Campground in North Sydney to hook up with Ken and Betty Schwenke, friends from Florida we traveled to Mexico with two years ago. They are in training to work for Adventure Caravans as tailgunners and finished up a caravan here today. We will get together tomorrow for socializing and dinner.

The Brewers and we decided to drive back to Baddeck for Lobster Dinners and a Gaelic music custom called Ceilidhs, (Kay Lees) A Ceilidh is Scottish fiddling and folk singing accompanied by dancing and storytelling. The Baddeck Ceilidh is held in the Parish Hall seven nights a week with different artists playing. The artists were a Breton Island folk singer and composer accompanied by a 19 year-old fiddle player who attends Cape Breton college studying Gaelic history and culture. She absolutely entranced the audience as she really got going playing jigs and lively fiddle music, and taking requests for a Cape Breton ballard. We best could describe a Cape Breton Ceilidh as a hoedown in the Smokey Mountains with a few Scottish and Canadian customs thrown in. The fiddle playing is almost indistinguishable to novices like us.

Scottish custom is not to clap during a performance until you are ready for the musicians to stop playing and then to applaud them for stopping. Audiences show their enthusiasm by tapping (stomping) their feet and the floor was shaking in the hall! We were there for over two hours and by the end of the night were absolutely delighted with the show. A great evening!

 

[Wendy]

Looks like Jeff and Terry have been shopping in the same t-shirt store

Wendy
Colorado River SP

 

[KodiakRV]

Not having WIFI at our fingertips each night has sure destroyed my posting routine! We have moved to a park that was having problems this morning when we arrived but are now back up and running so I will try to get updated again before the ferry leaves in the morning...

Jeff -- I thought you had a satellite internet system.  Can you not use it "up there"?

 

[Jeff]

kodiak:

At the KOA we were up against a cliff that blocked the MotoSat and yesterday it was raining so hard I couldn't get a a signal. I was starting to shake from withdrawal but I guess it was just conditioning for NL. ;D

 

[Jeff]

Wednesday: Aboard M.V. Smallwood

We departed N Sydney about 1 1/2 hours late this morning around 9:30AM for Port Argentia, Newfoundland. The trip is normally a 14 hour crossing but because the ship has one of its four engines shut down for repairs we will be 17 hours to NL. The weather is cloudy but we seem to have left the four days of Cape Breton rain behind and the forecast for St John's NL where we will be spending the next ten days is promising. Loading was quite easy as we were directed straight into the aft center portion of Deck 1 among the RV's of the caravan.

Jeff did not reserve a cabin as it was planned as a daytime 14 hour trip that would arrive around 10:00PM so we have day/nighter recliners in a quiet area on deck 7 towards the front of the ship. Just to the front of our area is the movie lounge that has a weak WIFI signal from the bridge so Jeff spends quite a bit of time there. Once aboard we did rent bunk in a curtained area for Sue to nap in tonight.

We also have gone down to the entertainment lounge to listen to an enjoyable show put on by Bugs and Debbie Greene from NL who are funny and sing a variety of music with a Newfie touch. Bugs told us he came home and informed Debbie that they were gong on a year-long cruise: 250 trips to Port a Basque on board the Newfoundland Love Boat!

The seas are gently rolling waves of 4-6 feet so it looks like it will be a good trip. We boarded in the middle of a RV caravan that included a couple from Peoria where we spent 20 years before moving to the Seattle area. One of the couples worked at Caterpillar and he worked with one of our good friends and for our son-in-law's uncle. Almost daily we are reminded how small a world it really is! Our latest joke is that one of the ship's engines has been shut down all summer because the engines are Cats and Marine Atlantic can't afford the parts to overhaul it!

We will arrive around 2:00AM local time so plan on driving a few miles to a shopping center to nap for a few hours before driving on to St John's.

 

[Jeff]

Friday: The Avalon Peninsula

After arriving at Port Agentia at 4:00AM yesterday morning we followed the Tracks RV caravan we crossed with to the nearby Sunset Campground. Unfortunately with the caravan there and the campground having no pull through sites it was a waste of time and money as we ended having to unhook the car and park in a site with low amperage electricity that we could not use. A better bet for anyone coming over would be to find a pull off on the highway to St John's or go to the Scobey's Food Store in nearby Plancentia for the night.

We did get to bed for a few hours and then had an easy two hour drive to Pippy Park Campground in St John's which we will use as a base of operations to tour St John's and the southeastern coast of Newfoundland. After dinner Dave and Jeanette Reavis from North Carolina came by and we planned our trip together around the Avalon Peninsula on Friday.

This morning the four of us drove down through St John's to pick up the Irish Loop highway to circle the Avalon Peninsula, a 20 mile drive that was a great introduction to the beauty of the Newfoundland coast. After four days of rain we had a great day of sunshine, cool temperatures and light winds for the tour.The first stop was just south of St John's at Cape Spear which offers a view of the entrance to St John's Harbor and the magnificent cliffs of Newfoundland's coast. The narrow entrance to the Harbor offered great protection and was easily defended making it the early center of Newfoundland commerce.

Just south of Cape Spear is Witless Bay, and our first view of feeding whale's. Jeff was not able to catch a photo of the feeding whales as they broke the surface although everyone got to watch them doing so. We had a long drive and there will be other opportunities to photograph whales.

As we continued down the peninsula our next stop was the Colony of Avalon near Ferryville, an active archaeological site of the colony founded in 1620 by Sir George Calvert. The Colony was abandoned a few years later because of the harsh winters French raids on nearby fisheries.
We also had an early lunch at the Colony Cafe near the digs.

More history awaited us at Renews, one of the early English settlements used by early 16th Century ships to "refresh" with fresh water and supplies. In 1620 the Mayflower stopped at Renews on its way to settle the Colony of Massachusetts.

Continuing south to St Shott's we saw our first Caribou, part of the 30,000 large Southern Newfoundland Caribou Herd just before reaching the turn off for Cape Race at the southern tip of the peninsula.

Cape Race has a long history in communications across the Atlantic. In the late 1800's a mail boat would be dispatched from Cape Race to retrieve canisters thrown over the side of passing liners headed to New York from London. This news would be telegraphed ahead to New york beating the arriving ships by three days. As wireless was developed Cape Race became a leading North Atlantic station including the point that communicated with the Titanic when the ship sunk after hitting an iceberg just off Cape Race.

We continued our drive around the south end of Cape Race and returned to St John's in time for dinner at Velma's on Water Street downtown. The annual St Regatta was run today but we drove by as they were leaving after dinner, maybe next time! We said our goodbyes to the Reavises who are returning to Jeanette's mother's in Placentia for a few days before heading back to the States. We will see them at the FallSE RV Forum Rally in Georgia.

 

[Ron]

Good shots there Jeff.  Thanks for sharing.