July 29, 2017 – Dayspring Disciples

We left the Anne Shirley motel around 7 A.M. and started our trip to Bangor. Our first stop was going to be at the Bay of Fundy. Our trip times were coordinated to hit the low tide in our effort to maximize the treat.
I was able to access the Tide Times from here.
The parking lot was very crowded, and as this is a Provincial park, not a National park, we had to pay to get in. (Our entrance was somewhat delayed as I tried to explain to the cashier that the deal she was trying to talk me into for my “group” of three was, in fact, NOT in my best interest. I know it likely annoyed the people behind me in line, but I wasn’t going to pay the $3 more she kept insisting was the “deal.”)
We got into the very crowded learning center, use the restrooms, dodge the evolutionary content, and get out to the pathway in about 20 minutes.

The Learning Center couldn’t really prepare us for what we were going to see.

The first outlook offered us only a hint.

We began the long walk down to the ocean floor. It was lovely, and cool, and fragrant, and not buggy!

There were little spots along the way with outlooks for more peeks.

And then we finally go to the bottom section.

It was so cool to me to walk there, knowing that in 12 hours or so the spots under our feet would be under ~ 45 feet of water. It blows my mind that the space we were occupying would easy be occupied by fish later in the day. I LOVE CREATION.

It was slimy. Tab is more agreeable to mud than Marie and I and she ventured out further than we.

She went out further and further and, yes, I was getting a bit nervous…

She came back (phew!) and we started back up, stopping at the foot wash station…

Last, but NOT least, we enjoyed lunch at the canteen. Marie and I noshed on some amazing lobster burgers (slurp!) and Tab enjoyed a gigantic plate of onion rings.

Amos 9:6
Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name.

We started off with another eyeful of the ocean. How can we not, right? I mean, it is RIGHT THERE… just a few thousand feet away from where we slept.

Red sand. I lurve it.

We drove to Bedeque to see the L.M. Montgomery Lower Bedeque School. What took us 25 minutes to drive must have taken hours for her to get to back when she taught there. She only taught there for a few months, but it is all the building needs to make the claim. It really is a fascinating glimpse into life in VERY rural Canada. Our guide was an older teen who warmly shared detail after detail about the building and the area.

As we drove north back toward Cavendish we stopped in some fields to take photos. I met a man who was out walking who was originally from the Niagara Falls area. He was familiar with Rochester and Buffalo from raising hockey sons. He and his wife had moved to PEI just a few years prior and he couldn’t say enough about how great it was to live there. He provided so many details about the canola you see growing here,

and the potatoes.

The whole island is covered with fields of potatoes and canola.

As we got back tot he branch in the road to head east to our part of town we suddenly saw THIS. We had to have passed it on our way to Lower Bedeque School, but the way the signage only faced one direction we totally missed it.

They only accepted cash and I literally had to dig out change from in the car and the girls’ bags to gain us admittance. Here we learned another boatload of facts about L. M. Montgomery. She truly didn’t live on the island that long. She ended up marrying a pastor and moving back to Ontario after teaching her short time. She provided a great deal of physical care to elderly relatives, as well. But she wrote such beautiful stories to bless generations of girls.

We stopped at Avonelea Village for lunch and some shopping. This is just a creative little shopping mall. It would have been annoying except they did work hard on the presentation. Little shops to look like a community…. that somehow I can’t find photos of.
We shared a giant container of poutine with homegrown PEI potatoes.

They were good, but insanely overpriced for what it was. Still, I can say I had PEI poutine.
The girls had Raspberry Cordial a la Anne Shirley.

We cleaned up for dinner and somehow denied ourselves afternoon beach time. (I do think some were disgruntled.) We did stop in to the yogurt place again for itty bitty bits.

We cleaned up a bit and headed to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Even with the exchange rate, it was expensive. But it was our one dinner out and we enjoyed it.

I couldn’t bring myself to eat it….

Marie had her first ever lobster.

We poked around the gift shop a little.

And we did head back to Prince Edward Island National Park for one more look around. I left the camera in the car for that trip. I did pick up a dozen red rocks to bring home and filled a big ziploc with red sand.
On our drive back to the motel I tried to absorb as many of the views as possible. I did pull over to this outlook area. Photos (especially mine) don’t do it justice.

We packed up for an early morning check-out, and watched our last movie.