Day 4

The Bay of Fundy was gorgeous in the morning, with the beautiful german sherherd Kailey romping on the beach (her owners told us they got her from a Humane Society, which was doubly as wonderful) and the astounding sight of a big, fat, fuzzy bunny grazing her way across the motel lawn not six feet away:



 

 
Absolutely enchanting.

And then we found this lovely heart stone along the shore, which seemed like another good omen.



And then I found a souvenir shop -- yes, I am a very thorough tourist -- and got to say hey to a very tall pirate.



So we headed out because today we were supposed to get to Prince Edward Island, and our camping cabin in the New Glasgow Highlands. Now, I've never been tent-camping but I've spent many a week RVing and I like having walls around me when I need them, so this seemed a good compromise. The cabins were tucked into the woods and had decks and picnic tables and electricity and wi-fi but no running water which meant no bathrooms. All the water-sports were supposed to take place at the main shower house/bathrooms.  This I'd done before RVing and didn't seem like a trial to me, except for the terrible visions I had of getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around in the dark, trying to find the bathroom without my lenses in and only half-awake. There are supposedly no bears or moose on PEI, only foxes, an occasional coyote and other small wildlife but in the middle of the night, anything with teeth would look huge and menacing, I'm sure.

Anyhow, we took off and if there's one thing I can say about New Brunswick -- besides that it's gorgeous -- is that they have more pine trees just along this one road than I've ever seen or even imagines, in my life. Trillions, and I'm not kidding. Uncountable trillions. Gave me hope for the future.

And speaking of hope, we were still on high alert for moose.




But again, no dice.  What we did see, however, were flowers in huge, beautiful drifts, more than I could ever imagine.



And what I liked best was that no one was fussing, calling the Queen Anne's Lace weeds and trying mow them down.



And then we came to The Confederation Bridge, long, high, astonishing and easy

Excited? Me? OMG, yes.
 



And maybe this is real and maybe it isn't but I will say this: for the entire week we were on PEI, the colors were more vivid -- the grass greener, the sky bluer the red roads true. Because of the potatoes, the air in places is scented with french fries and most strangely -- which delighted me in its charming weirdness -- the cows are very pretty. Relaxed. Clean. Hanging out. They are the most laid back, unstressed, happy looking cows I've ever seen. They lay around soaking up sun and smiling small, knowing, cow smiles, and I swear to you we actually saw several of them romping. Yes. Romping cows. This place is not called the gentle island for nothing.

 I almost fell out of the car seeing this in person.
 
We found the camp cabin and were really pleasantly surprised because the place was spotless, becautifully laid out and each cabin was pretty private, so we off-loaded the bike and unloaded the truck.



We found out there was a huge country music concert -- Summerfest -- in Cavendish that weekend bringing in 40,000 - 50,000 concert-goers so we decided to put off heading up there until the weekend concert was over and most of the fans had left. Instead, we took the bike out for a ride and ended up having dinner at one of my most favorite places ever, the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company.



This place is gorgeous, fabulous and has the best selection of island preserves ever, including blueberry and raspberry with champagne, and lemon-ginger with amaretto. (Both of which I bought, and more. WAY more.) Not to mention their bone china mugs and tea sets and teas and local crafts. Plus, they're on a river and the view out the giant windows is stellar whie you eat:

 

And they've created a huge, gorgeous Garden of Hope with a cottage specifically set up for terminally ill people to come and stay and refresh their souls. I cannot tell you how joyful it felt to be there amidst the sculptures, rolling lawns and cottage garden fulls of flowers.









After dinner and exploring on the bike, we headed back to the cabin, uncorked a bottle of wine to celebrate and hung out playing the guitar, listening to the crows feed their babies and learning the rhythm of the camp as dusk turned to darkness.

It was so good to be there.