PEI so fly

Editor's Note: My travel companions feel some information has been left out and their PEI experience has not been accurately reflected. Their requested additions are included below in blue. My snarky comments to their reactions continue to be in red.

Friday we drove from Halifax to Prince Edward Island. It was about a three and a half hour drive and we got to use that bridge we had heard so much about!* PEI is an additional country point beyond Canada. I am still unsure exactly why it is and, say, Newfoundland is not but I don't make the points, I just count them. 

Facts we have learned:

It is beautiful here. 

PEI grows 25% of Canada's potatoes and probably all of the world's mussels.** 

People love "Anne of Green Gables" and you can visit the house that inspired it all. 

L.M. Montgomery, the author of "Anne of Green Gables," liked to go on walks. This sounds like the Victorian introvert equivalent of "I'll be in my room," "why don't I drive myself and meet you there?," and putting on headphones. 

Not only are you getting free entry into Canadian parks for the year of 2017, but you can get tattoos, too.*** 

This island hosts sandcastle competitions on the reg and they don't play. 

Things we did:

Much like I insist on using "walking outdoors" instead of "hiking," today we did not go "cycling" but we did "ride bikes." The ride was excruciating and somewhere between 15 and 50 miles. (It was definitely only 16 but the numbers go up depending on who is telling the story.) We barely survived, particularly the slightly uphill portion. Some (AT) felt they could not go on and were reminded that if they didn't make it to the top they wouldn't be able to see "Hamilton." Miraculously, she persevered. All of this was done during a brutally perfect PEI day with weather in the mid-70s and a constant cool breeze so we never broke a sweat. We did drive what we biked later and it took all of 10 minutes.

We decided we were the least sporty people to do so because we were the only ones biking with a purse.**** Let the record show, however, I had on a crossbody purse. If that's not the sportiest of all purses, I don't know what is. 

We took a normal selfie with our super-cool (dorky) helmets on. In this picture, unlike the second half of the trip, AT's helmet is on correctly. After a beach stop, her helmet was on backwards. I would have judged her more harshly except I did the same thing on a motorcycle in Greece once. You can ask Molly.

We took a "look sporty!" selfie and realized we all just looked really mad. We are interested in your tips for being "sporty" since we clearly don't know what that means or looks like. We spent most of our delicious dinner (at The Pearl right outside of Cavendish and it was delish) discussing how sore we would all be in the morning because of our excruciating athletic achievements. This morning we all woke up fine and realized maybe this is something we could do more in our real lives. Being sporty, that is. 

The new rating scale for things Dad and AT like will be "People watching" as the highest and "sitting on benches in helmets" as the lowest.

Mostly we just looked cute all the time:

Until next time, PEI!
-KT

*Oh hey, Ptarcie's family!

**No picture. We ate that too.

***Happy 150, Canada! You look fantastic!

****Bonus photo for you scrollers. Watch out, Tour de France!

Saint Pierre (and more)

The last trip of #teachersummer2017 started with a little bit of history and a lot of fantastic friends. I managed to squeeze in all my old* favorites and several of their children!! I took practically no pictures during all the quality hang-out time, but I did manage to get tons of Ptarcie and I on our impromptu Freedom Trail tour.**

 From Boston I met up with Dad and AT in Halifax, Nova Scotia.*** We had a lovely time touring the boardwalk, including the Maritime Museum and Canadian Immigration Museum. The latter was total propaganda about how nice and easy it is to move to Canada and I was sold hard. The former was a whole lot of boats.

In the afternoon, Dad and I headed to The World's Worst Fort.**** It was straight up a hill but didn't have much of a view up top. Inside the fort were barracks you could tour but mostly tourists being hot. We did, however, find the perfect accessory for all future Keltic Kudzu gigs.

Upon leaving the WWF, we found the nicest art gallery so we were able to call the day an overall win. It featured the work of Maud Lewis*****, a Nova Scotian folk artist best known for painting her house and selling her paintings out of it. They have the house on display in the museum along with her artwork. All of her work was charming, colorful, and joyful.

After a full day in Halifax, we boarded a plane for Saint Pierre.****** Saint Pierre and Miquelon are two islands just south of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean. You can see Canada from them but they are territories of France. They speak French, they use the Euro, and they have all the rights of the EU. It is a fascinating comparison to our April trip to French Guiana. There, everyone wanted more attention from mainland France and felt very misunderstood. In Saint Pierre, they feel it's no big deal. They're just France.

The island of Saint Pierre has a population around 6,000 and everyone knows everyone. There is a small town with brightly colored buildings bracing themselves for a harsh winter. We primarily traveled around the island looking at beautiful lonely vistas. Occasionally there were horses and once there was a seal!*******

Tomorrow the dream team returns to Halifax and drives north to Prince Edward Island.********
-KT

*Know this is not a reflection on their age but how near and dear they are in my heart. But we also talked about how old we are now.
**AKA the tour where I insisted Ptarcie and I continue to follow the red line throughout the North End until we had other plans.
***Not a point, nice try. Just Canada.
****Devoted blog readers will know we have been to a great many forts and have very strong opinions.
*****Soon to be featured in the upcoming movie, "Maudie," or "that preview I saw last week where I wanted Ethan Hawke to to stop being so Ethan Hawke."
******Point.
*******Photographed here but incredibly poorly.
********Point.