Prince Edward Island

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Prince Edward Island has nearly 8000 caches, so I devised a drive around the island to find lots of them. I didn't count on park and grabs being down embankments into the woods or mosquitoes worse than at home or our GPSr not being very accurate. I also had planned on visiting a few things yesterday.

Our day started with toast and jam from the Preserve Company (Blueberry Lemon and Very Berry Cherry). We found a few caches without too much difficulty before stopping at the Acadian Museum of Prince Edward Island. It started with a video describing their life, emigration, the forced exodus. We then walked around reading about individuals, before looking at artifacts found during archaeological digs.

We took a circuitous route south (by going north to find a needed cache) to stop at the Bottle Houses next. Three buildings (a chapel, a house and a tavern) were built by Edouard Arsenault shortly before his death. They are beautiful in an odd sort of way. I especially loved the way the green bottles filtered sunlight. None of the pictures I took in any way capture the effect. All three of the houses have had to be taken down and rebuilt because of their foundations, except the central pillar of the tavern, which was my favorite building. He kept especially interesting bottles simply for display there.

After a failed attempt to find more caches, we decided to head to Prince Edward Island National Park, a string of shore on the northern coast. We thought we were driving to the west end, but it's been made into a really cool biking area, with mountain bike obstacles to boot. We walked to the beach, where the boys renewed their love of being chased by waves. L was especially unsuccessful in staying dry, although he did try. They threw small and big rocks, collected shells (which were left there, because it's a national park, of course) and generally had a fantastic time. I think they really would like to live near a coast. We walked a bit more trail, spent more time on the beach, and called it a day.

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High Temperature: 61 (Miscouche, PE)

Low Temperature: 64 (New Glasgow, PE)

Miles Driven: 189

Steps Taken, According to Fitbit (for the two of us): 17168

Future Plans: Return to Prince Edward Island for geocaching when there are fewer mosquitoes

Memorable Meals: We returned to the Preserve Company (Cole finished his pasta in about 2 minutes and then ate Jeff's mashed potatoes, too. We all had dessert again, which were yummy.)

We Learned: We may have completed a life goal next week in Newfoundland if that goal says visit all the Canadian provinces. Northwest Territories and Nunavut are territories, as is Yukon, which we have already visited.

We Wondered: Why our concept of park and grabs and those of the cache owners on the Island are so different.

Geocaches Found: 13

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Photos

Family Portrait
I don't think I've been good about getting a photo in each province, but I should in each of the Atlantic provinces.

Cool Shells
I saw the first of these and thought it was an anomaly, but there are many. They're beautiful.

Bottle House Interior
I love the colors and light in this photo.

Field of Lupins
They apparently grow like weeds here, because they are everywhere. They are primarily purple, but there are white and pink ones, as well as some that appear to be hybrids.

Green Gables
We have not read the books, nor have the boys, so we were not inclined to pay to actually visit the site. This is the closest we could get.

Fields
It is early in their growing season, so we saw a lot of fields like this.

Obstacle
The boys had a great time pretending to be on a bike, running over the obstacles.

Throwing Rocks
They haven't had a ton of experience throwing rocks, so they throw as many as they can.

Rare Photo of Me
Yes, it's not actually horizontal. It's hard on the beach.

Fox!
We saw him from afar, just wandering down the road. He didn't seem all that concerned by our presence. This photo is slightly blurry, but it shows him the best.