Diversity in Prince Edward Island

This is the land of Anne of Green Gable written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Prince Edward Island is where L.M. Montgomery grew up and her love of this island really shows up in her books. Anne of Green Gable paraphernalia is in nearly every shop. They are very proud of her and her literature.

Yes, this should be John's shirt..... I can hardly keep him out of the "chocolate" shops. If you can not read the shirt it says

I can quit eating............ CHOCOLATE.............but I'm not a quitter

I love the houses, barns and farms. This is a land that has BRIGHT COLORS. You can see a purple house (now that is not lavender.... that is purple), a shy blue storage building and a red grain silo at any time. It is so striking it is unbelievable.

Now this is a guy that is ready for the winter. He has his boat in the front yard and his 250 lobster traps lined up and ready for next season.

Now how do you like this mail box????? See the jay bird on the ground?

East Coastal Drive

This map is showing the East Coastal Drive in King's County of PEI. We had wanted to take the drive up to the East Point Lighthouse. And I had read about some great real great beaches on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic side of the island. "Let's walk some beaches today, John".

What a wonderful drive. One of the quaintest towns we came across was St. Peters. It looked like right out of a story book. Everything is so pristine and well groomed that it is hard to believe it is real.

Us on one of the beaches. It was just beautiful and we had a nice long walk. We found several shells and some two colored sandstone.

East Point lighthouse. They had a tour and it was great. The guide had a lot of very interesting information..... such as....

Did you know why the later lighthouses only have 4 sides?

What did they use in the plaster to give it strength (easy to come by) to use on the inside walls?

What liquid, that would not freeze, was used to operate the gears of the lighthouse?

Why did this lighthouses need to be moved?

Coming up to the top floor in the lighthouse. It was very interesting to see where the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence meet. You can see where the gulf and the Ocean waves come together and you can see a line going right up the water. We could not believe what we saw.

Prince Edward Island

This is our second day Adventure road trip to the Central Coastal area of Charlottetown in Queen's County. It also included a jaunt to the Southern area of King's County to do some wine tasting at Rossignol Estate Winery and to see the famous Brudenell River Golf Course.

We took a self guided walking tour and one of the key places not to miss when in Charlottetown is Province House. This is where the idea of "the dream" of there being a Canada was first recognized.

The conference room where the various delegates met to discuss possibilities. Could there be a CANADA?

Rossignol Estate Winery...... John liked the medium body red wine...... I LOVED the ice wine. Then the lady served the fruit wines.... Now you probably can guess that I loved them..... but John like them also. My favorites are the maple fruit wine, the cranberry fruit wine, the raspberry wine. Coming in top on the list however, was the maple liqueur. It was so warm and smooth it just melted in your mouth with a maple flavor.

John at Brudenell River Champion Golf course. He had his clubs but I could not get him to play a round..... he was just happy to have stepped on the hallowed grounds. We had dinner at the Golf Club House. It was very nice and seafood chowder was good.

Prince Edward Island, Canada

This is my picture of the Confederation Bridge. It does not do it justice.... it is 8 miles long and very sleek looking. It is what connects Prince Edward Island to the rest of the world, and the only other way off the island is by a Ferry boat.

Our strategy to see PEI was to divide it into 3 sections. We planed our RV home base to be in the central area near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And our first adventures take us on the North Cape Coastal Drive. This is called Prince County and we wanted to see the lighthouse at the very northwestern tip of the island.... of course called North Cape Lighthouse.

The towns along the way were very small and usually around water ways. The wind is very very intense and the people were very friendly.

Us in front of the chowder house and Cape North Lighthouse. We had lunch of lobster and seafood chowder soup, of course.

Cape North Lighthouse. You can not see them here but they have several (my guess 12) large towering turbines windmills that give PEI about 10% its energy. The windmills look like the ones we have seen in California.

St Anne de Beaupre, Canada

Saint Anne de Beaupre. This is a short distance from Old Quebec and close to the St Lawrence River. It is a small town that is well scattered along the road to Beaupre. The setting is gorgeous and the basilica is spectacular. We sat outside and had lunch before going into the Church. It gave us time just to gaze on, not only the Basilica but the beautiful fountain in the front entrance.

On the way to the basilica we had stopped at a copper shop. I love copper....... anyway, we found out that the lady's husband had designed & made the copper doors and all the silver work inside the basilica. What an artist!!!!! It all was gorgeous.

I love this statue of St Joseph and Baby Jesus. I remember having one just like it when I was young. Baby Jesus resting peacefully in his earthly fathers arms just has a very soft place in my heart.

Here is something I discovered...... Do you know Mary's fathers name?????? I knew her mothers name was Anne but honestly I did not know her fathers name.............................. JOACHIUM..................... Nice canvas art work.

This is the church downstairs. Can you believe they not only have a great church up stair......... and believe me............... it is very awesome all on its own............ the ceilings are like nothing I have ever seen before, depicting stories of Jesus's childhood years.

Sunday was the celebration of Grandparents Day here in Canada.... John and I came here at St Anne's de Beaupre. Incense was used during mass and we were in a procession of the Holy Eucharist honoring Grandparents and St Anne. What wonderful memories that brought back to both of us from our childhood.

Last Day in the Quebec area

This is the bridge to cross over to Ile D Orleans. It is a land filled with rich soil for farming corn, wheat, vegetables, apple trees, some wine vineyards and many Churches.

Of course, there are the fishermen everywhere around the St Lawrence River..... So I finely got some smoked fish and fish pates. YEAH!!!!

This was a wonderful experience. Did you know that some apple cider has as much alcohol content as wine? We tried several varieties..... I found one that I liked...... believe it or not it is....... ice cider...... and as you can guess it is the most expensive...... running at $19-35 for a small bottle. It takes apparently takes 80 to 100 iced apples to make one bottle.

This is the beautiful land.

John found the chocolate factory.

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Another day in Quebec

This is Louis Hebert ...... I was really impressed that after seeing several monuments to famous people or military men that here there was a monument to a farmer. This is a monument to honor the first family to help colonize New France (Quebec). Louis and his wife, Marie Rollett, and 3 children were requested by Champlain to settle and farm the land. They were given a 3 year supply and thru his knowledge of farming they succeeded. On the left side of this statue is his son in law who also helped with farming.

This is a gorgeous Murial of the history of Quebec and its historically important people who made it what it is today. The Murial is about 20feet wide and 50 feet tall on the side of a building.

This is in Place Royale..... It is a cobblestone plaza that was the center of the lower town. This is the site where they have found part of Samuel de Champlain's original first fort. It really brought history alive.

Our Lady of Victories Church....... Our guide telling us the interesting stories about this old church. Note the boat hanging from the ceiling, it is a to scale model of the 1664 boat that brought them to Canada. Have you ever seen a boat in church.

Sunset over the Saint Lawrence River.

Quebec, Canada

We made it...... We are now in Quebec, Canada. We are camping in Levi which is across the Saint Lawrence River from Quebec, so we are on a Ferry taking us to our first day in Quebec.

This is the man who started it all. This is Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec. Did you know that Quebec mean????...... "where the river narrows". That is way it is such a strategic piece of land. That is why there were so many battles for its control.

This is one of the first girls schools in North America and is ran by the Ursuline nuns, but of course, now there are no nuns teaching. Marie de L Incarnation was the founder of this school. She had a great influence on both the Indians and the settlers children. The church there is just beautiful.

du Petit-Champlain is a quaint street for shoppers of all kinds. We have been looking for some Christmas gifts here......

These are the "Plains of Abraham". The plains look real calm and peaceful now but there a lot buried here in a common grave .... Canadians, English and French. It is a very historical place to the people of Quebec.

Now, do you know why they call it "Plains of Abraham"? No.... it does not have anything to do with Abraham from the Bible. These plains were owned by Martin Abraham .....thus the name "Plains of Abraham".

St Joseph's Oratgory on Mount Royal, Montreal

The St Joseph's Oratory atop Mount Royal is a very popular Shrine on the west side of Montreal. It also has a very large dome and stands very grand on the hill. The basilica's great organs and 52 bell chimes will occasionally rekindle solemn work of great composers. The sound just echos throughout the area.
This is a picture of how it will look when remolding if finished. They have some work to be done on the grounds and some on the back of the building. I was told that here is Montreal there are only two seasons....winter and construction.

This is a photo of the inside ... looking from the back forward to the pews. It is a very simple but very rich looking Church.

Brother Andre's devotion to Saint Joseph and the role that he played in the life of Mary and Jesus was something that was very important to him. At the Church there are many displays from all over the world of Joseph and the Holy Family.

Many claimed that they were cured through the prayers of Brother Andre and Saint Joseph. Because Andre wanted Saint Joseph to be honoured, in 1904 he began the construction of a small chapel on the side of Mount Royal.

This is the small St Joseph chapel in the back of the Basilica.

Here is a picture of the inside of Brother Andre's St Joseph chapel. It really was nice. The Canadian people have real strong belief and devotions to Jesus. They also believe strongly that the saints will act as an intercessor to Jesus for them. Mary and Saint Joseph hold real high favor here in Montreal Canada. The patron of Canada is Saint Joseph. I really love Montreal.

Notre Dame Basilica

Notre-Dome Basilica of Montreal. The present church was built in 1841. The parish church has had a church, of some kind, on this spot since 1659. The architecture of this building is just spectacular.

When we first open the large wood doors, the ornate grander and brilliant colors just took our breath away. It is just incredible. We of course, went to mass here..... unfortunately, for us, it was in french.... but I was constantly finding myself just amazed by all the intricate details everywhere.

This is the organ loft, if you can call it a loft, that holds an organ with 7,000 pipes. When the organ and the choir sang, it just dominated the whole interior of the church. The organ music was just magical! The sky blue color of the ceiling with the stars is just like being outside.

I did not understand the stained glass windows until we went on the tour. They were created to depict scenes from Montreal's social and religious history. This one is representing the first mass in Montreal. What a day this was!!!!