Holy crap, I went to Green Gables

We are back in Halifax for our last night in the Maritimes - actually closer to the airport, since both of us have to leave at an unfortunate hour in the morning. That didn't stop us from driving into the city tonight, though, straight from the ferry, to dine at a seafood restaurant we'd had our eye(s) on. One final night of lobster and fresh oysters under the stars. Ahhhhh.

The ferry I refer to, of course, is the Wood Islands ferry that transported us back from P.E.I. this evening. Or "the Island," as I'm already accustomed to calling it. P.E.I. was something else. I expected it to be pretty, but whatever I expected, the reality was different. It isn't gorgeous in a dramatic, breathtaking way. With the exception of some outskirts of Charlottetown, every inch of the island is just sort of picturesque and idyllic. Cows, rolling hills, rivers, ponds, lakes, trees, farms, red clay, sand dunes, red cliffs, the ocean. There's apparently an exceedingly touristy area along highway 6 outside of Cavendish, but we weren't on that stretch of road ... and everything else was shockingly lacking in ugly tourist trappings - at least compared to what I expect from virtually any popular destination these days. Even the immediate area around Green Gables in Cavendish is run by the Prince Edward Island National Park, so it isn't too hideously tacky.

And ohh yeah, I went to Green Gables. Paul and I actually visited Summerside (where I ate my first whole boiled lobster!), stayed the evening and night in Charlottetown, then headed north to Cavendish, drove along the Gulf Highway in the national park on the north shore (taking a break to play among the cliffs and waves and sand dunes), to New Glasgow and the P.E.I. Preserve Company, and then back southeast to Wood Islands and the ferry to Nova Scotia. The weather today was as gorgeous as I could possibly have hoped for. I felt like I was in a truly different place on P.E.I., and I would go back in second. Waking up at our inn and looking out the window on the garden and grounds, sitting in a Charlottetown pub on "acoustic soul night" while local musicians played a song about Nova Scotia and everyone sang along, feeling the Gulf of St. Lawrence wash over my feet. Yeah, I would go back.