Go East young man...and family...

It was done in typical Garrett fashion, booked a mere month before departure. Mrs. Vaunda had a cancellation and was letting our 5 rent her oceanfront cottage for the week... And oh what a cottage it was. 

It occurred to me on approximately the 19th hour 'ol Bess had been driving, that there was a slight chance I had done something rash by booking a pricey cottage so last minute and putting down a deposit when only having seen website photos

...the fear caught up with me as we saw the little road sign at the end of the red dirt lane....what had I done? 

We pulled over the hill and upon first glance i hoped upon hopes that ours was the one at the base of the steep hill, that was almost licking the ocean....

Vaunda gave us the quick tour and in a easy eastern accent she said 'if ya's need a thing I'm up the hill, in the white cottage' and she was gone. I think she could tell by our faces that we were in dire need of some R&R after some 20 hours of driving.  One of the first things we did after we chucked the suitcases into the cottage was race down the stairs to see what wonder beheld us at the ocean shore.

 

The children took to calling me 'crabadile Dundee' by the end of the week, I just couldn't get enough of those little bubbly faced cuties. There's something to be said about being on the ocean shore, if it weren't for the crazy tides, we'd have spent the entire waking hours down there. I've been far blessed with this land lovers paradise of 50 rolling acres, but those at the coast have a whole different playground to enjoy...and enjoy it we did. 

There was a bit of land based entertainment to be had as well, our favourite being the ceilidh ... An east coast music experience that is busting with authenticity and people who really love to entertain. 

Even the kids agreed this was one of the major highlights of our trip :) 

We also did the expected as tourists, and attended a matinee of the 'Anne of Green Gables' musical, that has been running for over 50 years ...

We also toured the factory of the best ice cream in all of Canada! COWS dairy, Mmm. The workers there work for 2 months straight in the ice cream factory, concocting delicious tubs of ice cream loaded with extras like cookies, chocolate bars and sauces and once they've reached their quota of the good stuff for the year (based on previous years sales) ... They return to their previous job of ...shucking oysters! Who'd a thunk! 

Feel free to comment on the utter dorky-ness of my hat as opposed to my family members...I won't forgive them for not telling me. 

This is our darling daughter Gabe, who is posing with the Tim hortons card his friend told him to take with him and get pictures, holding it in various PEI locations :) ... This ones for you Kaden! 

Oh, and this one... 

And one more :) 

We also visited the homestead of Anne, Marilla, and Matthew....what a hopping place that was, everybody and their brother was there. Here I am a-posing as Le-Anne of Green Gables...tee hee. My husband is the stellar photographer with the big thumb ;) 

And this here is Anne's bedroom! ....you kind of have to go with an open mind, as neither the home nor the musical are exactly like the movie (which set a wonderful and high standard in my opinion...Anne's voice in the musical is so far from Meghan Follows' voice that it's a little surprising at first...) 

We even did the 'haunted woods' trail, thankfully there were no ankle twisting graves freshly dug...and no creepy fog either ;) ....( But I do spy another gratuitous timmies plug for Kadens sake...) 

I think you get the idea that we had copious amounts of fun...so I'll wrap up for now with a quote from Lucy Maud herself...and I can now say I understand exactly where she's coming from :)