Small, but important!

​PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
What is the first thing you think about when this province is named? If you’re a reader like me – well, Anne of Green Gables tops the chart.
However, there are a number of interesting facts about this province. Although being the smallest and the only province with no land borders (although now they do have the Confederation Bridge connecting PEI to New Brunswick), they have the densest population per capita –it’s not a big island! So to get flooded with over 125,000 visitors yearly to the Anne of Green Gables site is hard on the landscape, although welcome to the pocketbooks of the Islanders, I’m sure.
PEI was also first discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1534, but was never settled until the 1700s. It was also the place our Fathers of Confederation met in 1867 to create the nation of Canada! I guess a good moral lesson from this is that just because you’re small, doesn’t mean you’re not important.
Now after that dump of historical facts, I’ll get into the meat of what I enjoyed. When I was 16 my parents asked me what I wanted for my graduation gift. I said “a trip to either Alaska or PEI”. (I wasn’t being greedy; we traveled most summers so I knew we’d be going somewhere.) So that spring right after grad was over, we loaded up and headed to this island I’d always wanted to see.
I never dreamed about a decade later I’d be taking this trip again with my sister-in-law as a get-away trip against the loss of my brother. The first trip was the end of June and so the tourist season had started. But this trip we did on my spring/Easter break the end of March. I flew into Ontario from Alberta and we drove in Cindy’s car from there. It was a totally different atmosphere. The verse that would match this trip seems to be what Paul stated in Acts 27:26. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. When we drove onto the ferry and went on deck to look at all the ice, I was sure we wouldn’t cut through that! The sound of the crashing and breaking of huge ice floes as we steamed our way along was both fascinating and frightening! Although it was freezing cold, I stayed outside as much as I could to watch – and pray! But we made it safely over to the other side, and disembarked for a weekend of fun.
Since it was Easter on Sunday Cindy asked if I wanted to go to church. (This was in the days before cell phones, google, etc) When I said yes, she wondered how we’d find a church. I looked into the sky and said, “Well, look at all the steeples here in Charlottetown. One of them must be a church.” So we hopped into the car, and proceeded on an adventure of taking whatever road seemed to lead toward a steeple. It took four tries to end up at a steeple that was attached to a Presbyterian church. As we parked and prepared to go in, Cindy looked at me. “You’ve given me a whole new meaning to the word, ‘steeplechase’.” It took me a moment to catch on that there`s a horse race by that name. After that, I got the giggles, and it took some doing to try and sober up for the church service.
Naturally, I wanted to go to Cavendish to see what Anne`s house would be like outside of the tourist season. I was prepared for it to be closed, but knew we could still walk around outside. However, when we pulled up there was a car there. I turned to Cindy. “Wow – do you think someone is inside?” Without waiting for an answer I jumped out of the vehicle, picked my way through the mud and leaned up against a window to peer inside. My shock when a Japanese face stared right back at me caused me to yell – “Aaah!” I leapt back into a big mud puddle. I saw Cindy leaning against the car laughing. Then the door opened. Lo and behold, although closed for the season, a Japanese couple had pre-booked a private tour while on tour of Canada. When they learned I’d flown from Alberta, then drove, they most kindly offered to let us join their tour. We split the cost and had an amazing time touring the house with no one else around. I feel kind of spoiled that I’ve had so many opportunities to see “tourist” spots without the tourists. It makes such a difference to wander at will and spend as much time as wanted. You can visualize the realness of a place in such a fashion.
Cindy thought I was a bit gloomy, but I loved stopping at the cemeteries. They were all over the island. It took me a bit to realize they were because of the shipwrecks of boats sailing to reach Canada. I just found it interesting to read the epitaphs and dates on some of the oldest graves in Canada.
Again, it was great to be there – to live there year-round would be a different story weatherwise. I’d also probably get frustrated with all the tourists around; I’m selfish in that I need my space and my privacy. But it’s an interesting place to go to – nowadays you could take the ferry one way and the bridge the other way.

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Back view from ferry as we leave

The steepled church we found

They really do have red dirt!

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