Monday, July 12- New Brunswick to PEI

We knew from the outset that today was going to mainly be a driving day, without too many highlights, so when the three girls had to use the men’s room at Dunkin Doughnuts this morning, it seemed certain to make the blog. Since we knew that it was going to be a long day in the car, and that we had several more to come, we stopped at a Walmart in Maine and bought the girls each a portable DVD player. The one we have been using for a few years for the car has been acting up, and at times has skipping so much as to be completely unwatchable. They’ll get a lot of use out of the new ones, and certainly did already today. (By the way, we fixed the “Change Oil” warning that we were getting on the car. It had nothing to do with the oil or engine’s condition. It merely counts odometer miles, and just had to be reset. We wish we had known that before.)

We reached the Canadian border around 11:15, but that quickly jumped to 12:15 as we lost an hour by driving into the Atlantic Time Zone. We also doubled the number of Canadian Provinces we have visited by adding New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to our lifetime lists today. New Brunswick took a long time to get through, but it was pretty. The land was usually flat, but when we did see some hills, they often let us peek over a rolling sea of pine trees. We saw many “Attention” signs with silhouettes of moose, but we didn’t actually see any moose today.

We got to the Confederation Bridge about 6:00. The 13 kilometre bridge is a long, high approach to Prince Edward Island. Once we got onto the island itself, we visited the touristy but cute shopping area around the provincial welcome centre. Many things are now “Anne of Green Gables” themed, with lobsters coming in a close second, and potatoes as well. We’re staying on the northern side of the island, the “Green Gables Shore,” in a little green cottage near a harbor. Scott finished out his evening by sitting on the porch and playing Stan Rogers and Jud Strunk songs on his guitar.