Sunscreen, Bottled Water, and Penicillin

Wow! Do we have stories to tell! For the past two years every 'day off' we've taken has been either to spend with visitors or to go visit others. This year, we decided to do something different and take a week just to ourselves. We adventured out to the beautiful North Shore of Prince Edward Island, tent, child, and puppy in tow. The car was packed to the hilt and we did have to leave our camp BBQ behind (wouldn't fit). We'd later kick ourselves gently for that one. We left at nap time with the hope that Austin would sleep the nearly 2 hours it took to get there. He had other plans and slept a mere 45 minutes. Since he was awake and antsy, we stopped at the Gateway, a little 'town' of shops with a large playground/greenspace just at the other side of the Confederation Bridge, to run off some energy. If you're not familiar with the Confederation bridge, I urge you to take a moment to open another browser and Google it. It's quite a feat/sight in and of itself. After some real quick shopping and a lot of sliding... we continued on. It was only another 45 minutes from there to our destination.

We arrived in one piece and still of somewhat sane minds (how sane did we start off with anyways to think we could tent-it with an 18 month old boy and a 5 month old puppy?) We unpacked the car and quickly set up the tent and I sent Austin, Sasha, and Trevor off to the beach while I finished setting up beds, picnic table, etc. They returned in time to start supper and Trevor began working on the fire.... to find out that the wood was all damp. Here's where we kicked ourselves for leaving the BBQ behind. It took us a few days and many contributions to the swear jar to get the hang of lighting a fire with damp wood.

Once we got settled, the rest of our week went really well, as long as we remembered the sunscreen, bottled water, and penicillin. The weather was hot. It was beautiful, and far better than anything we had been prepared for (heater and screen tent in hand!). Sleeping was just comfortable at night, but napping in the tent during the day was nearly unbearable. Despite all the sunscreen we could apply, Austin ended up with red arms and cheeks by day 4. Before we left, we checked with friends who camped there regularly for years on the potablility of the water. We were assured that the water was safe to drink, but were cautioned that it doesn't taste good. Being the troopers we were with the full car we ventured out without our water jug and thought we'd just drink what was supplied there. Around day 2 Austin exploded out the back end....endlessly.... and we decided to go into town to get some bottled water. Since we were in town, I decided to visit a walk in clinic. I had been having a terribly sore throat since 2 days before we left... and although I felt like dying, and Trevor repeatedly asked if I was sure I still wanted to go, I maintained that if I was going on this trip even if I was on my death bed... and what nicer place to die anyways than on the shore of PEI. By day 3 I hadn't slept... was irritable and entirely unable to even drink (quite dehydrated in the heat). So I took advantage of being in town and was diagnosed with Strept Throat. Antibiotics in hand... the trip was bound to only get better.

And it did! We had a great time for the rest of the trip. The weather held out and short of some wind making large-ish waves at the beach, we couldn't complain. We spent a couple days touring around the North Shore of PEI and made a stop in Cavendish to visit the Avonlea Village. The temperatures were usually in the high 20's to low 30's. We enjoyed a few days at the beach and also made good use of the playground and 'Bark Park' at the campground. And now.... do I ever have a lot of photos to show you!

Our campsite.

Our little "Coo Doo" (Cool Dude) eating a snack in his chair.

The beach at 6:00am....

And the beach in mid-afternoon.

Enjoying the beach... and burying his toes in sand.

Sasha also enjoyed the beach... except the water part! She would go in begrudgingly, until an unleashed lab ran her over (in the water) and pushed her under. Then she wouldn't go in unless she was dragged.

Sasha would dig herself a hole in the sand under the shade.... and sleep in it. Everytime.

6:00am became a 'normal' time to be at the beach for the day!

Being up so early had its upsides though.... We got to enjoy some spectacular sunrises.

And like all things.... that which goes up... must come down! Nap time in the tent.... the very hot tent! Despite Austin being so excited to be in a tent (and literally bouncing off the walls when he was awake), we had no trouble getting him to sleep. He crashed really hard every time. The problem came with keeping him asleep. The monkey tosses and turns so many times that he often fell off his air mattress multiple times a night. One night I looked over and saw him sleeping on a pile of clothes across the tent. Another night we woke up with him in our room (he crawled under the 'wall').

At one of the restaurants in Cavendish. One little hand…. on big claw!

Our day at Avonlea Village (Anne of Green Gables) was a very hot one. But that didn't stop Austin from finding every nook and cranny there was to be found! This was inside the church.

We played Dress-up with the period costumes.

We even found Anne! (and ?Emily?) And Austin needed to show Anne his belly (he likes to check if it's still there)

We went on a horse and wagon ride. And afterwards, the driver let Austin pet the horses. They tickled with their noses!

A look down the village.

They had some great entertainment at the village. We sat through 2 of these shows and loved them! There's a quick shot at the end... of all the Stompin' Tom's! Now I understand!

It was a full (and VERY hot) day. And Austin didn't quite make it to the car.

A stop at Cows (Canada's best ice cream.... says the sign)

Austin not only let himself into the car, but also got the cap off the bottle and helped himself! (No worries... it's only raspberry cordial)

The campground had activities for every day and evening. We took in the tractor hay ride and enjoyed a tour of the entire campground!

Camping Maritime Style! Imagine this.... for row upon row upon row....

I've had a few people ask for more pictures of Sasha... so here goes! This was our little puppy shoot! Her left ear has flopped... unless she's just woken up or is really interested in something. Now the poor thing looks even sillier than she ever did! (Her vet calls her Yoda for her big ears!)

Mmmmmm.... sea weed!

At the Bark Park

The "come and get me" stance

Hope you all had a great summer. This was a great end to our summer and kick off for our fall. We did cut our vacation short a bit. We stayed 7 days, but came home a few days early to miss the pending hurricane. Not too sure how hard PEI got hit, but here in Moncton we had hardly anything.

A quick look at Austin’s little travelling cave…. the car really was packed tight!

We miss you all and thought of you often while we were here. We wish you could have been there in person to enjoy it with us, but hopefully these pictures bring you a little closer. I'm using a different method of posting this today and I'm not sure if you can copy the pictures off here and well as before. If you can't but would like some of them, please send me an email and let me know which ones and I'll be more than happy to email you the original file.

Love,

Allison, Trevor, Austin, and Sasha

ps. Leave us some comments! We love hearing back from you!