Anne of Green Gables, a well know book by Louise M Montgomery, was set in a fictional house and property called Green Gables. That setting was inspired by a house in the town of Cavendish PEI owned by the authors grandparent's cousins. That site has been a major tourist destination for nearly 100 years and is now administered by the Canadian National Parks service. This morning we joined the throngs and paid homage to girl-hood fantasy. We spent a pleasant hour touring the house (decorated as described in the book) and wandering the grounds including the famous haunted woods. Like everything we have seen on PEI the setting was sunny, warm and tranquil.
Nina had discovered that the PEI town of Slemon Park was the likely location of an allied air force base where her father was stationed for a short period during WWII, so after Green Gables we headed there to see what we could see. To our astonishment an air show was underway and we arrived just as the US Navy's Blue Angels were giving their usual display of precision flying. We stood in a small park (commemorating the Canadian Air Force ) and watched as the dark blue and yellow jets roared overhead. What a buzz it must be to fly one of those things.
After the air show it was time to depart PEI so we headed south to the Constitution Bridge, 13km of steel and concrete connecting PEI to the province of New Brunswick on the mainland. The drive across this spectacular bridge in bright sunshine, surrounded by shining blue ocean was a fitting good bye to PEI - we really enjoyed this place, pretty and peaceful.
We camped for the night in a gravel parking lot across the road from the visitors center at the western end of the Confederation Bridge.