It is Sunday afternoon, July 27, Day 15 of our Atlantic Maritime tour. We are at Cavendish, PEI for 5 days. We arrived on Friday, July 25 and will pull out on Wednesday, July 30. We have looked forward to a rest stop defined as a stop more than two nights long. Now that this is our third day of resting, we’re ready for the open road.

Being in Cavendish means all things “Anne of Green Gables.” Yesterday we had a guided motor coach tour of the northern part of PEI but never straying too far from the green gables. “Anne of Green Gables” was a fictional story, but you couldn’t tell it was fictional with all the buildings and artifacts representing the era of the story. Shannon is in front of the house with green gables that represents the book’s namesake. And, she is wearing the tell tale Anne hat with red ponytails. This picture is for Shannon’s older sister Fern. Shannon and Fern read the story together when Shannon was a young girl, and Fern and her husband Earl visited here a number of times as they led RV caravan trips.

Anyway, we visited the Anne of Green Gables home. We visited the Green Gables Museum. We saw the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author, and other places she refers to in her writings. Today we visited Avonlea a rebuilt segment of the fictional community mentioned in the book. In fact we have done Anne of Green Gables ad nauseum, but we still have the play or the musical to see tomorrow night. Ah, the lobster dinner scheduled for tonight should momentarily distract me from green gables and provide a welcomed relief from all things green gables.

On our motor coach tour of the north side of the island, we did get to tour through the countryside. It is heavily agricultural, and in fact agriculture is the number 1 industry followed by tourism and fishing (lobster). The potato fields were all in bloom which were very beautiful. All potatoes grown on PEI supply all the French fries for Wendy’s east of the Mississippi. We were told that the potato industry is controlled by the Irving family (Irving gas stations are quite prevalent in Canada), and they control the seed, fertilizer, markets, etc. The potato farmers are close to being indentured servants to the Irving family.

Fishing is very important. We had a talk on lobster fishing next to a stack of traps and a lobster boat. We heard about the cycle of lobster production and learned how lobsters were caught. When lobster season is done, the boats fish for tuna, and Japanese buyers are never far away. We have several events already scheduled that will allow us to experience the lobster industry up close. Burp.

We also learned how mussels are raised, harvested and processed. The buoys in the photograph hold lines of mussels. In fact there is a mussel producing factory not too far from where the picture was taken. Apparently PEI mussels are sold worldwide except to the Norwegians. The Norwegians developed the techniques PEI uses to raise and harvest mussels, and therefore the Norwegians don’t allow PEI mussels into their country to compete with their own. (Obviously our local tour guide was not shy in telling us about the dark underbelly of business on PEI.)

Tomorrow we are scheduled for an 11 hour day of tours, eating, and a live performance of “Anne of Green Gable.” We will be spending our time on the south side of the island centered mostly in Charlottetown, the largest city on the island. Keeping with the spirit of the place, we will have to sacrifice and make sure we eat our fair share of sea food.