For the first time, some bad weather. The morning was mixed sun and cloud but by afternoon, it was raining.

Helen and Danielle went to see the Anne of Green Gables house while Paul, Christopher, and I went mini-golfing at a small place on Hwy 6. Behind the mini-golf course was some kind of museum devoted to King Tut! After the girls picked us up, we went out for a coffee and bagels and then decided to go to some of the small port towns and then to Kensington to see if there was anything to do and if there was a Bank of Montreal branch that we could get some cash from. There was a bowling alley and little else in Kengsington, so we went on to Summerside. Summerside is an interesting little tourist town but because it was now pouring rain, we went into a mall. We found out that any Entre’act cash machine will give us money from our Bank of Montreal account, so I took out $200, and then Helen took out $150. We decided to go bowling in Kensington but found out that the alley was closed "for the summer". So we drove on to Charlottetown instead, and went to the art gallery, as it continued to rain. The art gallery is located within an impressive structure downtown—the Confederation Arts Centre—but the collection itself was unimpressive. The most noteworthy part of the collection is the original work by Robert Harris, who painted the famous "Fathers of Confederation" work. The original was burned at the Parliament building in 19—something, but many preliminary sketches survive. Otherwise, the displays were of limited interest. We got back in the truck and drove back to Cavendish along the coast this time. Some of the towns East of here appeared to be very interesting, with more boats and dock-side fish stores than the other areas we have seen, but because it was still raining, we kept going to camp, after picking up some more ice.

The campground at Cavendish is not among our favourites. The sites are close together and not very private. There are several tree stumps and roots sticking up under our feet and causing us to stumble. Worst of all, no campfires are allowed. We really missed these after the rain fall today as we tried to dry out our towels and sleeping bags. Helen ran most of them through the drier in the laundry room.

Christopher walking along the beach at Cavendish.

For supper tonight, I made spaghetti. Helen advised me to use two full packages, and I did, resulting in the waste of about half the pan full. I also burned the noodles on the bottom because it was too full and there was too little water. We were quite hungry and the food, as usual, tasted better outside. After supper, we dried some more of our sleeping bags and towels and then went down to the beach briefly for the sunset. Paul and Christopher spent most of the time tossing stones into the water. Because of the weather, we actually haven’t had much time or inclination for swimming yet.

PEI is lush but not as geologically or scenicly as interesting as New Brunswick. There are many beautiful farm houses, many, indeed, with gables green or otherwise, and the soil is an intriguing red, but I preferred the hills, rocks, and forests of New Brunswick and Fundy National Park.

I called ahead to find out what time the ferry leaves Wood’s Island for Nova Scotia. It leaves every 90 minutes from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. We plan to try for the 10:30 a.m. boat, and hope to reach Cape Breton by 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. This time, no one expressed any inclination to stay any longer than we already have.