Cavendish

These are the shores PEI national park in Cavendish. It was a windy day, and the beach was closed for swimming due to dangerous rip currents. After our experience in Bar Harbor we know exactly what that means, so we were totally happy to sit and play on the shore.

The beach is made up of red sandstone rocks. The sand is created by erosion from the waves, then mixes with salt and sun to get the lighter color. The kids spent all morning smashing the sandstone into different layers, making their own sand, and being generally enthralled with a new and different beach!!

On a random note, we found out that the Canada Games were being held on PEI this weekend, and decided to go check out the rowing/kayaking. They were up the West river, not too far from Cavendish.

(random picture of a farm along the way. )

We found the rowing competition and enjoyed a brief time observing the extravaganza. This is like the Canadian Olympics, the Summer games are on PEI right now and the winter games will be in Halifax, Nova Scotia in two years. This was a great opportunity for us to learn the provinces of Canada, as they were all competing against each other. Plus, there was a couple at our campground from Ottowa who kind of drilled us on our Canadian knowledge and we were.... quite humbled.
We learned that Canada has ten provinces and three territories. We are in the Maritime provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. There is also Newfoundland and Labrador: Newfoundland was the newest province to join Canada in 1949, and became Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001. The big land masses going to the west include Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. The territories are further north, they are Yukon (next to Alaska), the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Also!! The current Queen is Queen Elizabeth and she is on all the coins. She represents all the commonwealth dominions. And did you know that Cheryl has Canadian roots? Mom's paternal side immigrated from Norway to Manitoba, Canada and her maternal side came from Ireland to Ontario.

The next day we saw our Ottowa (Ontario) friends and they gave us an A+ on our research. Later that weekend, Cheryl met the Saskatchewan baseball coach touring the island after the games... they were equally freaked out by the hurricane (another story). We also met up with a little fiddling and felt right at home!! It has been wonderful meeting so many friendly Canadians... but alas... I must be trying the patience of my good friend Lissa who wants to see more stuff on Anne. Next!!!