We started the day by finding a local restaurant which was open for breakfast. Believe it we found a meal for 5.95. It seems like any meals we have eaten at a restaurant have been a bit more expensive than what we have been accustomed to paying . Also, they do not do refills on ice tea but they do refills on coffee and they cost the same.
After our breakfast we started for a quilt shop in O’Leary in the North Cape Coastal Drive. At the end of the day we did not get finished with the tour. The storm moved in and it was strong wind and rain. Our first stop of the day was at the Information center in Kensington. As we drove from Cavendish to Kensington we passed thru some farming area on Route 6. They had very long high barns (larger than in Mercer County) and large square 2 story houses. Usually the barns and the house were white in color with black trim.
The gal working at the information center was perfect for her job. She was very personable and knew what she was talking about. With the information they also had a high scale craft store with items made on the island. The wool hand knitted sweaters were beautiful and cost 125 dollars.
After leaving Kensington we drove on route 2 to O’Leary which was a 68 mile drive. It continued to rain but not as hard as when we arrived at Kensington. The town was very small but had a hardware store which had everything you could get at a hardware store and at a dime store. In the basement they had a quilt shop with finished quilts, scrapbook materials and a large array of quilt fabric. I picked up a few packets of needles, a pattern and a gift for one of the girls. After leaving the store we went to the Potato Museum.
Walt enjoyed the museum and it was to make up for the quilt shop I had spent time at earlier in the day. The museum is in the middle of the area were many potato fields grow the potato which has played a important role in the economy for many years. At this point in history there are 170,000 people who live in PEI and they have 10,000 acres of potatoes planted each year on PEI. There are 2 companies who control 50% of the potatoes which are produced. The other growers are independent growers. It seems like we have the same problems with farm products in the US.
The machinery gallery contains a collection of farm machinery once used to plant and harvest potatoes and originally pulled by horses. Walt saw some of the machinery and remembered that his Uncle Henry used some of the same practices and machinery. Walt had spent some of his summer hours working for Uncle Henry on the potato farm in Cranberry Prairie.
After the museum we got a quick sandwich at a local restaurant. Walt had a Lobster Roll. He had seen them advertised since we were near the coast, so he finally tried one. He did enjoy it. Another thing we need to try is a Seaweed Pie. He tried seaweed when we were at the city market in Saint John, N.B. but never pie. The seaweed was very salty so people used it like potato chips in New Brunswick. I cannot imagine what a salty pie would taste like.
After leaving O’Leary we went south east to the West Point Lighthouse. It is painted black and white so the ships could pick it out of the red ground on the coastal cliffs. It was really raining hard so I stayed in the car and read some of our info pamphlets. He said they had two bedrooms for rent in the lighthouse and 4 others which were in another building connected to the lighthouse. He said the last room had just been rented for the night.
Description of the lighthouse: West Point Lighthouse was the first of the second generation lighthouses, constructed in 1875 for a cost of $4,459.59. With a total height of 67 feet and 8 inches, it is currently the tallest lighthouse on the Island.
After the light house visit we decided it was time to go back to Cavendish and see how the storm had done. We had heard in the restaurant that the storm had turned at Saint John, N.B. and had gone over the tip of Nova Scotia and had not hit the middle of PEI as predicted.
We arrived home at about 5:30 pm and everything was in one piece. We have been told that the storm arrived at about 2 pm with rain and a wind measured at 90 Km.
After supper we took a ride to find a Catholic Church for Mass in the morning. It is near the gate to the PEI Provincial Park and this time you could go in without a pass. The scenery was beautiful and we even saw 5 red fox at the edge of the road. It was about sunset so they had come out to eat. Naturally I did not have my camera with me so we may try to get some scenery shots in the morning.
Time for lights out. Goodnight.
PS I tried to download a picture of the light house but I did not have a good enough web connection to do the download.
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