Foreshadowing of a beautiful summer ahead

At 10:22 on Friday night, I boarded an AC flight from YYZ to YYG for my first trek of the season to PEI.

I'd brought a friend with me, one who'd not yet visited the island, and it was fun to anticipate our adventures together.  

Although the visit was a short one (2.5 days), we did our best to pack it with Island "stuff"!

Arriving after midnight meant a visit to the all night Sobey's in Ch'town before heading out to the house.  Brian obligingly picked us up and went grocery shopping with us -- never saw a grocery story at 2 a.m. before; they took advantage of the lull in shoppers to restock the shelves! -- before driving us out to St Peter's Harbour, around the corner from his own Red Head Harbour.

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2:00 a.m. in the cereal aisle of the all-night Sobey's in Charlottetown, PEI

The night sky was bejewelled with stars, and the Milky way was clearly visible overhead. One of my favourite things about the island (and one which differentiates it so from Toronto) is the sky, and I felt so much joy at this astronomical greeting from above as we pulled into the driveway and unpacked our bags from Brian's trunk.

The boys downed a Gahan House from the fridge which I had had the foresight to prearrange (the beer, not the fridge) while I unpacked groceries and suitcases, and discovered that somewhere between removing my gloriously noise-cancelling headphones and arriving at the house, the headphones had disappeared.  Crumb!

Thankfully, Brian had the number to the commissionaire memorised (one advantage of having a friend who works at the tower!!), and I wrote it on a scrap to follow up later.

By the time we'd unpacked and finished catching up, it was after 4 a.m., and glimmers of sunrise were hinting at making themselves known on the horizon, so I stayed up a little longer, and captured the pre-sunrise on my iPhone before falling into bed.

nearly sunrise at 4:55 a.m. off the deck

The next "morning" (well alright, it was closer to noon!) our house looker after swung by with the plumber to do a few odd jobs.  Then we lounged about and got caught up with the neighbours on one side.  

Afterwards I had a nap in the hammock - nice! 

Then it was time to show Rick the beach and the light house.  We set off into the late afternoon windy sunshine, and snapped a few pics of the old pier en route. How strange it was to be walking in 22-degree sunshine and still see remnants of snow along the treeline!

getting close to the lighthouse

Sunday was more of a cloudy Island day; rain seemed inevitable, but we'd determined to bike into Morell so that I could show Rick the village, and so I could go to the bank and get some money for our house guy, who had presented me with a bill for the winter's work!!

Although Tats' bike had not weathered the winter on PEI particularly well, and was desperately in need of a new chain, my bike seemed okay, as did one of the others, and we set out towards Hwy 2.

Camera-less, Rick took away only memories of the RedHead fishing huts, the Morell River, and the local stretch of the confederation trail (the visitors' centre was not yet open for the season) before stopping at the bank machine to complete my errand.

Once we arrived back home, we fed ourselves a decent lunch, and then it was off to another vigorous nap in the hammock for me and one on the couch for Rick, before our Sunday night Lobster Dinner, which we had been invited to by our new neighbours Syd and Katie.

dishwasher and lobster hostess with claws in St Peter's Harbour

The dinner was both delicious and entertaining, as it afforded me an opportunity to meet many "from away" neighbours who'd come to the island to open up their summer homes, or who were living there year round and were eager for the first big social event of the season. 

Interestingly, several houses down the road from ours had been purchased by Ontarians over the past 12 months, and I was able to connect with several new neighbours.

Rick endeared himself to all by washing dishes for most of the night.  Being an extreme introvert, this was ideal; he was able to observe the proceedings from his central post at the open concept kitchen sink while avoiding direct conversation for much of the evening!

The next morning we took one more jaunt down to the beach as well as the subdivision at the end of the road, and then prepared for our departure after lunch.  Brian came to enjoy said lunch with us before taking us into town so that Rick could get a lay of the land in Confederation's birthplace.

No visit to Ch'town is complete without a stop at Cow's ice cream -- Rick treated us to a few scoops at Peake's Warf, and then it was off to pick up some treats for Simon and Alex as well as my Grade 7s at the much-fabled Anne of Green Gables Chocolate Shop... still no chocolate covered red licorice in stock, but we made due with a few containers of their famous chocolate covered potato chips, which I had told my homeroom students about last week, and had promised to try and obtain.

frumpy dyke and tower guy at Peake's Wharf

Finally, sadly, it was time to say good-bye to the island, and head off to the Airport.   

After checking Rick in (he was on a different plane home than I), we popped over to the tower for a quick tour -- Brian showed Rick how aircraft show up on the radar, and we saw a smaller plane land on 03 before heading back down to the terminal to make our way through security.

18:34 Westjet YYG to YYZ

Boarding my own aircraft a short time later was a bittersweet event:  On the one hand, I am looking forward to returning to my Tatsy tonight; on the other hand, I already miss the island, and am not sure how I will weather the weeks until end July when I finally head back for a full month of summer vacation (this time with the kids).