July 21, 2013

Today was a part Anne day, a part L. M. Montgomery day. The PEI tourism website offers a three-day Anne itinerary (although Day Three is to go to the store and go see the musical). We did most of what was recommended for day one and one thing from day two (since they were within the same zone - "Green Gables Shore") as well as some additions. There are a total of four zones, Green Gables Shore, which is on the north coast, in the middle of the island, Red Sands Shore, which is in the middle, on the south coast, Points East Coastal Drive, and North Cape Coastal Drive, which is to the west. They each have their own icon that is on the highway signs and in the tour books.

On the way to our first destination, we did our best to talk like Anne and make up names for things like she would do. We had a beautiful day for driving and it was easy to see how Maud, as she liked to be called, was inspired by the blue sky, green fields, and red earth.

Up first was the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Park Corner (this was the thing from Day Two). I figured we'd start out the farthest away and work our way backwards. This was also the one thing going in that I wasn't that sure about. Yes, it's the home of the inspiration behind the Lake of Shining Waters where Maud got married (her Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell owned the home), but when you look online, you see a giant barn with giant letters that say "Anne of Green Gables Museum." Just seemed kind of tacky/hokey. But I was pleasantly surprised. I actually liked this spot a lot.

 
In addition to seeing the Lake of Shining Waters (a lake of rushing waters on this day) we got to see the cupboard that inspired Katie Maurice, Anne's friend in the cupboard from her stops before Green Gables, which came from Maud's home in Cavendish as well as the Blue Chest from the Story Girl (I know about Sara Stanley from the Road to Avonlea TV series ((thank you, Grandma, for getting the Disney Channel so that I could watch it)) but I've never read it - I need to if it was Maud's favorite book) and the setting for Pat of Silver Bush (I picked it up from the library right before the trip but haven't read it.)

With Pat of Silver Bush and the Anne of Green Gables Museum brochure

It even gave me a thrill to see the mirror Maud used before school (like the cupboard, rescued from her grandparents' home in Cavendish, where she grew up).

In the gift shop, I found the sheet music for the theme song of the TV film, familiar to me since having just "pre-gamed" by watching much of Anne of Avonlea (the sequel) on Friday night. (Mom and I re-read Anne of Green Gables in January when I had my wisdom teeth out.) And on the way out we were able to see a carriage ride come in, a cool juxtaposition between the old-fashioned and new farm machinery.

Next we went to the Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home. (Cavendish is the stand-in for the fictional Green Gables.) We ended up mistaking the post office for the place billed as having interpretive signs (as all that remains of the home is the foundation) but that turned out to be a good thing as we stumbled upon a walk to the site that the signs told us Maud took when going to the church where she played the organ (and where she met her husband). (A newer church in the old church's spot is next to the post office.)

This spot, which we visited in combination with Green Gables Heritage Place, the home of Maud's older cousins that served as inspiration for Green Gables, was part of the Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site, although it was only mentioned in a few of the tour books. It too turned out to be a gem, even though, like I said, you only had a foundation to look at.

Just seeing her quotes next to the referenced ferns and trees made you feel like you were Anne/Maud. Our guide, who gave us an overview of the site and her family's connection to it, was a direct descendent of Maud's maternal grandparents, Margaret (MacNeil) Orr.

The path away from the home to Green Gables took us across a highway (we could see the Cavendish Cemetery, where Maud was buried, to our right) and into the Haunted Wood, where Maud walked to go to school and what made it into the Anne books. As Anne would have said, it was all very romantic.

In the Haunted Wood

It was there that we ran into Stefanie, a grad student doing her master's thesis on literary tourism (the Anne books, Little Women, and the Little House books -- a good book about Laura Ingalls Wilder is Donald Zochert's Laura - I like it just as much (maybe more?) than the books themselves.) We were gabbing with our new kindred spirit (we discovered we were on the same flight to Montreal) at the moment Green Gables came into view.

All of a sudden, there it was. It took my breath away. What a very special, magical moment.

I can understand why after the book was published in 1905 people came around looking for Anne, Marilla, and Matthew (the older brother-sister who took care of Anne.)

Stefanie went on to Lover's Lane (the other walk mentioned in the book, which is on the backside of the property), and we went on the 1 p.m. guided tour (we arrived at 12:55 - now that's good back-timing!) I thought we would go in the house on the tour but it was more about Maud and the history of the house and an overview of the property. The house was probably too small to fit a tour through anyway. Our guide, who was my favorite of our college guides, told us how the home had been restored back to the time period when Anne would have lived here (had she been alive) taking clues from the book for layout and furnishings, like the stove (too fancy for farmers, but Maud's Senator paternal grandfather had one), the slate that she used on Gilbert's head, and the brooch she borrowed from Marilla that went "missing."

Anne's room

The slate!

She also told us that the TV movie, although than a few scenic shots, shot the whole thing in Ontario. (She said they couldn't film at the house since it was historic, but after going inside, I think it was too small to fit in camera dollies.) The TV series, Road to Avonlea, did film in PEI, but with body doubles!

After the guided tour and our self-guided tour of the house we saw a cute little girl named Hannah wearing what we had already spotted in some of the gift shops - straw hats with Anne's trademark red braids (and bangs!) (We saw a few more people here than at the Anne of Green Gables Museum, but it was not nearly as much as I would have thought.)

When we got out of the house it was 1:40. It was too early for the old fashioned ice cream making (at 2 - this was the whole reason we did Green Gables today, Sunday) so we decided to see the 1:40 viewing of a film about Maud. They ended up not showing the film so we went to the Butter Churn Cafe and had fabulous ice cream, which we ate while watching the 2 p.m. film. (We learned the ice cream making process usually took 40 minutes.) It was one of those historical films where a narrator reads the real subject's words while someone pulls out their quill and looks thoughtfully out windows. The teen/adult Maud wasn't so bad, but the older Maud was a little much - skipping down the shore at 60! What would Rachel Lynde (Anne's gossipy neighbor) have thought!

When we got out of the movie, there was Anne!

 
(And Marilla, although the Marilla did not seem at all like Marilla!) They were very true to the period, so I didn't even both to tell Anne this was going on Facebook!

We then went into the barn for some ice cream making with some high school/college kids in period dress (although they were more willing to break out of character.) After a few turns at the churn (I was behind, and then in front of our new friend Hannah) we took a walk down Lover's Lane. The bridge over the (very tiny) creek wasn't as grand as I had imagined, but now that I know the TV film wasn't filmed here (which, as soon as I saw it, defined how I pictured Anne when I read the books), that makes sense. It was a nice walk though.

We skipped the intro film since it sounded like it would be repetitive of the material we learned on the guided part of the tour and headed to the cemetery. The grave was, as Margaret Orr had told us, marked with red geraniums.

We had some time before the Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace closed so we drove up to the coast and came across the New Rustico Harbour Lighthouse, one of 63 lighthouses on the coast, although some are decommissioned. This one had the great misfortune of having a telephone wire hanging right in our pictures!

North Rustico Harbour Lighthouse

I put my feet in the water, but it didn't seem any warmer than the water off the New England coast (the water here is supposed to be the warmest north of the Carolinas.)

We then drove back through Cavendish, past what appeared to be tourist traps (although there weren't any takers at Jurassic Bart's Dinosaur Museum and Petting Farm) to go to New London (between Park Corner and Cavendish) and the Lucy Maud Montgomery Birthplace.

This was the most disappointing stop for me, since there wasn't much too it, although, as Gail said, perhaps it would have been better if we'd started there (we drove by it on the way to Park Corner) since we knew the history by now, and there wasn't a ton to look at. (Her original scrapbooks were there, but the wedding dress was a replica - the original in library archives.)

The room where Lucy Maud Montgomery was born

We were asked if we were from "away," which we learned meant you were from anywhere other than Prince Edward Island, including other parts of Canada. Which was both "perfect," and "excellent."

It was about 5:15 or so when we pulled up to the gate at the Prince Edward Island National Park (like Green Gables Heritage Place, a AAA gem). It was going to be $19.60 to drive along the water so we decided to turn around (we did see some foxes on the way.) Gail tried at the next gate, where the attendant told her if we came back in five minutes, it would be free! Now we're talking!

We decided to first get dinner at a spot I'd picked out in the AAA book, Chez Yvonne, which was our best meal to date. We all had the fish & chips (with baked potatoes) and I was in awe about the batter - it tasted healthy - definitely not beer battered. I asked our red-headed waitress (she said she dyed it, not thinking about the repercussions of living on PEI with red hair) to find out the secret and she learned it was just a flour and water base - nothing fancy. I liked the meal so much I even ate the colesaw (which I never do) and, for the first time, turnips! My blueberry pie was a great capper to the best fish and chips I've ever had, homemade lemonade, and homemade roll, and Gail's strawberry shortcake was even better! Oh, and our PEI-native waitress said it was "perfect" and "excellent" too!

Afterward, we drove down through the now unmanned gate to the coast. It was now about 6:45 and the sun was still up. The view was magnificent with the cliffs and the red soil. I figured we were in a good spot when I saw multiple photographers with telephoto lenses and tripods.

Prince Edward Island National Park

Anne would have liked it here! -- POSTED BY COLLEEN