We had another good weather day for driving.
The route took us back through downtown, then out of the city and east. Whereas we mostly saw dairy farms yesterday, today there were some berry farms, but not much else. Later when we went to find something to eat, the closest thing in Garmin at that point was just outside Charlottetown. Sounds like we should move to PEI and start a restaurant (although maybe there's a reason they don't have a lot of businesses out that way.)
I found out about the Orwell Corner Historic Village on a website about things to do on PEI and its AAA gem rating solidified my decision to go there. It sounded a lot like the Genesee Country Museum and Village in NY, which I loved as a fourth grader (particularly the Octagon House) and would reflect what a farming community like Anne's would have been like.
The buildings on the property included a church (with a cemetery), schoolhouse, general store and house, barns (with goats and pigs inside - the horses, sheep, and cow were out), and blacksmith shop.
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| The church had a cool ceiling |
In the Prince Edward Island Agricultural History Museum (housed where we bought our tickets) they had farming equipment and text (and video/audio) of former residents. My favorite story was from the guy who talked about selling eggs in town and how he preferred to walk rather than take the train so he'd have 10 cents over for ice cream. That's my kind of guy! What was really cool was some archeologists and students were doing a dig at the site at a house no one who currently lives there remembers being there. They showed us some of the stuff that they found.
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| Dig site |
From there, we went to the Point Prim Lighthouse, which was open for tours.
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| Point Prim Lighthouse |
The lighthouse is situated in such a way that you can see more coastline from it, which made it very picturesque.
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| Point Prim Chowder House |
The stairs were quite narrow, but the interior (one level was where the light keeper slept at one point in time) was quite roomy.
We got the guy who sold us our ticket to tell us about the Phantom Ship - a ship spotted that then disappeared. Another ship which appeared to be on fire also disappeared.
We didn't have to be back to PEI (our goal was to leave the hotel for the 7:30 show at 6:30) so we decided to forgo food for now (the Point Prim Chowder House was near the lighthouse) and go to another lighthouse I had identified, Wood Island Lighthouse.
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| Wood Islands Lighthouse |
The view from the lighthouse was pretty much just water (no cool coastline) although it was fun to see the ferry coming in from Nova Scotia.
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| View of the southernmost tip from the Wood Islands Lighthouse |
Our search for food was in vain, so we ended up at Lobster on the Wharf around 3:30 for a late lunch/early dinner. I would have thought we'd see some boat traffic, but all we really saw was the Harbour Hippo (akin to Boston's Duck Boats) going out and in.
After some reading and resting time at the hotel, we headed to the show. While heading to our seats, we saw our friend Hannah from yesterday and her family in our row!
My heart positively beat with anticipation in the seconds leading up to Anne's arrival (there was a marvelous moment of anticipation when I saw the suitcases cross and knew she'd appear from behind them) and I cried when it seemed like Marilla was going to kick her out and then again when she agreed to let her stay, even though, of course, I knew what was going to happen. Both Anne and Marilla were wonderful. Even though our Anne (Katie Kerr) just graduated from college, Anne ages from 11-16 in the book (and only two years seemed to lapse in the musical - they cut out things and combined some things, although I liked what they did) and when Anne arrived, she acted like you'd expect Anne to act, very dramatic with dramatic gestures and dramatic language (I don't remember, "My career is closed" from the book, but I liked it.) Marilla (Marlane O'Brien) had such great facial expressions mom elbowed me twice and said, "Look at Marilla!" That's good acting - when your reactions pull focus from the main character! (I saw in the program that she was in a TV version of Emily of New Moon - an online search shows the TV series is on DVD for $30).
I also really liked the set, even though I was concerned at the onset when I saw the projection screens. The screens actually enhanced, rather than detracted from the show, with blackboard scribblings being wiped away at one point. (The production was "re-imagined" in 2011 and I take it that was part of it.) Some of the songs/dances were throwaways, including the top of Act II number, but the choreography redeemed itself in inventive dances involving an egg race and a hunt for butterflies and other critters. (The playbill notes say that choreography is a key element in the new Anne.) The only thing that really bugged me was that other than Anne (and maybe Diana) everyone who was supposed to also be 11 looked like their real ages - college. I left only being able to sing the end of Act 1 number, "Ice Cream," and the title song (I had a headstart on the latter because I sightread the sheet music in a display outside). "Words" was powerful and I liked Anne's "Gee I'm Glad I'm No One Else But Me" but I didn't really remember it until I found it on YouTube. I knock off points for the old 11-year-olds and a Gilbert that didn't do anything for me, but give this a solid 8 out of 10 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (see the blog I have with my friend Chris for an explanation.
We ended the night with Cows ice cream. I had strawberry ice cream, which was really good, although I enjoyed my cinnamon bun Butter Churn Cafe ice cream just as much! -- POSTED BY COLLEEN
1 comment:
You ought to write theatre reviews!
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