The day started out cooler than other days but the sky was still blue. This time we headed west, and made an unexpected stop at a cool-looking church.
We saw someone coming out of the church, who said we could go inside.
Our first scheduled stop was the L. M. Montgomery Lower Bedeque Schoolhouse Museum, not in the AAA book but the restored lighthouse where Maud last taught. (She stopped teaching when her maternal grandfather got sick. She lived with her grandparents in Cavendish until her grandmother died.) They also had costumes from the musical (we presume the pre- "re-imagined" Anne.)
We left the hotel earlier than I had anticipated so we got to the college an hour before the 12:30 performance. After wandering around the gift shop, we drove through Summerside (considered the western capital) and came upon what looked to be a decommissioned lighthouse.
The show was longer than I thought with samples of Island step dancing (lower to the ground than Irish step dancing), Highland dancing (like ballet - what they do in Brigadoon), Highland bagpiping, and Scottish-style drumming. (I admit I never thought of snare drums as being a type of Celtic music.)
The information they provided was interesting, but I wish there were more group numbers (it was just one person doing one type, with a group number at the end, which was really the bagpiper and drummer backing up the dancers, who didn't dance at the same time.
On the way to the Canadian Potato Museum in O'Leary it started to sprinkle, so we took pictures of us with the 14-foot fiberglass potato out front before we went in.
We were all hungry, so we had potato soup and potato biscuits in their cafe, as well as samples of potato cinnamon rolls and potato fudge, both really good. I learned that to grow potatoes, you put in a piece of the potato, which includes the "stem" and two-three eyes. I guess I just assumed potatoes grew from seeds. I also learned that not only do potatoes have eyes, but they have eyebrows, which are on top of the eyes. The coolest/most disturbing part was a display with potatoes in coffins - each with a different disease!
I also really enjoyed the community museum inside the potato museum, which included a doctor's office and a familiar face.
Outside on "Heritage Lane" there was a church (mom pumped the organ), telephone office, and schoolhouse.
It was a good thing we took pictures ahead of time as the sidewalk was wet and a light rain was falling.
On the way back to Charlottetown (we wanted to try to get Anne & Gilbert tickets - the theatre was closed on Monday) we went to the Bideford Parsonage Museum in Bideford (still part of the North Cape Coastal Drive). Maud stayed here when she taught up the road. I'm really glad we stopped as our tour guide was wonderful. She rewarded my "enthusiasm" with the passport they gave to tourists in 2008, when PEI celebrated 100 years of Anne (I had noticed the placards most places we went.) If you had so many brass rubbings (basically like a tombstone rubbing) you were eligible for a prize. She was doing a tour when we first got there so we did the first floor as a self-guided tour.
We saw the place where the minister's wife at the time Maud was staying there served a linament cake to a minister (this is something Anne also did).
We also learned Maud thought the place was haunted because the doors would open and close, seemingly on their own. Upstairs we saw her room and the view she wrote about in her journals, which have been published.
There was also a room about the ministers who served in the church, which was Methodist at one point in time.
The rain picked up on the way to Charlottetown and we were in full downpour mode when we arrived at the theatre around 6 p.m. They had tickets available so we got them and then grabbed chowder, soup, and (for me) probably the best chicken pot pie I've ever had.
When we walked in the theatre, I realized why I only had a few rows to pick from for seats - there were five rows in the theatre! (We were in the fourth row - dead center.) The row behind us was empty, except for the far sides, which was for the general admission sections. When the show started, I realized why they said they don't take latecomers - because part of the set was in front of the door! The sets and costumes looked more community theater than our show last night, but the songs were very hummable, beginning with the opening number, "Mr. Blythe," which reminded me of a 60s girl group number. My first thought was, this is a modern musical. Like the other musical, this was a blending of some of the stories in the second and third books. I really liked the music, ("Just When I'd Given Up Hope" was the perfect companion (and another waltz at that) to Act I's "Carried Away By Love," Act II opener "The Days Ahead" was catchy and moved the story along, and I am still singing, "You're Island Through and Through") I really liked Gilbert (Patrick Cook), and I liked Josie Pye, who reminded me of Ado Annie, but I didn't like Anne. I don't know if it is because the girl we had yesterday was so good or because Anne was "older" (it was nice having college kids playing 16-22 year olds, which is how old Anne is supposed to be) but she didn't Act like Anne and she didn't talk like Anne. I'd have to read the script to see if the material is there for her to play with. In Act II, when she falls for suitor Roy Gardner, I liked her better. I also didn't like what the actress who played Rachel Lynde did with the role. She came off as almost a wired Aunt Eller. I liked both shows, but if we had had this Gilbert with yesterday's Anne, it would have been perfect. Excellent. (Hannah and her family agreed with us - we saw them on the way out!)
It was a wonderful end to a truly magical time. I can't wait to find some other blogs/Facebook groups so I can talk about it! -- POSTED BY COLLEEN
1 comment:
I am glad you had a great time on your "Spirit Journey."
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