I've been spending the last while, and intend to spend my remaining days, doing all of the things and seeing different places that I want to see for one last time before I go.
On Saturday, June 18th (2015) my family and I invited our Nova Scotian friends over to my house, so that I could be sure to see them all at least once more before Elizabeth and I head off to Germany. Unfortunately (but understandably) not everyone could make it, so there are still some people that I would like to see again (You know who you are. If you are reading this blog after I left, and I didn't get to see you, know that I really did want to see you, and it's too bad that it didn't work out. I wish you a great year!). So at the party, first we went to the beach (that's a perk of living in Nova Scotia - the beach is never far away) and went for a swim, then we headed back to my house to hang out for a barbecue. It was a great day, and I must say I had a lot of fun. It was a goodbye party of sorts, so it was nice to be able to do what the name implies: say goodbye to my friends.
After that, it was a relaxed weekend. On Monday, my parents, sister, and I decided to load into the family car and drive to Prince Edward Island for the day - which was super fun! We like to look out the window and just observe the scenery, so a lot of what we did on the way to our main destination was sightseeing from the car. Prince Edward Island is a very beautiful place indeed.
Our main destination was a recreation of the town Avonlea. If you are not familiar with L.M. Montgomery's writings, or the television shows or movies based off of her writings, Avonlea is the small town that L.M, Montgomery had as the setting for Anne of Green Gables, among others. There is also a television show called 'Road to Avonlea' placed here. Anyways, that is getting ahead of myself. On the way there, aside from sightseeing, we saw the house where Lucy Maud Montgomery herself was born, of which to say was cool is a slight understatement. After that, we did go to Avonlea. We had expected a pioneer village style place, with actors walking around as though living out everyday lives in the time period of L.M. Montgomery's books. That is what the website online had led us to believe, but we were wrong.
We walked in for free (entrance is free there now), and were told that it has basically been turned into a shopping place. And don't get me wrong, shopping isn't bad, but shopping is not the experience that we (or anyone, really) were going to Avonlea for. It was still nice to wander around, just not what we expected. It is not a must-go if you are ever in Prince Edward Island, there are many better places (including an interesting potato museum. I kid you not.). Lots of buildings that were of importance to L.M. Montgomery in her life time had been brought to Avonlea for preservation, but I would almost say that the opposite happened. For example, it was physically painful to go into what a sign outside the building described as the schoolhouse that Montgomery taught at, and to see that it has been redone so that it has none of the things to characterize it as what it once was. The old floors were redone, the building was completely remade into a shop. I can't bear to think of the history that was destroyed in there.
There were two cool things about the Avonlea "shopping centre", though. First was a stand section containing local artisans and their beautiful creations, handmade in PEI, a lot of which was perfectly sized for souvenirs, but which lacked that not nice look that a lot of souvenirs tend to have. Those were all nice, and very reasonably priced. Secondly was a baked potato restaurant. Once again, I kid not. The only thing that this restaurant sold (aside from drinks) was baked potatoes. But I tell you, I doubt that you have even had a baked potato until you have had one of the baked potatoes from this place. They take the basic baked potato and add on many different toppings, making something that is already good even better. There is a poutine option (you know us Canadians can't resist our poutines), which my mom got. Not only does it have all the basic poutine toppngs on it (cheese chunks and hot gravy that melts the cheese into a gooey, beautiful thing), but it also had sour cream and barbeque pulled pork on it. I asked for a fork and carefully maneuvered it so that I did not get any sour cream or cheese on my bite (I have an intolerance towards milk. Luckily I can have the small amount that goes into breads and things of the sort without any reactions, otherwise I would be a very sad person), and stole some from my mom's plate, and it was really, really, really good. Also, the lady who was running the restaurant had been to Germany for a few months in her teens (in the exact same city that I am going to), so it was cool to be able to talk to her about that.
In Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books, her character, named Anne (although technically without an 'e'), is famous for saying (of many things) "But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne with an 'e'", because the main character felt that it made her name fancier and nicer. I can't help but wonder if this stems from the fact that Montgomery's 'Maud' is spelt without an 'e', and if she ever wished that her 'Maud' was spelt with an 'e'. That's just a random thought I'd had when I was on Prince Edward Island.
My sister, dad and I had eaten somewhere other than the baked potato place for lunch, which was just as good but in a different way. It was Skippers Restaurant, in North Rustico, and I can definitely recommend that place too! The food was more seafood and traditionally Canadian food, and also paninis (which I can say from personal experience was really good). An added bonus was how friendly the staff were. It was in a beautiful town. The main thing you have to remember when visiting Prince Edward Island is that although the more touristy places are nice, where you will really see the Maritime culture shine through, where you will see the Prince Edward Island that people from all over the world flock to each year, is driving along through the countryside and small towns, and where you will especially see it is by sticking on the roads near the water, the roads that go through the old fishing towns. In other words, when it comes to Prince Edward Island, the roads less traveled are generally the ones that are the best.
Aside from some more looking around the island, that was pretty much all we did that day, but it was really nice. The Island really is beautiful. So once we were done, my family started the drive home.
The next day, my dad took me after supper to a 6:45 pm (18:45) movie theater viewing of the movie Ant-Man. Let me just say that I became an Ant-Man fan nearly five years ago after watching just one episode of 'The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes' one day when I was home from school, sick. And although many may scoff at his powers, I think that they are pretty cool, and pretty useful. Anyways, he quickly became my favourite superhero. At the time I Googled to see if there was an Ant-Man movie out there and saw that there was one that, according to Wikipedia, was due to come out in 2013. I excitedly, but patiently awaited the arrival of the movie to theaters. But it either got delayed or Wikipedia was wrong, and it was released the Friday before last. Anyways, all of this is to say that I have been waiting for this for a while, and so going to see it with my dad was very exciting and super fun for me. It was pretty good, and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of laughter throughout the movie theater during the entirety of the movie.
I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but I am hard of hearing, and have trouble hearing the ranges of sound that superhero movies usually entail, and especially have trouble listening to most live-action movie male superheroes voices - it is right in the tone where it becomes muffled and hard to discern, similar to the adults featured in any Charlie Brown television show or movie. So I was a little worried that this might happen with the Ant-Man movie - but it didn't, to my delight! My dad and I had an awesome evening.
And my time since then has been fairly relaxed, with not much really happening since then. It has been nice though, to just be around the house. I honestly do not really know what is planned for my next week, but whatever ends up happening, it will be nice.
So that is all that I really had planned for this post. Please leave a comment if you feel any inclination to do so.
Anyways, hopefully the remainder of the week is great for you. I'll see you in my next post!
-Jason
On Saturday, June 18th (2015) my family and I invited our Nova Scotian friends over to my house, so that I could be sure to see them all at least once more before Elizabeth and I head off to Germany. Unfortunately (but understandably) not everyone could make it, so there are still some people that I would like to see again (You know who you are. If you are reading this blog after I left, and I didn't get to see you, know that I really did want to see you, and it's too bad that it didn't work out. I wish you a great year!). So at the party, first we went to the beach (that's a perk of living in Nova Scotia - the beach is never far away) and went for a swim, then we headed back to my house to hang out for a barbecue. It was a great day, and I must say I had a lot of fun. It was a goodbye party of sorts, so it was nice to be able to do what the name implies: say goodbye to my friends.
After that, it was a relaxed weekend. On Monday, my parents, sister, and I decided to load into the family car and drive to Prince Edward Island for the day - which was super fun! We like to look out the window and just observe the scenery, so a lot of what we did on the way to our main destination was sightseeing from the car. Prince Edward Island is a very beautiful place indeed.
Our main destination was a recreation of the town Avonlea. If you are not familiar with L.M. Montgomery's writings, or the television shows or movies based off of her writings, Avonlea is the small town that L.M, Montgomery had as the setting for Anne of Green Gables, among others. There is also a television show called 'Road to Avonlea' placed here. Anyways, that is getting ahead of myself. On the way there, aside from sightseeing, we saw the house where Lucy Maud Montgomery herself was born, of which to say was cool is a slight understatement. After that, we did go to Avonlea. We had expected a pioneer village style place, with actors walking around as though living out everyday lives in the time period of L.M. Montgomery's books. That is what the website online had led us to believe, but we were wrong.
We walked in for free (entrance is free there now), and were told that it has basically been turned into a shopping place. And don't get me wrong, shopping isn't bad, but shopping is not the experience that we (or anyone, really) were going to Avonlea for. It was still nice to wander around, just not what we expected. It is not a must-go if you are ever in Prince Edward Island, there are many better places (including an interesting potato museum. I kid you not.). Lots of buildings that were of importance to L.M. Montgomery in her life time had been brought to Avonlea for preservation, but I would almost say that the opposite happened. For example, it was physically painful to go into what a sign outside the building described as the schoolhouse that Montgomery taught at, and to see that it has been redone so that it has none of the things to characterize it as what it once was. The old floors were redone, the building was completely remade into a shop. I can't bear to think of the history that was destroyed in there.
There were two cool things about the Avonlea "shopping centre", though. First was a stand section containing local artisans and their beautiful creations, handmade in PEI, a lot of which was perfectly sized for souvenirs, but which lacked that not nice look that a lot of souvenirs tend to have. Those were all nice, and very reasonably priced. Secondly was a baked potato restaurant. Once again, I kid not. The only thing that this restaurant sold (aside from drinks) was baked potatoes. But I tell you, I doubt that you have even had a baked potato until you have had one of the baked potatoes from this place. They take the basic baked potato and add on many different toppings, making something that is already good even better. There is a poutine option (you know us Canadians can't resist our poutines), which my mom got. Not only does it have all the basic poutine toppngs on it (cheese chunks and hot gravy that melts the cheese into a gooey, beautiful thing), but it also had sour cream and barbeque pulled pork on it. I asked for a fork and carefully maneuvered it so that I did not get any sour cream or cheese on my bite (I have an intolerance towards milk. Luckily I can have the small amount that goes into breads and things of the sort without any reactions, otherwise I would be a very sad person), and stole some from my mom's plate, and it was really, really, really good. Also, the lady who was running the restaurant had been to Germany for a few months in her teens (in the exact same city that I am going to), so it was cool to be able to talk to her about that.
In Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books, her character, named Anne (although technically without an 'e'), is famous for saying (of many things) "But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne with an 'e'", because the main character felt that it made her name fancier and nicer. I can't help but wonder if this stems from the fact that Montgomery's 'Maud' is spelt without an 'e', and if she ever wished that her 'Maud' was spelt with an 'e'. That's just a random thought I'd had when I was on Prince Edward Island.
My sister, dad and I had eaten somewhere other than the baked potato place for lunch, which was just as good but in a different way. It was Skippers Restaurant, in North Rustico, and I can definitely recommend that place too! The food was more seafood and traditionally Canadian food, and also paninis (which I can say from personal experience was really good). An added bonus was how friendly the staff were. It was in a beautiful town. The main thing you have to remember when visiting Prince Edward Island is that although the more touristy places are nice, where you will really see the Maritime culture shine through, where you will see the Prince Edward Island that people from all over the world flock to each year, is driving along through the countryside and small towns, and where you will especially see it is by sticking on the roads near the water, the roads that go through the old fishing towns. In other words, when it comes to Prince Edward Island, the roads less traveled are generally the ones that are the best.
Aside from some more looking around the island, that was pretty much all we did that day, but it was really nice. The Island really is beautiful. So once we were done, my family started the drive home.
The next day, my dad took me after supper to a 6:45 pm (18:45) movie theater viewing of the movie Ant-Man. Let me just say that I became an Ant-Man fan nearly five years ago after watching just one episode of 'The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes' one day when I was home from school, sick. And although many may scoff at his powers, I think that they are pretty cool, and pretty useful. Anyways, he quickly became my favourite superhero. At the time I Googled to see if there was an Ant-Man movie out there and saw that there was one that, according to Wikipedia, was due to come out in 2013. I excitedly, but patiently awaited the arrival of the movie to theaters. But it either got delayed or Wikipedia was wrong, and it was released the Friday before last. Anyways, all of this is to say that I have been waiting for this for a while, and so going to see it with my dad was very exciting and super fun for me. It was pretty good, and I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of laughter throughout the movie theater during the entirety of the movie.
I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but I am hard of hearing, and have trouble hearing the ranges of sound that superhero movies usually entail, and especially have trouble listening to most live-action movie male superheroes voices - it is right in the tone where it becomes muffled and hard to discern, similar to the adults featured in any Charlie Brown television show or movie. So I was a little worried that this might happen with the Ant-Man movie - but it didn't, to my delight! My dad and I had an awesome evening.
And my time since then has been fairly relaxed, with not much really happening since then. It has been nice though, to just be around the house. I honestly do not really know what is planned for my next week, but whatever ends up happening, it will be nice.
So that is all that I really had planned for this post. Please leave a comment if you feel any inclination to do so.
Anyways, hopefully the remainder of the week is great for you. I'll see you in my next post!
-Jason