Day 5 - "Avonlea"

Today was a day I've been waiting about 22 years for - we went to Green Gables. It was wonderful.

We slept late this morning - it was the first time on the trip that we were staying somewhere more than one night. Plus, the hour time difference takes a bit of a toll. So even though we got up around 8:30 our time, it was 9:30 here.

The bath house here is fairly decent - we are 2 for 4 on bath houses so far, in terms of how nice they are.

Anyway, so first we had to go up to the corner to get gas - $.99 a litre. That equals out to about $4 a gallon. So suddenly the $2.80/gal we were seeing in NY and ME doesn't seem so bad! Then we went over to the Cavendish Visitor's Centre where mom's day was made because we finally were able to get a map of just PEI.

We went back down the road to Green Gables then - it's part of Prince Edward Island National Park and I was pleasantly suprised at how non-commercial the actual site was. Everything around it is terribly commercialized - the Shining Waters Fun Park, the Kindred Spirits Cottages, that kind of junk. But the Green Gables house is just a re-creation of the late-1800's era farm that Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up near.

There is a restoration of the barn and then you go through the actual house, which has been re-stored and decorated to look as it's described in the novel. You even get to walk through the upstairs, which I thought was really neat since most old houses don't let you go up the steps.

There are two walking trails near the house - the Haunted Wood and the Lover's Lane, as described in the book. The Lover's Lane trail was only about 1/2 a mile, so dad and I walked that while mom waited at the gift shop. The other trail was even longer, so we decided not to do that one.

I spent a fortune in the gift shop - upgrading to DVD copies of the three PBS movies. I had thought that a lot of the movie's exterior scenes were filmed here, but apparently it was primarily scenery shots. But whatever. I still love the movies (for the most part - I have some issues with the third) but Megan Follows was perfect as Anne and I adore Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert.

Roasted chicken for dinner tonight and finally a campfire and some S'mores!