July 14, 2008

July 14, 2008

Prince Edward Island is a crescent-shaped island. This morning we drove around the center past innumerable potato farms and occasional fishing villages. It seemed to me like the modern North American version of Ireland complete with the requisite drizzling rain. On the north shore we pass PEI’s most popular attraction, the home of Anne of Green Gables. Since neither of us read this book about a redheaded orphan girl, we pass it by. Interestingly one of our nieces is a spitting image of Anne.

Our drive ends in the PEI capital, Charlottetown. There we visit Founders Hall, sort of the Independence Hall of Canada. This high-tech museum tells the history of Canada’s confederation movement. It was designed for the attention-deficit disordered audience combining video snippets with jokes. Since we are virtually the only ones here, I am guessing this doesn’t get a lot of interest from Canadians. Interestingly though that blasé attitude reflects Canada’s accidental confederation history exactly. In 1864, politicians representing three of the eastern colonies of British North America were meeting here to consider a Maritime unification. The colony of Canada (now Quebec and Ontario) fearing invasion from the US, crashed the party and pushed for a larger colonial confederation. After a few drinks, 3 of the 4 thought it might be a good idea and after working out the details, convinced Britain to pass a law approving it on July 1, 1867. Canada was born. Shortly afterwards the rest of the provinces and territories joined the party. Interestingly, Canada was still a colony of Britain, and independence occurred gradually over many more years. From Founders Hall we walk down the street to Province Hall National Historic Site where the original 1864 Charlottetown Conference actually took place. Since I knew nothing of Canada’s history I found the story fascinating although the American in me was expecting a more emotional and dramatic nation-building history.

As a bonus, on leaving Founders Hall, we run into a demo on lobster fishing. Aimee and I learn that the lobster season is only two months long, ending here just two weeks ago. The speaker told us that lobsters are then “stored” in holding tubes in cold seawater to provide fresh lobster throughout the year.

We spend the night at a no frills RV park just east of Charlottetown high on a wet hill overlooking the bay.