It’s All About Anne

“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive —it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imaginations then, would there?  — Anne in Anne of Green Gables 

This day marked an epoch in my life, as Anne would have said. I have loved Anne since middle school. She has been my constant companion, in her books and in my imagination. She is the reason I wanted to come to Prince Edward Island. Granted, I have found the island to be much more than just Anne, but she was the draw. Seeing the home where L.M. Montgomery spent some time and was married was really nice, but I was most excited to see the house after which she modeled Anne’s home and named Green Gables. The home did not disappoint, nor did the Haunted Wood or Lovers’ Lane, both of which were near the house.

Kathryn and I spent the better part of the day here at Green Gables Heritage Place. The house is a Federal Historic Building and stands on a Prince Edward Island National Park. There was an entrance fee of $9 which in my opinion was worth it. There was an exhibit with a timeline of L.M. Montgomery’s life, information about her books, and the typewriter on which Maude typed the first Anne manuscript.

As we meandered around the home and grounds, I was enchanted. Anne is so real to me, and to be able to immerse myself in the world in which she “lived” was such a gift to me. We heard one of the guides say to a tour group that some people actually believed that Anne was real and cried when they found out that she wasn’t. Kathryn started laughing. That is not me! I know intellectually that Anne is not real, but in my heart she could not be any more of a true person! She has been my dearest and most loyal kindred spirit for  so long. 

                                                                   (Below: Lovers’ Lane)

    

                                   (Below: trail to the Haunted Wood and part of the Haunted Wood)

Prince Edward Island, Days 1 and 2

“It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?” — Anne in Anne of Green Gables 

Anne is so right!!!! I have imagined and dreamed of being here for so long, and my imaginations have at last come true. Kathryn and Saber gifted me a trip to Prince Edward Island for my 60th birthday, and Kathryn has even accompanied me, although book trips are not really her thing. She is doing all the Anne-stuff like a trooper. (Although in full disclosure, she does not enjoy hearing me quote Anne endlessly, referring to her like a real person from my past, or explaining all the intricacies of Anne-related locations.) I am so grateful and blessed that she is with me here.

We stayed (for part one of the trip) in a home-turned-hotel called Dundee Arms in downtown Charlottetown. At 1:00 in the morning I was slightly disappointed to find that we were actually going to be in the annex. Our room was so nice though; it didn’t even feel like a hotel room. Also, it was surprisingly cleaned everyday, even post-covid. I highly recommend this hotel. It is close to so many places to eat, shop, and enjoy. They even had my favorite thing: in-room robes!!!

We got to Prince Edward Island very late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. We got a taxi to our hotel and went to sleep immediately. I (of course) was up early. I walked about a mile and had breakfast at a local breakfast spot in Charlottetown. Next I walked to a park overlooking the bay. I saw some lovely old churches and a home which has been a Charlottetown establishment.It was VERY foggy, for some of the time, which is obvious in the pictures below. I walked over 4 miles by 9:30.

After Kathryn was ready, we went downtown. There were many tourist-type shops and some great bookstores. We lucked up and found a craft fair set up near the harbor. We bought this unique piece of art created with sea glass found on Prince Edward Island beaches. 

We ate a late lunch at Lobster on the Wharf. My meal, pictured below, was scrumptious! We shopped some more, purchasing nothing, and then had ice-cream at Cows. This is supposed to be the end-all of ice-cream on the island. Neither of us was totally blown away. We made one more stop at another bookstore where I bought Before Green Gables, a book I’ve read but didn’t own. 

We just rested back at the hotel. After the flights and late night on Saturday, tv and Skipbo were relaxing.

Day 2:

I rose very early and headed to the eastern end of the island in search of sea glass at Souris Beach. I was told by the artist we bought the piece of art from that this beach was well known for sea glass because it was in a cove and near Nova Scotia shipping lanes where there had been many shipwrecks. I drove our little rental for the hour trip, being careful not to exceed their strange (to me) speed limits: 90 kmh, 80 kmh, 50 kmh. I found the “beach” and discovered several pieces of glass within about 30 minutes. There were signs posted around the area to be very careful of sharp glass on the beach too. Everything washes ashore here. I got some cool bird shots. It was obviously foggy again. It kind of reminded me of my California coastal trip. I also found another interesting old church on my drive.

When I returned and Kathryn got ready, we headed to an area outside of Cavendish to the Anne of Green Gables Museum. This is actually the home of L.M. Montgomery’s relative where Maude (L.M. Montgomery) actually got married. We walked around the lovely grounds, taking a short woodsy trail where we met up with a sweet kitty! There was a gift shop where we bought some raspberry cordial 😀 We toured the home and then waited for our time on Matthew’s Carriage Ride!!! I booked an hour long ride on a carriage pulled by Matthew on his tractor. We went across the road through gorgeous fields and to a beach overlook. Kathryn and I got to walk along the beach for 15 minutes. “Matthew” was full of information about L.M. Montgomery and her family. This ride was a definite DO NOT MISS for anyone visiting PEI, even those who are not Anne fanatics. (Kathryn agrees!)

The beach was lovely and so entirely peaceful. In fact, “peaceful” is how I would sum up my first two days on PEI. Traffic issues are almost non-existent, people are so kind, everyone is so laid back. Cavendish is about an hour from Charlottetown, so we grabbed something to eat at Captain Scott’s as a late lunch. Even the drive was peaceful. We got take out from another Charlottetown downtown restaurant but weren’t as impressed as we were with Lobster on the Wharf. Another pleasant day on PEI!

We learned that these beautiful yellow fields were blossoming canola fields. Who knew?

Visiting Amish Country

 “A great deal of what we see depends on what we are looking for.”  -- traditional Amish quote

A trip to Pennsylvania cannot be complete without a visit to Lancaster County. I anticipated this part of my trip with much delight and was not disappointed. The farmland around Lancaster is truly beautiful and is quite different from the Mississippi soybean fields that I am more accustomed to. 

I took an Amish tour to better understand the people and their culture. The tour was extremely helpful, and I highly recommend it. Click here for the tour group I used. I chose the premium package which included a 90 minute bus tour, a guided house tour, and an unguided farm tour. Sidenote: the gentleman who lead the house tour was a non-Amish Christian believer. He witnessed about the Lord and His Word throughout the tour, and I was very blessed by his tour.

I have some beautiful pictures to share below but also want to give a small list of what I learned about the Amish. Some of the facts were very surprising!

• Lancaster County grows more tobacco than any other US county. (This tobacco is mostly sold to cigar producers in other countries. It is all hand harvested by the Amish farmers.
• Lancaster County has more laying chickens than any other county.
• Some Amish raise camels for their milk, which is sold for $18/pint. The milk is said to have numerous health benefits.
• Some Amish have white-tailed deer farms. They then sell the horns, urine, and semen.
• There are fewer Amish who solely farm now. Many of them are involved in craft or wood related businesses.
• The Amish women almost always have bird/bee attracting flowers in their gardens. Cut flowers are then sold on the roadside.
• The Amish often have phone booths at the end of their driveways. They don't believe in having phones in their homes but want one accessible in emergencies.
• At convenience stores (and probably Walmart), there are rails for the Amish to hook their horses to when they "come to town". The tour group I used is near a Target, and they have some barns available for the Amish to use when they come to shop! 😊
• They usually have many (some up to 13) children in a family.
• The Amish children attend one-room schoolhouses and only go to school through the 8th grade.
• A young woman who wants to teach will apprentice after "graduating" and when the district leaders decide she is ready, they will give her a school of her own. She cannot teach after marrying.
• The children cannot ride bikes but can ride Amish scooters -- pictured below.
• You can tell a farm is Amish by the lack of power lines and by the presence of solid-colored clothes hanging out to dry. (Sometimes the clothesline is closer to the ground and has smaller clothes on it. This is usually a daughter-training clothesline for young Amish girls.)
• I originally thought that the Mennonites were an offshoot of the Amish but discovered that it was the other way around, way back in the late 1600's, due to the influence of Jacob Amman.
• There are many Mennonite families also living in Lancaster County and in the surrounding counties. The Mennonite groups have a greater range of liberality than the stricter Amish. Some Mennonite factions are closer in beliefs to the Amish, while some are more similar in culture to the "English."
• The prayer caps in Lancaster County are heart shaped.
• As a whole, they are self-sufficient and self-reliant for the most part. They are not against interaction with the "English" but seek to limit technology because of the temptations it can lead to.

I enjoyed getting to interact with the Amish people at the different stops we made along the bus tour. They were kind and happy. We were discouraged from asking them questions about their culture because of course, that would appear invasive. However, it was interesting to get to view them in real life and not just get a skewed tv version of this culturally unique group of people. I had a wonderful time and cannot recommend it enough!

These two were part of the farm tour I took. They live at the Amish museum along with several other animals.

The Hershey Experience

 “There are three things you can never have enough of in life, Lieutenant: chocolate, friends and the theatre.”

― Jessica Fletcher  (For those of you who don't recognize her name, Jessica Fletcher is the protagonist played by Angela Lansbury in "Murder She Wrote."

My first true experience in Pennsylvania was a chocolate experience. I visited Hershey World. There were several available options, such as Hershey Park (an amusement park), gardens, a small zoo. I chose just to do the "museum experience." I bought a ticket package online ahead of time, enabling me to skip the ticket counter on site. I bought a ticket which included parking and then discovered upon leaving that they weren't charging for parking. I'm not sure what was going on with that; I probably over-paid. If you are planning a visit, check into that more carefully than I did.

When you enter the building, you are assaulted (in a good way) by the sights, sounds and smells of Hershey's chocolate. There are several photo-op stations scattered around. The actual experiences are spread throughout the area and are well-identified. There are also LOTS of items for sale! 

I was so proud of myself for not giving in to temptation. I bought one sticker for my journal and a puzzle. That's it. I promise!!! I did wander around through all the areas tempting myself though. It was kind of a Disneyesque experience with all things Hershey being sold -- stuffed animals, cups, shirts, caps, games, etc. and CANDY!

I actually took part in four separate experiences -- the free chocolate tour, the 4-d movie, Hershey's Unwrapped, and Create Your Own Candy Bar. I wanted to do the trolley ride, but it was sold out for the time I was there. Of the four things I did, I think that the tour and the create your own candy bar were the most fun. The tour was also a little like Disney, kind of a Small World ride teaching the history of Hershey's candy bars and how they are made now. It was interesting and I learned some things which I list below. Creating my own candy bar was very interesting, and I documented it in pictures below.

In the creation process, you are allowed to choose white or milk chocolate and one or more items to mix inside the bar. You can also elect to have sprinkles at the end. I chose milk chocolate with heath bar chips inside and SPRINKLES on the outside. The whole process was so interesting! You can even design your own personal wrapper to be put on at the end. It is all enclosed in a nice metal box making it easy for transport and packing. 

Here are a few of the facts I learned about Hershey's:

• Hershey's is the only chocolate company to use fresh milk in their candy bars. They purchase it mostly from Pennsylvania dairy farmers.
• It takes 270 beans to make 1 lb of chocolate. 
• Kisses are named that because of the shape of the machine that drops the chocolate out.
• Hershey's owns Reese's, Twizzler, and Jolly Rancher

Overall my Hershey experience was a good one. It is of course very touristy. I usually prefer a more unique and out-of-the-way adventure, but for the sake of chocolate....

**I have since learned of another chocolate factory in Pennsylvania that I now plan to visit. More to come!

Link to Hershey World