My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 2: Two Days on the Island

Marian likes to plan activities, and she had several items planned for my visit. She knew that I'd like to go to Mass, so she informed me that there would be Mass in the church just up the street on Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 am. Shee didn't go to it, but I did. After her yoga class we headed off to her mother's apartment (assisted living?). The mother is 90ish, sometimes uses a walker, and is still in excellent shape mentally. Marian prepared a nice lunch for us. As we were finishing, a brother of hers showed up for a visit and ate the leftovers that could have been the mother's lunch the next day.

Next we visited the graveyard where her father and other ancestors are buried, picked raspberries (2 pints at $3.00 each, which I paid for since she was short of cash), and got a half gallon of ice cream for the berries (again I paid). I also bought 500g of Island honey to bring home. Back at her house, I heard an interview on the radio with two of the actors in the Watermark Theatre Company of North Rustico's production of "The Lion in Winter," and decided to go. Marian had wanted to have me go with her to Dalvay-by-the-Sea to enjoy some of their sticky date pudding. By rushing through supper, we were able to leave in time to get to Dalvay and have the pudding — very tasty — pick up a friend of hers in Rustico, and get to the theatre in good time for the show. The friend's birthday was the next day, so Marian paid for his ticket as a present, while I picked up our two. I thought the show was well acted, but the play never explained why the 12th century Plantagenets were constantly intriguing against one another as the author imagines them. Maybe it's just the desire of each to be in control. One interesting bit was the indication of a homosexual liaison between Richard Lionheart and the King Philip of France, when Philip was 15 (a few years before the action of the play).

On Wednesday she planned for me to visit her Aunt Mary's widower at a seniors' home in the morning and to meet her in mid-afternoon for a visit to one of Mary's lifelong friends. (It had been Mary who had kept in contact with my mother for many years and had supplied our address to Marian just before Mom died.) The visits both went well. Mary's husband was drowsy and kept nodding off, but seemed happy to have my visit. The friend was even sharper than Marian's mother, and had a lot of reminiscences of history of our family and friends.

Between those visits, I went to Mass at St. Dunstan's Basilica, bought a ticket for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," had a lunch of fish and chips, and bought a couple of souvenir magnets at Province House, where the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 took place. After the visit with the family friend, I was invited to dinner at Cousin Ed's. He's the one whom I just missed seeing the evening I arrived. So I had a nice visit with him and his wife and their 6-year-old son.

After dinner, I went to the theater for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," (links to video and audio) which was, surprisingly, the only thing I could find which directly dealt with the 1864 conference — and it did so in a zany and often risqué manner. It was really funny. The show began at 9:00 p.m., and when it was over shortly after 11:00 it was raining. I checked the map to be sure how to get to the route back to Marian's. As I drove through the rain in the dark, I was amazed at how blurry everything was. After I missed a turn about ½ mile from Marian's, I checked the map again, and as I did so I realized that I had been wearing my reading glasses. Things became much clearer once I changed to my driving glasses.


Still to come: Thursday on the Island, and then going home.