24 Aug 2017 - Charlottetown, Anne's house, Alberton and Souris PEI

Woke up fairly early to a pleasant sunny day. Had breakfast,  got packed, checked out and headed off to Alberton on the north coast. We planned on stopping in at the Anne of Green gables museum on the way and then moving on to Alberton where our paternal grandmother was born and raised. Yep She was a PEI girl and she went to college with Lucy Maud Montgomery.,so we had a personal connection to Anne that lots of people do not have. 

I had google mapped the route that we were to take and was confident that we could drive from one end of the island to the other  and back again in the one day that we have given ourselves to see PEI. 
The weather was perfect the the scenery was gorgeous. red soil with green crops and the sea in the background. gently rolling hills with the occasional road sign warning drivers to be aware of horses and carriages on the road. Lovely. 

We faithfully followed our directions  and came to the home of Lucy Maud Montgomerys aunt and Uncle outside of Cavendish, where she spent her summers and where she wrote the Anne series. It was very interesting. We saw the "Lake of Shining waters" and the house " Green Gables".
After the little tour that they give we went into the little gift shop and then headed off to Alberton which according to google maps was only about an hour away.

We took highway 12 which connected with highway 2 and then we were supposed to take highway 12 again. We did and got a lovely scenic tour of the north coast. What they do not tell you is that highway 12 connects with highway 2 in at least three places. We should have taken the third highway 12 not the first highway 12.   It was very long and circuitous, but we did see a lot of PEI's north coast before we got to Alberton. Not a lot happening there, as it is a typical small town.  So we just stopped for a quick break and headed off to Souris, our next and final stop in PEI. It was located on the other side of the island on the east shore about a two hour drive on the main highway.
the drive  on Highway 2 was uneventful and we got there around three in the afternoon. we found our historic Maclean House Inn with no problem.The Inn was a lovely old building and furnished in the old style too, with antiques galore. Once we had checked in we went out to explore. 

We then went to the historic lighthouse which was on the other side of Souris. It is quite different from Peggy's cove lighthouse. It is up on a cliff with grass all around overlooking a large harbour. There is also a live harbour cam on the light house see link :https://www.shai.ca/harbour-authority/  the weather had held out very well and the sunset was delightful.  we went into the little gift shop at the lighthouse and picked up a few more souvenirs. I found out that there is a lighthouse tour of the island that one can do on your own. a booklet with a list of all the lighthouses and their locations. sounds like a nice trip for sometime in the future.

The Beaches are red! lovely, lovely. We wandered barefoot in the Atlantic and wrote love notes to our families which we then posted on facebook.  We found a little gift shop and I picked up some postcards of the island.  We spent quite along time on the beach and watched the sun start to set but eventually realized we really should get going to find some dinner.

From there we went to find a restaurant for dinner. There are only a few restaurants in the small town of Souris and we just picked one and went. Then back to the Inn and our room which was enchanting.  We explored the inn and its grounds on the banks of the Harbour. There was some kind of an historical commercial building next door that was not open just then but you could tell was currently being renovated. There were some other folks staying at the inn as well but we were tired and so went to bed early. We had seen a lot of PEI in one day and the next day promised to be just a s busy. We both decided we loved Souris and the red sand beaches.