Halloween in PEI

One thing we have discovered while being in PEI, is that the people here really get into the spirit of the season.  Halloween is approaching and we have noticed that several homes and city streets have been decorated to get into the spirit … no pun intended. We decided to take a tour of Summerside and Kensington to take some photos and show you what I mean. 

As we were heading into Summerside from our motel, there is a Corn Maze along the highway.  We had passed by the display of animals and figures made out of rolls of hay several times but never stopped to take photos of the scenery.  I just had to make sure we had some photos of this display because it was so well done.  There were dogs, witches, spiders, scarecrows etc. spread out over the big open field.  I’d never seen a display like this before.  It was so well done.

Then we continued into Summerside.  We saw several houses that were decorated to various degrees.  It didn’t matter what street you went down, there were always 3 or 4 houses that went to the trouble of decorating their yards.  They decorated their houses from the very simple of just a few pumpkins on their front porch to the extreme of decking out their whole yard in spooky ghosts and goblins.  They really get into it!

From Summerside we drove towards Kensington to get our mail.  Along the way is the Kensington Haunted House.  This attraction is open throughout the year but at Halloween it takes on a special meaning.  This is THEIR time of year!  It comes complete with the spooky sounds as you approach the mansion and the ghosts opening the upstairs windows as they call out to you.  That was enough for me to NOT go inside!  I’m not a big fan of having people, or in this case, ghosts and goblins scare me.  Besides … I had to look after Bailey!  J

You can’t help get the feeling of being among something special as you travel through the streets of PEI.  With the color of the Fall leaves drifting down and swirling around the streets to seeing the pumpkins lining the houses, it leaves you with a feeling of being somewhere special.  I can’t wait to see what they do for Christmas!



Corn Maze

  

Spider




Going too fast!



Witch



Rising from the dead




Puppy Dogs

 



 













A Gargoyle guarding the Haunted Mansion



Haunted Mansion



The Streets of Kensington




Even the streets are decorated




A simple but nice decoration



Tick Tock



Trapped in the Motel



We are still staying in a motel in Central Bedeque … for the next 4 nights. Time is ticking away slowly as we await the arrival of the day we move into our new home, November 1^st.   Sometimes we feel like it will never arrive!

Today was a beautiful sunny day.  The skies were bright blue and with the odd white fluffy cloud one might say it was a perfect day.  The Fall air was crisp but at times the sun was so warm you could walk around in a t-shirt.  It was an outstanding Autumn day!

We decided to do a load of laundry and hang it out on the line to dry.  Yes … our motel room has its own clothes line outside our back door.  We call it “solar drying”.  While we waited for the clothes to dry (which is almost as much fun as watching paint dry), we decided to take Bailey and go for a walk into Central Bedeque. 

The streets were very quiet with the exception of the odd truck filled with potatoes driving by.  During our walk we came across a little café with an outdoor seating area (perfect when you have a dog with you).  We decided to stop, get a cup of hot chocolate and sit outside and enjoy the day.  It was exactly what we had envisioned when we talked about retiring.  As we sat sipping our hot chocolate, a local resident walked by and stopped to say hello and state what a nice day we were having.  Then he mentioned that next week we will be getting winter, something I wasn’t planning on for a while.  Lol 

We have found that the people on PEI are very friendly.  When you walk down the street everyone smiles and says hello to you.  Living in a small town where everyone is friendly is just what we were looking to retire in.  I think moving to PEI is the perfect place if you want to escape the traffic and the rat race of a busy city and are looking for a quiet, peaceful, friendly town to live in. We are happy to be here … although … the winter hasn’t officially arrived yet!  Stay tuned!  J

Fall Colors

This is the first time we have been in PEI during the fall months.  We decided to take a drive and take in all the fall colors of the island.  It is just beautiful here.  The trees along the roads are gorgeous with their red and orange leaves.  It is picture perfect!

There are several little towns that get right into the festivities of the season.  There are pumpkins galore here on the island and it seems that every house has at least 2 or 3 sitting on their steps.  Many of the houses are decorated for Halloween which always gets me in the mood for decorating too.  Unfortunately we move into our new house the day after Halloween so I won’t be decorating for Halloween … but Christmas is just around the corner and that’s MY FAVORITE time of year for decorating!!  I can’t wait for that time to come! 

We drove through Kensington, around London Bay, and past Cavandish on our way to North Rustico.  It was a beautiful drive. The weather was a little cloudy but the colors of the countryside were incredible.  When we drove through the Provincial Parkway from Cavendish on our way to North Rustico, we came across our friends … the Red Foxes.  We could see ahead of us a frenzy of foxes on the roadway.  We slowed right down to see what all the commotion was about.  There were 6 or 7 foxes gathered by the side of the road … and one of them had a big 8 to 10 pound frozen roast beef!  I guess maybe the park ranger comes by to feed the foxes so they don’t starve.  They all wanted a piece of this big roast but the one fox who had claimed it, wasn’t planning on sharing any of it!  The other foxes circled the main fox and each time one tried to get close enough to sneak a bite, the ears would go back on the main fox and he would let out a high pitched squeal and snap at the other foxes, all the while covering the big roast with his body.  Ron managed to get a movie of it.  It’s unfortunate that my blog won’t post movies because I’m sure you would all enjoy watching it.  I’ve never seen foxes fight amongst themselves before.  I felt sorry for the other foxes who weren’t able to get a bite.  We told the main fox to share with the other foxes, but I don’t think he was listening to us.  Several people stopped to watch the action.  It was something you just don’t see every day!

After watching the foxes for a while, we carried on our travels.  We stopped at a little café in North Rustico and picked up some sandwiches.  Then we went to a little parking lot area that over looked the water to have our lunch.  We just love sitting and looking at the water.  There’s just a sense of calmness about it while looking at water.  I can just see ourselves having lunch on our deck at the new house while looking out over the valley and river below.  It will be a perfect setting for peace and relaxation.  Only 11 more days until that becomes a reality.  We can hardly wait!

 

 

 

 



It's all mine!



I want some too!!



Where's the food?



Finally Some Good News!

As we started off in October, we hoped that things would be better than the horrible September we had just gone through.  The first couple of days were uneventful but then on Saturday October 6^th I was eating breakfast when I thought I bit down on a rock.  The rock turned out to be my front tooth!!  Actually, it was the tooth beside my front tooth.  I thought that it was a cap that fell off.  It sure left a gap in my smile.

We tried to get a dentist but being that it was a Saturday, nobody was working! AND since it was the Thanksgiving long weekend I had to wait until the following Wednesday before I could see a dentist.  Thank goodness the tooth wasn’t sore.  It must have had a root canal done on it because it didn’t hurt at all.  Lucky for me!

When I saw the dentist on Wednesday, he told me that it wasn’t a cap that had come off, it was the whole tooth that had broke off!  All that’s left is a little fang … great for Halloween coming up!  He told me that I will need to get an implant … something that our dental plan doesn’t cover.  The cost of an implant will be in the neighborhood of $3,500.00!! 

Well, I thought we were going to have another month like September since it started off with a broken tooth, but all of a sudden … things got brighter.

Since the deal on our house fell through, we have been staying at Wal-mart.  The nights are getting a lot colder so we thought the best thing to do is to get a motel to stay in.  We would be warmer and we wouldn’t have to pack everything up every 4 days to go dump and get fresh water.  It seemed like a good idea … and it wouldn’t be for long … only 2 ½ weeks.  Then we get to move into our new home!!

Yes, we have now bought a house … again!  Only this one is so much better than the last one!  We bought a 1920 sq ft Rancher with a completely finished basement.  It sits on 4 acres of cleared land on a hill with an awesome view of the valley and a water view of the river.  It has 2 bedrooms and a den, a new very large kitchen, a propane fireplace in the living room, a large family room and a huge sun deck at the side of the house and a front porch that runs the whole length of the house.  The vendors took very good care of it and there is not one room in the whole house that would require painting!  The place is immaculate and is in move in condition!  It is perfect!

I guess it’s true what they say … if a deal falls apart, it just means that there is something better out there just waiting for you.  That was certainly the case for us!  We are very excited about this house and we move in November 1^st.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that we make it this time!

Front of House

Front Room

Fire place in the Living Room

Huge Kitchen

Beautiful Kitchen

Stairway to downstairs

Two level Side Deck of House with Hot Tub

Downstairs Family Room

Downstairs Storage Room with 2 large Closets



Our View



Foxes on the Loose!

It was another sunny day here in PEI so we thought that we would take a drive in search of a new house.  We drove up to Alberton near the top of the island.  It was a cute little village with lots of amenities ie a bank, a grocery store, a hardware store, bakery etc.  We didn’t see any houses we liked for sale there so we wandered down the road a couple of km’s to the town of Northport.  There we found a quaint little fishing village. 

We stopped at the pier and walked along the wharf.  It was a bit breezy but the sun felt nice.  We decided to have our lunch that I had packed from home.  It was really nice looking out over the water while having lunch.  After lunch we headed off on our tour of the island again.

We stopped at the Tim Horton’s drive through in O’Leary for a cup of coffee.  From there we decided to drive to North Rustico about an hour away.  We had been there the day before to look at a couple of houses and found the fishing village of North Rustico to be quite intriguing.  We wanted to take another look.

As we were going through Cavandish, Ron had the great idea to take the Gulf Shores Parkway to North Rustico.  It’s a Provincial park and during the summer months you have to pay to go through it but since summer is over the drive through the park is open free of charge.  It’s a beautiful drive along the coast line of the island.  The bright red sand cliffs are amazing.  The ocean waves have slowly been eroding the land but it is beautiful to see the layers of red sand.

As we drove along the Gulf Shores Parkway all of a sudden I saw, what I thought was a small dog laying on the roadside.  It turned out to be a red fox!  Then there was another one … and another one! They were so used to humans being around that they were somewhat friendly.  They certainly weren’t shy!  One of the foxes tried to follow us as we drove away.  We were lucky enough to get it on video!  He kept up with us as we drove 7 km’s.  Then we stopped and told him to “go home”.  He wasn’t even winded!  He looked at us as if to say “Ok”, and then turned and trotted off in the opposite direction.

It was the first time I’ve ever seen a fox in person.  I was quite impressed at how beautiful they are.   I was able to get some good photos as they seemed to pose for the camera.  I guess with all the tourists that come to the island they are used to a camera or two.

It was a very nice and relaxing day.  Hopefully October will continue to be better than what we went through in September.



Fox along the Gulf Shores Parkway

  

Sitting on the dock in Northport





Ocean side of North Rustico



On the docks in Northport

  

  



Red Fox relaxing at the side of the road



Red cliffs along the shores of Cavendish



Red Foxes on the loose!












Red Shores of North Rustico



Red Fox posing for a photo





I know I'm cute ... just take the picture!







North Rustico