Huybers Retirement Adventure: Déjà Vu? or Was This Meant To Be?

Kensington PEI 2005

Have you ever wondered why things look so familiar? Or wonder why things happen or how did you end up in a certain place? These questions have been on my mind lately and I think I have finally come up with an answer.

I was looking over some old photographs from our previous trips to PEI. Our first trip to PEI was back in 2005. We had just bought our first motor home, nothing fancy, but it had all the comforts of home. During my summer break from school, we decided to head across Canada to PEI. I had never driven across Canada before and had heard it’s a trip that one must take during their life time. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to make the trip several more times over the years.

As I was saying … I was looking over old photos from our very first trip to PEI. I wanted to see if things had changed over the years from the first time we were here to what it looks like now. I was amazed to see the photo that is posted at the top of this blog. It is a photo of Kensington in 2005. I remember taking this photo. We had just posted some postcards at the Post Office behind us (not in the photo). I remember thinking that this was a really cute town. Ron and I joked about how maybe we would move here one day! Never in a million years did I think we would seriously move to PEI, let alone Kensington! If you look at the photo you will see the Bank of Nova Scotia and right in front of that is our blue and white Motor Home! We were surprised to see that we had taken a photo 7 years ago of the town we now live in! Was this Déjà Vu?

It started me thinking about things. In January 2012, we were shopping in Chilliwack and I came across a Christmas sale display of ceramic houses, that I collect, and they were dirt cheap. I managed to pick up a Post Office and another house called “The Kensington House”. I remember making the comment that maybe we will settle in Kensington when we move to PEI … and then quickly laughed about it. Little did I know, that this would be what would happen!

Ron and I both retired from our jobs, said good bye to family and friends and headed to PEI to find our retirement home. Then as most of you know, we put in an offer on a house but that fell through at the last moment. I thought that we would have to wait until next year to continue our search for our retirement home. But as luck would have it, 3 weeks later we would find a house that was much better suited for what we were looking for. When our furniture arrived, I was amazed at how our furniture fit the décor of this house! The china cabinet and kitchen table went perfectly in the kitchen matching the kitchen cabinets. The wooden bench we have had for the past 10 years matched the wood in the living room perfectly! It was like we had bought the furniture to match THIS house! Was this a coincidence or was it meant to be?

After going through all the photos from our trips to PEI in the past, I have come up with the following conclusion.

We fell in love with PEI during our first visit to the island. We have been to PEI 5 times since 2005. We have made PEI our final destination more times than any other vacation destination in our Motor Home. The first house fell through, and although disappointed, decided that it was just not the house we were supposed to buy. We managed to buy a house that we both fell in love with and our furniture matched the décor perfectly. A year ago I bought a ceramic house called “The Kensington House” and now we have found photos of our Motor Home parked in Kensington taken 7 years ago. Taking all these factors into consideration, we have decided that moving to PEI and buying this house … was just meant to be! J