No trip to PEI would be complete without a visit to the Cavendish home of Anne of Green Gables and it’s author, Lucy Maud Montgomery (LMM). Like the novel, the Green Gables National Historic Site is a work of fiction. The building has been re-built and refurnished to the period while the barn is a total reproduction. But don’t tell the bus-loads of tourists who flock there from around the world. The tour of the Green Gables house was a shuffle-line from room to room, upstairs, downstairs and then out. Having said that, the grounds do give you a feel for the setting of LMM’s “Anne of Green Gables” books.
The best part of this side trip was a visit to the Cavendish Post Office where Canada Post has done a good job of telling about Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life here. Apparently LMM’s family “the McNeill's” , were the postmasters there and LMM would work at the post office. The post office “supplied” her with the necessary paper to write her novels and she was able to send the manuscripts to publishers at no cost! She also explained that, had she not been able to do this she may never have had her works published and it saved her the embarrassment of having her many rejections public knowledge. The post office also hand cancels post cards and letters here with a special LMM cancellation.
We went a little further down the highway to visit Prince Edward Island National Park. It is located along the Gulf of St. Lawrence where I dipped my feet into the water. The shoreline is quite steep in places and finding a sandy section of beach isn’t that easy. The red sandstone cliffs that we saw coming over the Confederation Bridge extend around to this side of the island.
On our final day in Charlottetown we finally got to visit the Lieutenant Governor’s house. On the tour we actually got to go beyond the double grand staircase. We were standing in the bedroom that, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, (that will be William and Kate to most of us) slept in during their tour in 2011. Sorry no pictures were allowed on the second floor as it is a private area!
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