Anne of Green Gables and lighthouses

Today we visited the real home of an imaginary figure and the imaginary home of the author who created her. Anne of Green Gables and her author (LM Montgomery or "our Maude" as they call her here) are really big news on Prince Edward Island. Today we visited Green Gables, which is sort of a real place. L M really lived on the island and was al sot an orphan.and the cottage on which she based green gables really exists - it's Anne herself who is fictional.

The green gables property is presented as it would have been - IF Anne had lived there. Kind of a bizarre concept really. It is a very pretty cottage with nice grounds. Glad we are here after the real tourist season though. The car park at green gables is HUGE - which. I fear may be indicative of the number of summertime visitors. Much quieter for us in the early autumn.

From there we went to visit the SITE of the home where "our Maude" actually lived with her grandparents after her mother died. Unfortunately no one lived there for a while and it fell down - so all you can actually see is the remains of the cellar. Kind of ironic that Anne has a real house but Lucy Maude doesn't.

We then tried to go on a scenic drive. It is kind of hard to avoid a scenic view on the island pretty houses nestle in green fields near little coves with fishing boats. And Lots of little white churches that look as though they are straight out of the pages of a picture book.

But all the souvenir shops show lighthouses and that is what I really wanted to see. But in spite of the many models of lighthouses in souvenir shops, the poster of "lighthouses of Prince Edward Island" and the mini lighthouses in peoples front yards we found it difficult to locate an actual lighthouse. We drove around all over the place- but only managed to locate one. I took several photos for good measure.

In the process of looking for lighthouses we did find a beach and John and I dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.

It is nice to be able to cross a p,ace off hour list and feel that you have definitively seen enough of it. Must say - I feel that way about PEI. It is u deniably very pretty and if it was a little closer, would probably be a fun holiday destination (equivalent of Batemans Bay from Canberra) but I feel I have seen it now. Tomorrow we attempt to catch a ferry back to nova scotia and go on to The Cabot Trail onCape Breton Island.