Avonlea and History

Yesterday we traveled through time back to 1890 into Avonlea, the story town for Anne of Green Gables, written by Lucy M Montgomery.  These are fun stories about settlers and farmers on PEI (similar to Little House on the Prairie) The author was born and raised here and wrote many stories about a make-believe girl who was a lot like the real Lucy.  Canada turned the house she lived in with her grandparents and some of the north shore of PEI into a national park in 1939- to save some of the historic houses and buildings and woodland and beaches in the area. So we visited the house that inspired these tales in the town of Cavendish, and the nearby attraction called Avonlea, which is a recreated village from the story book Anne of Green Gables.  This village has nicely done buildings with lots of activities for small children- like a country fair contest and animals and costumed characters including red-haired pig-tailed Anne.  And they have moved and restored a large wooden church from a nearby village, and the manse from Lucy's Aunts's village, and the school house where Lucy taught school for a year from another village.  I thought it was like Knott's Berry Farm might have been in the early years- showing some authentic buildings from this bygone era.  And we bought the book on CD which we listened to today while we drove across New Brunswick toward Quebec. So we are thoroughly mixed up about where we are and when we are.  We are celebrating our own story of love and family and memories and adventures together.

The PEI countryside is exceptionally picturesque.  The greenest fields and woodlands, rolling hills, and many coastal bays and marshlands with bridges on the winding roads.  The most distinctive feature are the white wooden churches with tall steeples.  Here are a few pictures to give you a feel for the story-land we have traveling through. 

It was raining all day, but was just drizzling when we made it to King's Landing near Fredericton NB.  Because it was 4:10 and open only to 5 pm, the woman let us in the restored village of several houses and many barns with outbuildings for free.   Most people spend several hours, but we made it into 4 houses and a carpenters barn and other barns with horses and pigs in 45 minutes, taking pictures of many rooms.  The guides were costumed and they had great furniture and kitchen articles in the rooms from the 1820-1890 period.  The village was created in the 1960s because a large dam was being constructed that would flood many of the river towns; this was a preservation project that was initially opened in 19__; they had banners celebrating their 40th year anniversary (isn't that sweet). And because we have both enjoyed old houses and historic sites since our early years together, this was a fun surprise- to see another village together.  A very nice spin tour of the old houses.  We finally made it to Edmudnston NB near the tip of Maine, and found a very nice restaurant in the historic town of Woodstock NB.  Tomorrow we hope to arrive in Quebec City by early afternoon, in time to see something French looking; we are headed west.