Friday August 9 and Saturday August 10 ... Rain gone but wind took its place...onward to PEI

Friday was Day 2 in Fredericton because when we woke and got ready to go it started to pour so we decided to hunker down for safety sake for another day.  Did a photo sort, some laundry, finished my book, looked at maps and planned our route for Saturday and did weather watching on tv.  We decided to head to the mall for a bite of supper and a movie (saw The Millers...kind of crude but quite funny too).  I thought it would be a good idea to walk and Harry agreed, but when we were about five minutes down the road the heavens opened up.  We ended up trying our best to dry ourselves out with the blow dryers in the washrooms before the movie started.  Took a cab back to the hotel.  Here are two photos...one just leaving the hotel and the second upon our arrival at the mall some 35 minutes later.  The drowned rat is me! :)

Up and at it this morning (Saturday) as we woke to a clear sky...some wind but sunshine started our day.  We took the scenic highway along the St. John River to Jemberg and Sussex.  The road ran beside river most of the way and the water sparkled...very pretty,  The houses very unique...some quite large, some smaller, but all appeared to be well cared for. I was intrigued by people's yards with large tracts of lawn everywhere.  Looked like a mowing nightmare to me!

We stopped in Sussex for lunch.  It was a very pretty town, lots of murals on the sides of the stores on main street.  

Headed on scenic highway 114 along the Bay of Fundy.  The road was very twisty and rough and the wind really tossed us around.  As we headed up up up to the lighthouse at Cape Enrage the mist and fog made seeing things hard.  We got to the top of the road and we couldn't even see the lighthouse.  The wind was so strong we decided not to hang around...not much fun driving in that type of weather.  The place rightfully earned its name as far as we were concerned. 

Next stop was at Hopewell rocks...the one most photographed one...you will recognize it here.  Spent about an hour there and did some hiking and had a coffee and a snack. We missed the low tide which was at 10 a.m. and didn't have time to wait for the next one at 8 p.m. but got a sense of the place.  It's quite the tourist attraction.

Gassed up in Moncton and again the wind was howling all around us.   We headed for Charlottetown and going over Confederation Bridge was a neat experience.  it's about 15 km long and is a real engineering marvel.

PEI ... What can one say...it's definitely a little piece of heaven and so picturesque ... rolling hills, neat homes and yards, potato fields and red, red earth.  We didn't see one derelict home or yard...they all looked like something on a postcard.  Victorian homes, little cottages, huge rambling farm houses, more modern designs...and yet each yard manicured and sporting lots of flowers and the large lawns cut.  We are looking forward to exploring more of the island tomorrow.  

We are at staying in downtown Charlottetown at a Best Western...nothing special and we kind of wish we had booked at a B and B or one of the quaint motels we saw on our way in to town but when we looked online yesterday it didn't appear there was much choice.  Ah well, after ten hours spent mostly on the road bucking the wind, as long as we have a spot to lay our heads tonight that's all that really matters.  We walked downtown for a quick bite to eat...local halibut and roasted baby potatoes...yummy!

It was a very tiring day today but the reward was more beautiful scenery so it was worth it.  I would prefer rain to wind on the bike believe it or not...but what is the best of all is a calm sunshiny day...fingers crossed that's what we get tomorrow!