Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 25

Monday, 26 August - Day 25

We enjoyed a little later start today for our last bus ride of the caravan (and Sprinty had the day off again).  We gathered at 8:45am to board the bus for Charlottetown.  We had the morning plus lunch (just over three hours) to explore Charlottetown on our own, with only a few restaurant suggestions from the organizers.  

The bus dropped us off at 9:25am at the Confederation Centre of the Arts where we were to meet back at at 12:45.  Many shops in Charlottetown were not open yet, and we had no plan for what to do, so we set off to explore some of the streets as we made our way to the Visitor Center located in Founders Hall by the waterfront.  We popped into a shopping mall located about a block away (and across the street from the Province House National Historic Site which was closed for renovation).  While the shops were closed, we admired a large painting of the delegates to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.

At the Visitor Center, we picked up some literature and talked with a nice lady at the information counter.  Some things to do in Charlottetown required more time than we had available.

We decided to try a beaver tail, and the information lady pointed out where it was.  We walked along the waterfront boardwalk with Tony and Genny.  Along the way were some placards on the Charlottetown Conference.

One interesting fact was that the delegates arrived by steamer ship when the circus was in town, and the circus consumed everyone’s interest, as well as taking up all the available lodging.  The delegates had to lodge on the ship in the harbor being unable to arrange lodging ashore.

The Beaver Tail place did not open until 10am, so we wandered through some of the shops along the waterfront.  Darrell bought a new ball cap that has the Mariners Rule embroidered on it.

Beaver tails are a fried pastry with a choice of toppings.  The Classic Beaver Tail is topped with with sugar and cinnamon.  Kris decided to be decadent and got the Triple Trip - chocolate hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and Reese’s Pieces.

A brief history of the Beaver Tail can be found at:

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/articles/the-canadian-doughnut-a-history-of-the-beaver-tail/

As we wandered up Queen Street, we entertained the thought of having a pizza at Piatto Pizzeria + Enoteca Charlottetown as the sign said it was authentic Neapolitan pizza, and a sign in the window said they used a birch wood-fried pizza oven that cooked pizzas in about 90 seconds.  Just as we remember from our time in Naples.  Alas, they were not yet open and the Starbucks across the street beckoned.

We stopped off at Starbucks for Kris to pay up for her golf success two days ago.  Afterwards, we continued to explore downtown Charlottetown, electing to skip a normal lunch having fueled up on a Beaver Tail and Frappuccino.  When we passed back by the Confederation Centre of the Arts, we went in.  Also housed in the Centre was The Story of Confederation with an impressive replica of what the original Confederation Chamber would have looked like when Province House hosted the Canadian and Maritime delegates over 150 years ago.  Housed here as the Province House National Historic Site is undergoing major conservation work and not open to visit.

Today, Canada is made up of 10 provinces and three territories, which all contribute to the diverse mosaic of the nation.  It all started as a small meeting to discuss Maritime Union here on PEI in September 1864. The Charlottetown conference quickly became the backdrop for a much larger plan: the creation of a country.  That week of September 1-8, 1864, saw a mix of meetings and grand social gatherings.  The delegates represented four British colonies: Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec).

We watched Parks Canada’s award winning film, A Building of Destiny, which presented the history of the historic Charlottetown Conference.  Extremely well done.

With time still left before we had to gather, we explored some more, and Kris picked up a book at one of the book stores.  Darrell spent a few minutes taking in two street performers playing outside a Cows Ice Cream Shop.

At 12:45, the group gathered back at the Confederation Centre of the Arts for the matinee performance of “Anne of Green Gables: The Musical.”  

Anne of Green Gables - The Musical is the original theater adaptation of the novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Anne of Green Gables: The Musical has been playing at the Confederation Centre of the Arts since 1965.  Usually not much for musicals, we were delighted and amazed with the performance.  Exceptionally well done, it was certainly a highlight of our time on Prince Edward Island, and one to the top things of the whole caravan.

On the way back to the campground, the bus stopped at the Cows Creamery.  They had a self-guided tour of where they make the ice cream, cheese and their iconic tee shirts.  The tour was not that much - a short video, and peering through walls of glass.  It was late in the day, so not much was going on.  Similar to our visit to Blue Bell Ice Cream in Texas last year.  

Cows Ice Cream was named best ice cream in Canada by Readers Digest.

One of their many iconic tee shirt logos:

And Cows Ice Cream made the Top 10 list of best ice cream places in the world by Tauck World Discovery:

The big draw was to buy an ice cream in their fresh waffle cones, which most of the group did.  As we were confident the ice cream and waffle cone had vanilla in it, and they did not have the flavor Kris wanted, we settled for Cow Chips - chocolate covered potato chips.

As we motored back to the campground, both of us were quite pleased with how we filled a mostly unplanned day (except for the musical) with things of interest to us.