Somedays you just have to give in to the Anne of it all.
So Friday night I ended up getting a ticket for the musical Anne and Gilbert, which distills the love story portion of the Anne of Green Gables into a couple hours of remarkably catchy songs from thoroughly charming actors.
Which is probably why two days later I’m still humming “Gilbert loves Anne of Green Gables.”
It was a fun production. Friday was a day of performances and walking around Charlottetown in the daylight. I’d had a number of people recommend the free noon show ‘We Are Canadian,’ a song and dance 45-minute long performance that explored many of the cultures that make up Canada.
It was several very energetic young people with terrific voice and dance skills. It was fun, and followed nearly immediately by a series of live vignettes by costumed actors who were doing scenes based on the 1864 Charlottetown conference that helped lead to confederation.
Like I said in my previous blog, the Charlottetown conference of 1864 is a really big deal there.
I also checked out other sights around the downtown area of Charlottetown, including St. Dunstan’s Basilica (beautiful), I went to the art gallery and checked out a very cool map display there celebrating the first truly accurate map of PEI that ended up leading to the lot system that divided up the island amongst wealthy British, setting in motion a long-time problem of absentee landlords.
I wandered over to Beaconsfield Historic House, which was the dream home of a leading Charlottetown businessman. While not built to the scale of Casa Loma in Toronto, the story reminded me of that castle. While James Peake Jr. was wealthy, he ended up losing his home five years later in a recession. The house was bought by another wealthy man and he and his sisters lived there for decades, then it became a home for young woman and eventually a residence of student nurses.
I continue to have “it’s a small world” moments, right down to a one degree of separation situation.
On Saturday I set out for Montreal. I stopped in Edmunston for the night, but I also stopped in Shediac to see the giant lobster.
The Confederation Bridge just isn’t as exciting as many think it is. It’s a bit tough to see over the sides, especially while focusing on the road.
Today was mostly the Edmunston to Montreal leg, with a big dose of traffic thrown in. I’m staying in downtown Montreal. It’s a bit strange, kind of like itchy deja vu, to be back here. I used to work in downtown Montreal, but I haven’t been to the city for seven years. So it’s familiar but not memorized.
Tomorrow I plan to take in some of my favourite places here, and eat at my favourite dessert restaurant, which, since I’ve left, now has several more locations than it used to!
I just hope they still have the fleur de sel brownie on the menu.
Victoria Paterson 