Rest Day Charlottetown!

Rest Day Charlottetown

(Danica) Today was our second day on PEI. Well kinda... We biked in yesterday, rest today, then tomorrow we will bike out. It's about 50% biking 50% resting therefore this province has a great setup to be our Favourite!! (Besides BC! Just kidding the Ontario kids might not like that) Us early morning risers, myself and the Collins, were up and exploring the town early. We went to a good bike shop and then a second. It's amazing how we have grown love for these shops and even though we got everything we needed at the first shop, we had to go to the second one. Courtney got a new tire while I got a new pump (again). Afterwards we explored the gorgeous city of Charlottetown. Such a festival full city at this time of year! It's the 150th confederation celebration this summer. Every day all summer long they have live bands and entertainment along with Canadian booths, arcade and of coarse beer gardens! We checked out the schedule and found that nothing really started till later in the afternoon. Wondering around we found a live band playing, live Canadian themed theatre and street performers. Charlottetown is a very artsy town with very cute and delicious cafés! Another note about this town is the fact that cars stop for you WAYYYY too fast. It's amazing how they stop even before your sure you want to cross. It was the same in New Brunswick as well. Maritimes! They are as nice as everyone says. 

(Cate) We wandered back down to the celebration zone to watch a dance about the Charlottetown conference. The dancers were all talented young adults so it was pretty cool to see their demonstration on the events of 1864. It even included 'Bud the Spud' since PEI is famous for their potatoes. We moved into the beer tent after to enjoy a beverage. It happened that we selected a couch right in front where a cute chef would demonstrate how to make crab cakes only minutes later. We even got to taste his delicious concoction when the cakes were finished cooking! Upon our arrival back at the hostel we were reunited with Emma and Miranda, two cross Canada cyclists who we last saw in Moose Jaw almost two months ago. They joined us for happy hour at the hostel, along with Dad, Sherri and Cassidy. Blueberry Mojitos, courtesy of dad, were a huge hit. We all had a delicious feast of chicken, sausages, salad and of course PEI potatoes which Sherri and Dad made for us since it was our last night together. It was fun to swap crazy biking adventures with Emma and Miranda over dinner. A throat singing band from Nunavut, the Jerrycans, were playing at the festival so we headed down to see the gig. They were amazing, and we even got a little practice throat singing ourselves. Next week is BC week, so it is too bad that we won't be in Charlottetown to see the BC artists perform. Charlottetown is a big party all summer to celebrate 150 years since the conference which created Canada. It would have been awesome to spend more time there! 

(Kelly) Laura and I both slept in a bit, which was lovely, then got up and had a walk around downtown Charlottetown! It was fantastic! There was live music playing everywhere and great restaurants all over the place. We checked out the historic parliament building, which held the birthplace of confederation, and got to meet some of the people from back in the day (volunteers completely in character and costume playing croquet on the lawn). Then we headed over to cows ice cream, because why wouldn't you? The Oreo chocolate chip was delicious! We walked around some more, did a bit of sight seeing and shopping, then headed over to the microbrewery to try some local stuff. We ended up getting a sampler tray of 10beers which proved to be too much for us. Then we had dinner and headed over to watch Anne and Gilbert: The Musical. I felt we should do something cultural rather ten just drink our way through the east coast...it ended up being a fantastic performance! Laughs, almost tears, and romance! Overall a very good rest day.