DAY 55 : August 31/22 Wednesday. Kouchibouguac NB to Summerside, PEI.

 DAY 55 : August 31/22 Wednesday.  Kouchibouguac NB to Summerside, PEI. 

Woke up to the drone of mosquitoes outside and the whir of the A/C inside. Low on milk, we ate oatmeal and hung out inside while poor daddy loaded up the bikes trying not to get carried away by the army of mozzies.

By 11am we were out of the site, dumped the Sani and had a quick buggy stop at Calendar Beach. I ran out with Ollie to see if the fish would nibble our toes, but no luck. Ran back into the RV with a swarm of mosquitoes chasing us. 

Back down the long road to the Visitor Centre at the entrance/exit of the park. Amelia had very strong feelings about the work she did in her Parts book because Oliver didn’t take his seriously and only tried to catch up at the end when he remembered there was a “prize”. She was super mad that she worked legitimately hard on all the tasks and he just goofed around. They sort of came to terms with with things and waited patiently to get their Parc book certified. The woman at the desk was very sweet with them and went through all their work and drawings carefully. She asked to keep the last page where they drew a picture of their favourite thing to do in the park, and gave them their dog-tags with Kouchibouguac on them. 

Jonathan and I waited in the gift shop (I found and bought a Kouchibouguac sticker for the RV side panel) and Jay tried to access the last of the wifi. The shirts there were super fun, but none in a size that would fit Jonathan. I wanted to get the kids one, but since they didn’t seem keen, I didn’t bother. 

Got back in the Nation and onto the 117 to the Rte 11 South. We detoured a bit onto the 535 around the coastline route so nicely marked with nice picture signs by Cormierville and Boucetouche. We passed some floating black boxes on the water in large lines/groups… oyster “farms”?? Gotta look that up. By 1:15pm we were seeing some rain.

Drove into Shediac, NB to see the Giant Lobster! It was pouring rain by then and we actually dug our our rain jackets for the occasion. Jonathan was in the tourism centre getting information while I took the kids to see the giant lobster and get a photo op. Shediac seemed like a sweet town but in the pouring rain it was a little tough to really explore it. The lobster roll competition was to start tomorrow. We drove down the  Main Street and found a parking lot behind a little bistro called Le Griffon et le Moque Tort with an Alice in Wonderland Theme. Quirky on the outside and even quirkier inside. It was cozy and crowded with Wonderland related memorabilia and decor. It also had several walls filled from floor to ceiling with board games. This was a place you could come and pay $5 to hang out and play board games! Super neat. Ollie commented that his buddy Vincent would love this place… we agreed. 

The kids ordered a large nachos to share and it was served on a nice plate, with two fancy cups of sour cream and salsa. Jonathan and I ordered the lobster roll with a delicious cheese/broccoli soup, and a Lobster Quadrille… both super delicious!

As sweet as the town seemed, it was so rainy, we decided to keep on driving and passed by Parlee Provincial Park & Campground and drove to the wharf where you could fish for striped bass and mackerel, but it was too rainy still to bother. We made the decision to move along to PEI on Hwy 15. Stopped at the Shell in Port Elgin for Diesel presuming that the fuel on the island might be more expensive. 

We temporarily drove out of the rain storm around 4:45pm as we crossed the Confederation Bridge to PEI… the longest bridge spanning icy waters in the world. It was VERY long!! Pretty impressive. At the other side, we pulled over at Port Borden to have a photo op with the PEI signs and have our first look at the red dirt, and fly our trainer kite in the wind on the big grassy field right beside the bridge. We drove a little further to the visitor info centre and the lovely girl there gave me an awesome map of the island, pointed out a few things and gave me a tour book and a photocopied list of things to do with kids age 7-17 arranged by region. Jonathan and the kids were in the little gift shop next door and it was close to closing time. This is where Jonathan found out that one of the ladies was closing up and getting out of there right away because she was going to the Bryan Adams concert tonight in PEI! It was the start of his tour, tonight on the island. After that, we noticed all the super sweet signage on all the shop fronts and lawn signs saying, “Welcome to Summerside Bryan Adams!”. Very friendly small town feel. It was in the visitor centre that the rain storm caught up to us. 

We needed some groceries, so drove to the Sobey’s and noted the Cineplex across the road. Ollie and I shopped for groceries while Meems and Jay stayed in the rig. We got a text from Jay a few minutes later saying they drove across the road and inquired about the movies… DC Super Pets was playing at 6:40pm. A perfect rainy evening activity. I tried to access my Scene+ card at Sobey’s but it didn’t come up. Jonathan picked us up and drove us back across the way to the theatre. The kids have been trained by their dad to check all the games and gumball machines for quarters and Ollie and Meems ran over to investigate and came back super elated because they each found a token. I tried to reload a Scene+ card but it didn’t even work. The theatre admission was super cheap compared to home anyhow, so it didn’t matter. $48 later we were all in the theatre with a giant popcorn and pop. There were probably another 20 people in the theatre spread out. Movie was super fun. 

By this time it was nearing 9pm and the thought of driving to a campground and paying for a rainy night was not appealing. Jonathan considered just staying parked in the theatre lot but we decided to drive down the road to the Walmart and park alongside a couple other RV’s for the night. Closed the blinds and cooked up black beans and onion/peppers for bean wraps. Jonathan and Ollie went into the Walmart (Oliver loves looking around stores) and came back with some extra groceries and a skipping rope - which ended up getting returned). 

Tonight I started reading Anne of Green Gables to the kids, fitting since we were in PEI, even though I thought I would have started it sooner so they had a better background before we hit Cavendish.