Journal Day 31

We got up ready to start exploring the Island (about 200 miles in length)... First we headed to the north beach area near our campground and found miles of sand dunes and great beaches, fairly deserted right now as everything is closed up for the season.... this is a major recreation area similar to Dayton Beach and fairly congested during the summer... then we went into Charlottetown to get breakfast and soon found ourselves walking around exploring the side streets and headed for the harbor region... we found a small coffeehouse and stopped to have a cappuccino and bagel.. Suzanne had regular coffee and a scone... we enjoyed the area so much that we decided to explore Charlottetown some more.... we wandered into an old church down the street which was being readied for a wedding and enjoyed the stained glass and organ recital going on.... then down near the harbor area we found the International Shellfish Festival.... huge tent set up with stage and sound system, and side bars serving wine and beer and vats of steamed mussels... also oysters and softshelled clams on the half shell.... it started at noon and cost $3 to get in, so we decided to stay in town for the afternoon...

Several PEI musical groups played during the afternoon and were sensational... mostly folk music which is common up here with everyone stamping their feet... one lead singer sounded just like John Denver... I spent the afternoon drinking Moosehead Lite beer to wash down the steamed mussels, oysters and clams on the halfshell until I knew I was going to burst.... Suzanne watched while sipping a glass of wine and shaking her head at the slimy little things floating around in the shells that I covered with hot sauce and gulped down.... I also had a bowl of great fish chowder that one stand was selling....

There were some serious contests held at the festival.... first was the fish chowder contest, with 10 chefs from restaurants on the island contending with their best recipe... After the judging, the audience was allowed to come up and sample as many of them as they were able.... it was a real mob scene, but we managed to try a couple different recipes, with our favorite being one that was made up primarily of lobster and was a pink color..... unfortunately the judges did not agree and he did not win the contest....

Then there was an oyster shucking contest... this is serious stuff.... two at a time went up and shucked a dozen oysters each and were timed.... then the presentation of the oysters on the plates were judged and contestants were assigned penalty points... last year's champion won again and will try to take the Canadian tomorrow, then going on to Ireland for the world's title.... it was a lot of fun...

In the middle of Charlottetown in front of the war memorial, hung a sign "God Bless America" and the American flag... we saw similar signs other places, as well as Canadian flags flying at half mast.... many American flags being shown..... demonstrating the sentiment over the terrorist bombings shared by our Canadian neighbors...

We are enjoying PEI and have decided to spend a couple more days here as another festival is going on near Charlottetown... tomorrow we are planning to move to a different campground that is remaining open for a few more weeks.... we still need to explore the ends of he islands and will stay an extra day to do it as long as the weather stays nice...