Our Holidays

At the suggestion of my secretary, (and I have the most unique, awesome secretary ever) I am going to start this blog again - at least until my holidays are over.


Monday's flight was pretty uneventful. I left Saskatoon at 5:45 and arrived in Charlottetown about nine hours later. There was a minor blip in the Toronto airport where my boarding pass misnamed the gate from which I was to depart. Fortunately I caught the error in time and made it to the proper gate with time to spare.


I had a couple of conversations with young moms on the plane. The babies were three and four months old. They were taking them back to see relatives. They were flying from Edmonton. The young man in front of me worked at Cold Lake. I wondered if this was a sign of how many Maritimers have come out West looking for work.


The weather when we landed in Charlottetown was drizzly and cool but at least it wasn't the snow they had earlier in the day. The airport here is quite small so one actually walks outside to get from the airplane to the terminal. Charlottetown has approximately 35,000 people, which puts it maybe at the size of Lloydminister. The whole Island is about 132,000 or so. Boggles my mind - the whole island has less people than Saskatoon. But, as we all know, I like small places.


There is a sense of age and peace here. We are staying at the Rodd Hotel in the downtown. This is an old hotel somewhat like the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina. I share my lunches with the guys at the convention. It is about a five block walk to the Delta where the convention is held. The Delta is right next to the harbour. The lunches are way more fancy than what I am used to but it takes them forever to serve me a cup of coffee. We had to ask three times yesterday and even then it was done according to whatever they deemed the proper time to be. Today I was much smarter and stopped off at a small coffee shop and grabbed a coffee to go. Good thing too. I never did get served my coffee. Owen, being the awesome husband he is, wandered off with my empty cup and returned with a full one.


There are many restaurants in this area of the city. We had fish on Monday night. The little place we were in understood the gluten-free diet so ordering was easy. Owen ordered two pieces of fish and barely made it on the outside of them. The portions are huge compared to the prairies. And the amount of fries is unreal - real homemade fries - yum. I could make a meal of them alone.


I had breakfast in Summerside on Tuesday morning. It was at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club. It was a Rotary meeting. I introduced myself and was later asked to say a few words if I had any. I stood up and told them about the places I serve and the Rotary club there. I received a flag to take home for the Rotary club there.

I had coffee and a long chat with an old friend. She had worked for Owen in Outlook. She and her husband kindly took Sara in when we abandoned her in Grade 12 so that we could move to Landis. It was good to get caught up. (In a world of coincidences we had just met her daughter the week before. Owen and I were dealing with the medical exam for our life insurance and were pleasantly surprised to find that our examiner was this friend's daughter.)


Last night we went to an "all you can eat lobster" meal. Owen decided to order the smaller - two lobster plate. The lobsters were fairly small but once again the fries were plenty. I couldn't decide if I like the regular fries or the sweet potato fries better. So I ate a number of both. Being from Alberta now,I supported the ranchers in my area by eating good old beef - only because the menu did not have salmon, which is my preference.


Today is the major banquet. We are trying to figure what local delicacy it will feature. Tomorrow we are headed to Georgetown after going to Matins at All Soul's Chapel here in Charlottetown. Owen and I will get some pictures taken and posted for our friends at St. Thomas and St. Mary's.


Love and Prayers,
Amie