Where I Live IV

This weekend my oldest friend in the world, Gord, came to visit.  Gord and I have known one another since elementary school in Winnipeg; he was Best Man at my wedding, has always been my closest (and sometimes only) confidante, knows (almost) every secret I have; and when he and I get together after six months or a year or even two years of not seeing one another, the conversation picks up as if the time before it had ended in a comma.

Circumstances being what they are, Gord has not been down this way before, so this was a chance to show off my Island, albeit at a time of year when it doesn't have its makeup on.  But true beauty doesn't need makeup, does it?

We started off on Friday going into Charlottetown - I live a few kilometres North of the city, which is the largest metropolis on the Island.  And to give you a sense of just what that means, here's a view of the downtown core:

 

Looking for a building higher than seven stories?  Good luck with that.  The two church spires at the left in the distance are the tallest structures on the Island.  There are two (count 'em, two) escalators in town.  The main downtown street has diagonal parking.  That tells you all you need to know about its size. 

As you can see, it was a blustery, rainy day, and after lunch at the restaurant where my son-in-law is the chef, (and it was delicious), we only spent a short time exploring the city.  There was food to buy for supper and a liquor store to hit and other errands, and that night we ate Atlantic salmon and mussels and drank and talked late into the morning.

On Saturday, we did the real Island tour.  We went to the North Shore of the Island.  It's 120 miles long, much of it like this:

And this:

And this:

The surf was up ...

And, as I'd hoped, the Island was both beautiful and dramatic ...

So ... even without makeup, the Island was gorgeous.  I love showing it off to visitors.  Like Gord.  Or ... you know ... like you.

Comments

[kalki]

Those are some seriously stunning shots.

[Gora_Kagaz]

catching up with old friends is always a great experience, because it reminds you why you love them so much in the first place. and those pics are gorgeous. i'd love to hear more about your island--it sounds like a really wonderful place :)

[wordgirl]

What a coincidence! One of my oldest friends came into town this weekend, too. What a great time. He went skydiving for his birthday this month and brought the video of his jump. I made Tortilla Soup and he caught up on all the news. Much wine was consumed and we looked at old school yearbooks. Yeah...Steven knows where " a lot of the bodies are buried", if you know what I mean. I'm glad you have someone like that as well. And the pictures are spectacular.

[Sandy]

gorgeous...just gorgeous...if that's what she looks like without her makeup, I can only imagine what she looks like all dressed up.

[William]

Your Island rocks.

[CircusKelli]

I could take pics every single minute of every single day around the county I live in and never even come close to anything this beautiful.

Damn, you're a lucky bastard to live with such stunning scenery.

[Laura]

I thought it just looked okay.

(kidding...) Do yourselves a favor and don't EVER let the developers show up on your shores. At the first mention of "condo" ...... shoot 'em.

Gorgeous island, Nils.

[Lyn]

Isn't it wonderful to live somewhere that you show off by pointing out nature rather than man-made things? Don't get me wrong; I love museums and the like, but earth au naturale . . . exquisite! I, too, had a friend visit recently, and although she grew up where I did, about 400 miles from here, we took several jaunts to ooouuuu and ahhhhh at the loveliness of our home state. Good times, eh?

[SaraSue]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Allie]

Laura: Developers are too scared to build on our shores, since we lose anywhere from 3-10 feet per year to erosion!!

[platypus]

It's a beautiful island, Nils. I bet Gord was blown away by it all.

[nadia]

This is gonna sound stupid but i feel like bawling. i really miss the eastern parts of Canada. i haven't been by an ocean in several years.

Speaking of downtowns, my downtown looks like this: http://www.downtowncalgary.ca It's quite nice actually. "Nice" if you like filling your lungs with smoke, pollution, exhaust fumes and haze; "nice" also if you can get past rude, unfriendly, unhelpful people, and "nice" so long as you are not tailgated by some crazy road rager.

If you can get past all that, it's 'nice'.
:(

[Ortizzle]

And now we know the best restaurant in town for some good nosh! (fun music, too!) So when are you hosting a Visiting Bloggers Holiday?!!! (J.K.)

[Nils]

Ortizzle ... any blogger who comes to the Island isn't just invited to visit .. they're expected to ... :)

[CircusKelli]

Oh yeah... that's right... Nils invited the whole circus to stay with him in his lovely little farmhouse... Woo! What an adventure THAT would be... for the hosts, too! ;)

[SaraSue]

<-------pricing flights

[Nils]

Hee! Word to the wise, Sara ... price them for the time between June and October. Outside that, the weather will eat up a lil girl from California ...

[SaraSue]

You mean it's going to get cold there?? :)

[The Kept Woman]

I'm with Ortizzle...we need to come up with a weekend that works for all and take Nilbo up on his offer!!

But maybe we could wait until summer when we won't need parkas and wool-lined boots...just a thought...

[Effie]

Y'know, PEI is ALWAYS beautiful--I haven't seen a part of it that I didn't like! My brother and sister were out there visiting over the summer and brought back some gorgeous photos--I was envious and want to go back again and again. We almost put an offer in on a lighthouse out there when we visited, but then threw some reality into the picture (like, shouldn't we work in the area before we move there) and then came back to our senses.

Happy Thursday to you!