Camping

I realised on Monday that I have not had a single day off of work since getting here on 30th January!

When I was teaching I used to long for the half term, 6 weeks of teaching and I really needed the week off, and that week went all to quick. I also used to get ill a lot, colds, flu - general crud. I'd have a sore throat and sneezing, hay fever type stuff throughout the year, lasting for weeks sometimes and often resulting in a couple of days off of work here and there.

I'm not sure weather it's the clean air in Canada and PEI Island freshness, the lack of stress or what? - but I've not even felt the need to take a day off, I've not been ill once, and this is the first holiday I've had in 6 months!

We can't afford a big trip around Canada this year, and to us PEI is a holiday destination still - not home. So it made perfect sense to camp on PEI, just up the road in fact about 30 miles away in North Rustico.

The campsite was great, the weather REALLY hot (I got sun burned!!! and I have genetic sun block!).

Camping always makes the days seem longer and I always feel fitter and more full of energy after a nice camping vacation.

The campsite grounds were awesome, each pitch separated by some trees and provided with a fire pit (don't know why most campsites in the UK don't allow fires?!), and a picnic table.

It also had a heated pool, which, strangely, was deserted most of the time, so we had it to ourselves. This was great to help Hayden swim as he gets distracted if the pool is busy and finds it difficult if the water is too bouncy.

It took us a little over an hour to set up camp in the blistering heat, which made it even tougher.

This year we decided to pay the extra $3 per night for a serviced pitch (water and electricity) Well worth it.

I will do this from now on when camping with family. Although we only used the electric for charging the iPod, boiling the kettle and toast, in future I'd bring along a small fridge/freezer and lights/fairy lights etc. It makes camp much easier, and saves on gas.

I'm not one for taking along electronic gadgets and stuff camping, I've always proffered it to be as 'rough' as possible... no frills. But when you're spending a week with family you need to be comfortable, and having your own water and electric is really worth while.

I will still stamp down on bringing TV's and DVDs though to camp - No Way! Not Allowed!

After we made camp it began to rain, we decided to go for a Lobster Supper at The Fisherman's Wharf in North Rustico. Giant 1.5 lb Lobster, Chowder, 1lb Mussels, Salad Bar, Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie and a cup of tea for just $36!!, I love it here :)

Tuesday was red hot and we spent the whole day lazing and camp and at the pool. Me and Hayden went hunting for marshmallow toasting sticks and spent a fair amount of time cleaning them up and making a shape point on them.

Then came the rum....

Sunset, Hayden is great at camp and helps out on water treks and tidying up.

It was really serene and peaceful. I started to take some dusk photos and found this spiders web that looked awesome in the light.

Campfire. Can't have a proper camp without a camp fire. If only to keep the Mozzie's away. You can buy wood all around North Rustico an Cavendish in bundles, ready to burn and these fire pits are great, dug into the ground, they don't get blown too much by the wind.

This is the first camp fire I've ever started without firelighters or oil and everything, including the wood was wet - so it took a while, but I was extremely chuffed to have got it going.
Note: Bring a hatchet to camp, to enable you to chop up the wood revealing the dry stuff under the surface... I must buy a hatchet. Luckily a veteran camper, Don, next door had one :)

Next day it rained again, but I was not going to sit in the tent miserable like we did last year in the UK when we went camping. The good thing here is that even though it's raining it's still really hot, so we went and played Frisbee and Football... or Frisball.. in the rain regardless.

We took a trip out to a theme park type place. It was called Shining Waters and was 'supposed' to be a water park. Sadly they're a bit too safe and reserved here in PEI so Hayden was not allowed on any of the decent water slides or even the roller coaster (which was pantz). Sad, considering that he's been on much faster and bigger roller coasters in Alton Towers and Drayton Manor, and bigger, faster water slides in the local Cari complex.

This was a disappointment to both him and us, and made us rethink our pans for Florida within the next few years - perhaps we'll wait until the kids are much older.

Still, Hayden had fun where he could, and loved this really weird house... it was WEIRD!

En route home we took in some of the coastline and national parks up by Cavendish.

The birds were loving something out in the water... either chum or a school of bluefish :)

Amazing views from the cliff top.

We stood right on the edge :)

On the way home we drove by a sign that said 'Waterfront Lots For Sale'. Intrigued we stopped and 'had a word' .

This amazing house was brand new and finished to perfection. The views from it's balcony were incredible overlooking the river.

It was for sale, built for that purpose, but amazingly we spoke to the developer and to buy a lot, and get a house similar (but not quite as grand as this) was all doable for just $200K CDN.

A house overlooking the river like this out in the country for less than we paid for our 2 bed end terrace in Harlow.

It's just out of our price range at the moment with just my one wage, but definitely got us thinking about what we might aim for in the future when Kath starts work again in a few years.
This is a new development with about 15 lots in total - 3 have been built on, about a further 5 already sold, but many still available.

This is one of the lots down by the water still for sale. The lot itself is more expensive than the hill top one of course, but you get the land all the way to the water and can put your own floating jetty out on it. The river is calm, clean and 8 feet deep - no need for a pool, and only a couple of miles to the sea!

An acre of land by the water for just $110K CDN (£61K), amazing. LOL, we're tempted to just buy the land now!

So, it was a great holiday.

Back to work on Monday, and the great thing is I'm really looking forward to it. When I was teaching, it'd be dread to have to go and face those kids again - I always felt I needed just a couple more days before I could be happy returning to work.

Not anymore, I'm quite happy to go back.

Skimping and scraping on one wage, not able to afford trips abroad, not knowing what to do with our house in the UK, still a few debts here and there, tons of money spent getting over here, no child benefits, no tax breaks, expensive beer... but man... we're so much happier in life generally. Less arguing, ZERO stress.

The only real things missing are our close friends. But hey you can always visit can't you?