After dropping Auntie S. at the trail, we headed to a place called Miscouche to visit an Acadian Museum. Only we got there way too early! We had to wait around a long time for it to open. Luckily, there were lots of things to do outside.
There were these benches to sit on, painted like the Acadian flag.
So, we sat around for a bit, but not for long because there was lots more to do.
All around the museum grounds, there was a curb side fence listing the most popular surnames of Acadians pioneers who settled on the island.
Vera and I had fun choosing the surnames we liked best.
Vera liked Longuépée, and I liked Petitpas. Mommy said a lot of the names are ones she also knew from when she lived in Quebec. Settlers sure liked to move around a lot!
Just behind the museum, there was a cemetery with a mixture of really, really old graves and more current ones. It was sad though because Dorian had caused quite a bit of damage.
A lot of the markers were so old, you couldn’t read them anymore, especially the wooden ones.
But even some of the stone ones were illegible.
And, some of the markers just had sad stories to tell.
One thing Vera and I liked a lot was that all the veteran graves had an extra marker of a cross with a bright red poppy. What a lovely way to say how much their service meant to all of us.
In the centre of the cemetery, there was a monument with the names of the people who were buried in unmarked graves or in graves where the markers were destroyed by time.
Once the museum opened, we headed inside. There were displays about the history of the Acadian people through the ages right up to modern times. This display was to show how much music was, and still is, a part of Acadian culture.
We wanted to dance right along with this fellow!
Before the settlers could afford a bell for their Church, the conch shell in this case was blown each Sunday morning to call the Acadians to Church.
We made a new friend. She was born around 1960, she said. She couldn’t remember her name, so we helped her choose a new one. We all decided she looked like a “Marguerite,” so that is who she became.
Marguerite said a cradle like this was way before her time, but we wondered if maybe her grandmother slept in one like this? Would she have remembered the strings keeping her in?
We ended our visit to the museum by doing a little shopping in their gift shop. Mommy bought quite a few books about Acadian life back in pioneer times, and a few gifts for our family members back home.
After our museum visit, we went back to the trail to wait for Auntie to arrive. It was a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine, even if there were still lots of trees crushing power lines all along the roadways.
We were always glad to see Auntie approaching after one of her days of hiking. We love our Auntie.
Later in the day, we went to a woollen mill. It advertised a self-guided tour of the mill, and it really was totally self-guided. When we walked through the door, we were right on the mill floor!
It was fascinating to see machines turning uncarded wool from sheep, into velvety ribbons of wool strips, that eventually were wound into strands of yarn on wooden bobbins.
The machines were kind of frightening, especially when we were standing right next to them! We were very surprised that we were allowed to be in the mill with all the machinery running. Mommy wouldn’t let us have our pictures taken in the mill because she was scared we would get sucked into one of the big machines!
After the yarn is made in the factory part of the mill, it gets dyed all these gorgeous colours.
We couldn’t even pick any favourites because all the colours were so rich and beautiful.
Mommy and Auntie bought yarn to bring home with them. Mommy said she might need a bigger suitcase to go home with.
We were so tired that night, even though Mommy let us play with her shells and stones from the beaches, we could hardly keep our eyes open. It was early to bed…with dreams of more adventures for tomorrow.
4 thoughts on “Day Six in PEI”
même les tenues des petites demoiselles me font rêver…. !!!!!
Thank you. They are fun little people to make for. Because of their size, nothing takes too long to make, so it does inspire one to try and be creative.
même les tenues des petites demoiselles me font rêver…. !!!!!
Thank you. They are fun little people to make for. Because of their size, nothing takes too long to make, so it does inspire one to try and be creative.
Museums are such fun to visit. Lots of history to see and learn. I felt like I was there with you!
It wasn’t a huge museum overall, but it did manage to display a lot of interesting history in the space it had.