2010 Vacation Day 7 - Is there anything we have not done today???

Rained overnight, hard at times, but the whole thing only lasted a couple of hours. Love the sound of rain, I guess compounded by the fact we are no longer in a tent on the ground. No rush to this morning, very dull and overcast, and a touch cool.  Made up the requisite coffee, and once again, granola with fresh peaches. Steve wandered over to talk to the other couples about plans for the day, looks like there may be some crokinole happening at the Panmure Island Pow Wow, a yearly event held just across the road.
Not being good beach weather, we decided to walk up to the point to the lighthouse. Walked along the beach a good distance, I would guess at least 3 klm. Along the way, we each collected unique beach stones, to be entered into our "best beach stone" contest...a collectively judged event. The walk along the shore was excellent as the sun was not beating down on us. Made it to the lighthouse, but soon realized there was no stairs to climb up the bank. We clamboured up the big rocks, right into a private back yard. so we politely skirted the edge, then scooted through the barbed wire into the horse pasture. Luckily the occupants were over on the far side, oblivious to the interlopers. Dodging numerous horse droppings, we made our way over to the lighthouse, through yet another fence. We paid our nominal fee, then climbed the stairs. quite interesting inside, and the view at the top was excellent. It is a working lighthouse from 1856, as we have seen the flash in previous evenings.

Not wanting to cross the private property again, we walked the long way back along the road. As the sun was now out, it made for a long, very warm walk back. The goal keeping us moving was the promise of an ice cream cone at the beach takeout.

thought it meant walk like this...

flashing light shenanigans...

 At the beach takeout, we chatted with Angela the owner, Morgan, Brynn & Jenene. Angela told us that a blueberry pie was about to come out of the oven, filled with PEI blueberries from their farm. Dale and Steve opted for that instead. Janine and I got the ice cream. a short time later, when Steve walked out the door with a massive piece of pie, we knew we should have gone for the pie. It was enormous!

Dale's piece was just as impressive, as good as they looked, they tasted better. Janine and I quickly decided we needed to share one. Ours was just as enormous.

Dale savours the taste...

Once we had finished our pies, it was time for the beach stone contest. Each person presents a stone to the others, not only displaying it, but also extolling its virtues. After all the presentations were made, the eliminations began. Soon it was down to 3 stones, however Steve's was quickly discarded when it was decided it really looked like an overly fat pice of meat. With 2 stones remaining, Dale's and Janine's, all judges declared Dale's the winner, as it not only best captured the essence of PEI, it also featured a split in the stone that formed 2 giant lips smiling. It made everyone happy just looking at it.

the two finalists...

As we are leaving for Stanhope tomorrow, we wondered how we could take a pie with us. It was quickly decided that one needed to make the journey, so we inquired about buying a whole pie. The girls said they would make us up one for for the cost of $8.00. Normally the takeout pies go for $7.75, but it was being cooked for us, there was an extra 25 cents added. An order was quickly placed for pickup in a couple of hours.

Finally walked back to camp, just to grab our swim trunks to head back to the beach. Wanted to get in a quick swim before dinner, as it was by this time fast approaching 4:00 pm. We drove over as we we concerned about getting our pie back to camp in one piece. By the time we got settled in on the beach, a huge line of dark clouds obscured the sun, for what turned out to be our entire time there. It got goosebump cool quickly, but this did not deter Dale from going in the water for a float. A wedding party appeared for some beach photos. They all looked pretty young, I guess in relation to us that is! Picked up our pie, which had a cute little note on the top of the pie from its bakers.

Stopped to get the lowdown from the crokinole boys, apparently there may be a little tournament this evening at the Pow Wow. Steve and Dale have their takeout chowder for dinner, so Janine and I cooked up some penne pasta with an alfredo sauce, I threw some New Brunswick smoked salmon into mine, while Janine added some green beans to hers. Louise and Linda sent over a fresh apple crisp for our dessert, apparently in exchange for a tour of the Alto...sweet. They had been out walking and they came across a transparent apple tree, which I gather is a type of apple. Lawson climbed and shook the tree, while the others gathered the falling apples. They then cobbled together the ingredients and baked the crisp...how crazy is that!

The group of us walked over to the Pow Wow through the forest. Talking with some campers along the way, they told us that a coyote had killed a pet dog just last night, at the edge of the trees. That's pretty scary. Lots of people at the Pow Wow, with a big stage in the centre of the field. It is held in a native resource centre, with a large open building, overlooking the sea. A very nice spot. Blois and Lawson worked on getting the tournament organized, which is to start after the bingo. Got the tables and boards set up, and before we knew it, there were about 12 people playing. Five bucks to enter, round robin sort of play. Two boards going, 8 players. You play with rotating partners against the other two players. You have a piece of paper with which you keep track of your score at the end of each full game. Each partner records the points on their paper. A game consists of each of the 4 players starting a round. Losers move to the next table, to play other losers. Your score travels with you. By the end of the tourney, you will have 4 scores, which are then added up to determine the top two to play Blois and Lawson. So a lot of games are played, 4 games, each with 4 rounds. I faired OK with a cumulative score of 205. The top 2 to move on had scores of 475 and 405. Clearly better players, although your partner does play a hand in each others score.

Me, with one of my rotating partners, John, an excellent player.

The two finalists then played Blois and Lawson, who were not part of the tourney, as that would have been a tad unfair. Most of the players knew exactly who Blois and Lawson were, with one jokingly commenting about them being crokinole sharks. They handily beat the two finalists, who were no slouches themselves. Individually these guys are really good, but watching them play as a team was crazy. They controlled the board and the game totally. Pretty fun. After it wrapped up, we all hopped in the back of Blois's pickup truck, yes, the back, for the short hop back to camp.

 Truly a memorable evening.