Saturday, August 12, 2023
This morning we decided since there was a Tim Horton’s right down the street that we would just let Tim fix breakfast. We like Tim Horton’s and since we don’t have any down our way we take advantage of them when we can.
From there we drove a little over an hour to The Bottle Houses, located toward the southwest end of PEI. There are a few other bottle buildings similar to this attraction, but these are different from ones we have seen elsewhere. The PEI attraction has three bottle buildings, a chapel, a six-gabled house and the tavern, all surrounded by beautiful gardens. These are buildings that you can walk through standing erect, and sit on the bottle benches in the chapel. The creator, Edouard Arsenault, who began his project by spending the winter of 1979 in his basement cleaning bottles and removing labels began construction in the spring of 1980 at the age of 66. From 1980 through the spring of 1984, he cemented over 25,000 bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors into three fantasy-like buildings. He got most of his bottles from a local restaurant, as well as dance halls, friends, and the local Catholic churches colorful votive holders after use. There is also a replica of the Cap-Egmont lighthouse on the property. Arsenault was the last resident keeper of the local lighthouse located two kilometers from the Bottle House project. You come to this tourist attraction for the bottle buildings. You stay and visit and relax because of the landscaping, artwork and yard art. The flowers are blooming everywhere, a water lily pond, a fishpond, succulents and many flowers we had to use google to identify. We really weren’t expecting to enjoy this stop as much as we did. It’s worth your time.
Driving back east, we stopped at the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Catholic Parish Church. If you appreciate the beauty of old churches/building, be sure to stop here too. The marble was exquisite. The stages of the cross amazing. They have tours some days but not today. There was a funeral earlier today. Much of the information was in French so…didn’t help much. We did learn that the community was founded in 1812 by the Acadians – remember when we were in Wolfville and learned about the French Acadians and the expulsion. That was day 24 if you want to look back. This is the third Catholic Church built on this property, built in 1898. It is said to be one of the most beautiful churches in the province.
After visiting the church, we visited a couple of beaches. Both beaches today were red sand beaches. We spent most of our time at Gordon Gove Beach. Very pretty and we do love to walk on the beach. From the beach we drove to Albany, PEI, home of the Hand Pie Factory. We did get to watch the pies being made. Hand pies are similar to a pot pie but the pastry wraps around the filling so it can be eaten with your hand like a sandwich. They are so very good! Think we will have to stop back by when we leave the island in a few days.
Next we walked off some of the calories by walking the Confederation Trail. There is a trail from one end of the island to the other. We just walked a couple of miles but it’s a good trail.
From there we got our ice cream dessert and then back to our friends driveway for another night of moochdocking. Another beautiful day in Prince Edward Island. This was the kind of days we were expecting – beautiful sunshine with a high of 70 and a low of 60. Don’t forget to be praying for your pastors and the services tomorrow. BTW – you don’t have to wait till Saturday to pray for pastors all over the world. Missing all our Alabama and South Carolina Peeps.
RVing With a Purpose 
We miss you both!
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