PEI Lighthouses - North Central Edition

Today, along with our drive to the Anne of Green Gables Historic Site, we explored the central northern coast of Prince Edward Island, hunting down as many lighthouses as we could find.  Our first stop was the North Rustico Lighthouse.  No, this wasn't the genuine lighthouse, but a neighboring building, now part of a tourist trap, built in the shape of a lighthouse:

Here is the genuine North Rustico Lighthouse, which Kathy captured in pouring rain:

As we drove back through Rustico, this little fox entertained us in one of the yards by the side of the road.  We spotted a cat on one of the houses' balconies, who kept her eyes keenly on this little fox until he wandered away:

Our next stop was along the Prince Edward Island National Park to view the magnificent red sandstone cliffs.  This was our view west --

-- and this our view east:

By the time we finished exploring these sites and the Anne of Green Gables Historic Site, we had built up a fierce peckishness.  We found a wonderful seafood house -- Carr's -- in Stanley Bridge, west of Green Gables.  Kathy ordered some raw oysters and observed management's edict and shucked it up:

Thus refueled, we set out further on our lighthouse quest, only to find this beautiful little New London harbor light:

The view of the bay was almost as inspiring as the lighthouse itself:

Our next stop was the Cape Tryon Lighthouse, but on the way, we were treated to the mystical vision of mists evaporating from fields in the warming afternoon sun:

We eventually reached the Cape Tryon Lighthouse --

-- and the deep scarlet cliffs where innumerable cormorants made their nests, flying back and forth to and from the cliff walls, building their cliff nests with whatever materials they could find.  We even heard the plaintive bark of a seal from the rocks below:

We continued our drive along the north coast, and came across this colorful farmstead, which was so attractive, we had to include it for your pleasure:

Our last destination, while not a lighthouse, was still quite magnificent.  After some searching and quizzing of locals, we found the Teacup Rocks at Thunder Cove.  Here, Kathy measures herself against one of the teacups:

This is another view of a teacup with cliffs and rocks and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the background:

Looking west from the Teacup Rocks, we spied a bonus lighthouse!  It was the Malpeque Light -- obviously decommissioned because it was in disrepair.  But still it counted as one of the PEI lighthouses.  It sat, looking a little forlorn and lonely just above the beach:

Having found most of our quarry, we turned home, but made one last stop at what our campground host told us is the most beautiful church on Prince Edward Island -- St. Mary's Church in Indian River.  We admired the intricate modelling and painting of the spire, roof and turrets:

By this time, both we and our day were exhausted.  We headed straight back to the campground, to a steaming pot of duck gumbo, prepared by our favorite cook, Ms. Crockpot, while we were away.  A quick outing for Baxter in the late afternoon sun and breeze, and we were inside, sipping our gumbo and starting to write our blog entries for the day.