Ahhhh, fall in PEI: my favourite time of the year in my favourite place in the world.

After some unexpected adventures on Friday afternoon, the carload of four Islanders plus one Manitoban hit the highway for a Thanksgiving weekend at home. Unfortunately, we didn't get into Charlottetown until almost 11:30pm, so there was no nacho outing; however, my mom had made brownies and Socks (who was still in pretty rough shape) purred for me and let me scratch him under his chin.

Saturday was turkey day at my house. It didn't start out well. Just before my mother started to bake the pumpkin pies my dad decided to fix the leaky faucet in the kitchen. In the tradition of repairs in the Gauthier household, the five-minute job turned into a trip to two hardware stores and Mr. Plumber, while my mother, who now had no water to cook with at all, became more and more frazzled. I took Dee (my "Friendly Manitoban" visitor, who by now was probably wondering what she had gotten herself into when she agreed to spend Thanksgiving with my family) to Mike's fantabulous apartment so we could use the shower, and then we spent the afternoon wandering around downtown until we were thought it would be safe to return to the house. The sink eventually got fixed (although my poor dad will never live this one down) and Pam and Liam came over to help eat the huge, delicious turkey dinner. Then Lynda joined us and we all went into town to walk the boardwalk and introduce Dee to the cannons in Victoria Park.

Everyone else had Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. so it was PEI sightseeing day for Dee. We hit up New Glasgow, Green Gables, the National Park, and Rustico. By far my favourite part of the day was when Dee, who had never seen the ocean before, blurted out, "It's the ocean! With waves and everything!" Despite a stranger warning her that "this isn't Hawaii you know," she waded into the water to have an Atlantic ocean frolic while I recorded the moment for her family.


Liam drove us back to Halifax yesterday, and today I returned myself to the land of assignments and deadlines. On the bright side, it looks like my brother might come visit in November, and it's only two months until Christmas break begins.