July 19

Friday, July 19

Is Brudnell Provincial Park the ultimate camping experience?  I have to say yes.  The

perfectly silent night followed by the day filled with horseback riding (horse stable

and canoe rental right on the park premises)—and did I mention the site on the

lake, with open fires permitted—what could be better?.  We woke up pretty late

and set out for the Children’s’ Festival set up by Parks Canada—by luck we had it

in Brudnell.  Nicolas made friends with a 12-year old Graham from Manitoba (his

family moved there from PEI with the oil boom), and spent the next 5 hours talking

to him.  I overhear them discussing Doctor Who, differences between American

and Canadian English, Minecraft and etc.  Anna heard Nick say to a passerby, “we

are nerds.” At some point, it started to rain, by they did not care and kept talking

through.  Graham gave Nick his email to keep in touch.  Sasha, on the other hand,

played all kinds of games while Anna and I took alternate turns to read / sleep in

the tent.  I loved the Canadian game pop the balloon, where each child gets a balloon

tied to his leg, and then they try to pop each other’s balloons.  At 3 pm Nick and

Anna went for the horse ride, while I supervised Sasha on her pony ride. Sasha’s

pony name was Jazz… it had a brown saddle with pink outlines, and the pony itself

was mostly brown with white spots on the forehead (Sasha’s description). Anna’s

horse was Ceithe (pronounce KAYA) and Nicks Fax.  Nick and Anna came back

absolutely in love with their horses and happy about life in general.  They want to do

this again.

We were back at the campsite at around five; I got lots of firewood and Nicolas

helped me to tend an enormous fire.  The dinner was simple pasta with PEI

vegetables and local beer again.  Did I mention that we managed to run into

Georgetown and buy some sweets from the Maroon Pig bakery?  It was really good.

Off to Nova Scotia tomorrow.