People in Glass Houses....

Kite surfer skids across the water at the end of the day in Linkletter Provincial Park, PEI.

If you are into lists, things like 1,000 places you need to see before you die, The Bottle House in Cape Egmont, PEI, is one of those places. It's called “Les Maisons de Bouteilles” here because we're in the heart of Prince Edward Island's Acadian culture. L'Acadie has a long history of British abuse of the French people when the area was “conquered” and the French were forced off the land, ending up as far away as New Orleans, Louisiana. But now they're back and have rebuilt their history which they wish to share with everyone.

This is not a monumental structure. But it's pretty cool. Edouard Arsenault, a fisherman on this red-sandstone coast, decided in the late 1970s – after he retired- that he'd be the first recycler on the island. He built a six-gabled house by using 12,000 bottles and cement. He had wine bottles, booze bottles of all kinds, pill bottles, jars, all of them with their necks facing inward. The light sparkles through these bottles and visitors seem to like to push pennies and nickels and dimes into the bottles as they walk through the place. Edouard became the last resident keeper of the local lighthouse while he built and built.

After the house, he then built a chapel with approximately 10,000 bottles. Even the pews are built with bottles and wood. There's a beer bottle cross as well as an altar made of liquor bottles! Several couples have been married in this little chapel.

Edouard's sense of humor bubbles up in the tavern he next built. There's a huge central pillar with hundreds of bottles and Edouard held out some unique bottles which he used to display on the bar of this tavern. He collected more than 30,000 bottles for his architectural epic. Strange, strange place.

All of these building began to disintegrate in the 1980s because Edouard did not put down concrete foundations and the ground heaved in each spring thaw. So, after his death, the buildings were dismantled by local craftsmen and rebuilt with proper support systems. They are placed in beautiful flower, herb and vegetable gardens which is maintained immaculately.

We came down the coast to the Linkletter Provincial Park. The Confederation Bridge that links the island to mainland New Brunswick lies on the horizon. This is a spectacular engineering job eight miles long and constructed to resist the floating ice that flows through the Northumberland Straits between the two provinces, we watched a number of kite skid across the waves a lift off and be airborne for a few seconds as the gusts of wind picked them out of the water.

With a blustery breeze blowing across the Northumberland Straits, we watched and photographed a number of

Friday morning, we climbed the ramp onto the bridge. We scooted across and ended in New Brunswick for lunch. Our destination was the Magnetic Hill Winery in Moncton, where we parked for the night. We took the last of our Canadian cash and bought two bottles of wine. Tomorrow, in'sh-allah, we will be back in Maine.

This Canadian journey has been a delight in so many ways. The friendliness of the natives, the beautiful, petite farms, the well-manicured front lawns of the huge majority of homes, the misty bleakness of Newfoundland. We have come to love the character of the people. There is a pleasing openness, a lack of fear. We were here while one of their beloved opposition politicians died of cancer and it was moving to watch the great outpouring of grief and love for this man. We have come to enjoy the political climate in this place. Politics does not seem to be a blood sport up here and I say long may that continue.

We have been frequently stunned by the cost of living here, however. The taxes that are heaped onto EVERY purchase is between 14 and 15 percent. It is worrying that there is a 14 percent tax placed on top of the taxes that the federal government place on all fuel. And we have gotten tired of the endless fees to enter every place we have been. I say that in the full knowledge that any place in Canada seems to be in a better state financially than any place in the U.S. So there is merit to charging fees on everything to keep services solvent. But something in me admires how in Washington, for example, you can enter any museum or art gallery without fees and charges and taxes being levied. That, too, may change for us as we try to right our foundering financial ship.

But, all in all, this two-month voyage to the most easterly point in North America, 'way out into the Atlantic, as well as some of the spectacular sights and sounds of Canada will linger in our hearts forever.

We're glad you were able to accompany us on this journey.