The Dream Holiday

Ok All,

I'm going to use this space to log about my holiday with my mum starting on Monday! Basically the history of this trip spans back around 3 years ago when I told mum i'd love to go to Prince Edward Island (PEI) to visit all of the LM Montgomery (LMM) sites. We decided that for my 21st we should do just that - the two of us to go globe trotting around the world visiting all of the literary sites :). So... I hear yourself ask how on earth I could become so obsessed with one author to go around the world to visit her home town.... well lets just say first off that if I like something i'm obsessed with it! When I was younger, my mother told me to read Anne of Green Gables to which I replied no thanks - most boring thing I could ever think of reading! So, mum sat me down to watch the movie instead and to say the least I was hooked. I have since hunted up all the books/ short stories written by LMM and have read them all (with the exception of some short stories!). Poor mum! She never thought i'd get that obsessed with it! But then... she never thought i'd be an animal nut either! Might I add here also, that my mum has NOT read the books until recently - she is an Anne fan from the movies only :O!

Ok - so where are we going?

First stop is going to be Los Angeles - why? Well the plane was going there anyway so we decided to stop over and see the sights (c'mon guys - it's Hollywood - what more reason do you need!) - while there we are to go to Disneyland, Hollywood, Universal Studios and San Diego Zoo (how could an animal nut like me pass that offer up?!). On from LA we are going to Toronto - visiting Niagra Falls and Bala Museum (yep - u guessed it - LMM stuff - if you want the history - it was also the setting of the only novel ('The Blue Castle") LMM wrote "off the island" every other book was based on PEI).

From Toronto we head to my highlight - PEI - ahhh - 7 glorious days soaking up Anne atmosphere, probably making my poor bank account go into debt and basically taking it easy!!! I can NOT wait for this part of the trip. PEI we travel to Montreal to stop over for a day.

Montreal to London. Catch up with family and then on a 'road trip' around the countryside visiting Shakespeare country, Bronte Country, James Herriot country and of course Jane Austen Country. On the way we will also be stopping off at the parks and estates used in both the 95 and 05 version of Pride and Prejudice...... ok - so a little time for truth telling here - I am a naughty JA fan *clears throat* - I've read P&P and Emma but i've only seen the movies of others..... well i've always meant to read the books! As for the Bronte sisters - same as Austen *sheepish grin* but I honestly have read James Herriot! Honest I have! Loved them too!

So in a nutshell that is our trip.... I'll keep updating as we go on our travels, but lets just say it should be a fantastic trip and I am so excited I can hardly sit still..... but I need to pack still..... hmm..... I don't leave things to the last minute now do I???