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And I mean play. An afternoon at Avonlea basically replicates an impossibly idyllic day in 1908—complete with the country fair, three-legged races, square dances (with adults dragged in), singalongs and re-enactments of scenes from the books. Kids get wiped-out tired, parents relax on the sidelines, and suddenly $64 seems like a babysitting bargain… even if you get sucked into the gift shop for everything Anne—dolls, T-shirts, and Anne-brand raspberry soda, replicating “raspberry cordial,” the beverage behind one of the book’s most hilarious passages.
Wisely, the theme park’s owners haven’t built a version of Green Gables, since the real thing is just over the hill at Parks Canada’s Green Gables Heritage Site.
Green Gables is postcard perfect. The house—painted exactly the way I imagine it with white cedar shingles, green shutters and green gables—was owned by one of author Montgomery’s grandfather’s cousins. I tromp through it on a self-guided tour, examining rooms furnished in early-1900s styles common to the region.
I never thought of Parks Canada as creative fiction types, yet inside Green Gables, rooms are not named for the people who actually lived there, but for characters that never actually lived.
I’m slightly shocked as I pause in the upstairs hallway, listening to a guide explain the house’s layout as it appeared in print. Other information at the site clearly explains the historic facts, but it’s all so surreal that I almost start to believe Anne lived… there.
In Lover’s Lane, I don’t meet Anne. Instead, I share the trail with a busload of Asian tourists, and I’m reminded that Anne has a massive following in Japan. Canadian author Margaret Atwood, in an article that ran in The Guardian in March, suggests several possibilities for the obsession. Among them: The book was first translated by a popular Japanese author; there were a lot of orphans in Japan after Word War II; Anne’s temper offers a vicarious release to Japanese youth forbidden to lash out.
Leaving the town of Cavendish, with its Anne Shirley Motel & Cottages (no discount for people named Shirley, unfortunately), isn’t the last I see of Anne. And it’s not the last I’ll likely spend on her this trip.
It’s $50 (and up) for an adult evening ticket to see Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, written by Don Harron (of Charlie Farquharson fame) and Norman Campbell. While waiting for the curtain to go up on the 44th annual production at Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre theatre, I strike up a conversation with a young dad sitting next to me. He’s a professional guy from the New York area, with his wife and two kids in tow.
“You’ve got a lot of vacation options; what led you to P.E.I.?” I ask.
“My daughter loves Anne,” he shrugs.
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