Our second annual Sea, Sand & Soul Fitness Getaway was a resounding success! Not even brisk winds and pelting rain from nearby Hurricane Lee could stop us from having an amazing PEI experience!

• One day we Nordic walked a 40-minute loop from our home base, the fabulous Shaw’s Hotel, to the beautiful red sands of the Atlantic and then back.
  
  Fortunately, in our pre-trip WhatsApp chats, we had talked about bringing dollar store ponchos. Most of us arrived with one version or another, and they kept us somewhat dry on the rainier days. We have many amusing shots of ponchos blowing in all directions.

• Our first yoga and fitness classes took place mostly indoors in the bright south-facing dining room. Then as the weather cleared we moved our activity sessions to the beach and to Shaw’s beautiful property.

• Some of us welcomed each day with a sunrise-ish swim in the Atlantic, or a beach walk and stretch. Others enjoyed the luxury of a sleep-in.

• Our cycling day was gloriously sunny with a bright blue sky and a few wispy clouds. We cycled eastward hugging the Atlantic coastline and had a delicious lunch at Fin Folk restaurant in Old Tracadie Harbour. Then we headed home on an inland route taking in some more glorious scenery.

• In the after-dinner hours, we sang camp songs around the campfire and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah around the piano. Another night we enjoyed a simple moonlight stroll. On the evening of our exhilarating cycling adventure, we all went straight to bed!

• What else? The cottages were perfect, Robbie, Jeannie and Easton at Shaw’s were welcoming, helpful and gracious, and the food was outstanding.

My Ottawa colleague and brilliant business partner for the event, Nina LePage, who has cottaged on PEI for over three decades, was a wealth of local knowledge. Her Island contacts and quick thinking were key in allowing us to pivot over and over again as the weather seemed to surprise us each day and sometimes even hourly.

But our participants, who came from four provinces, were the absolute stars of the event! Friendly, kind, talented, flexible and fun. They smiled and laughed each and every day, even when the power went out!

Now that we’re all home, I find that the positive energy and happy times are still flowing within me. This message below arrived in my inbox today and tells me that I’m not alone in feeling this way:

“Thank you for a retreat of wonderful women, energy, inspiration and regeneration. I feel as though I'm still in the afterglow of the warmth and joy that we experienced in the past five days together. It was definitely magical!”