Next stop on our trip was Prince Edward Island for 3 nights. Even though this province is quite small compared to the other provinces, you could easily spend a week here, unless Disney is your version of a vacation. PEI is basically a farming and fishing island. Tourism is definitely a big part of its scene as well with much of it being concentrated on LM Montgomery and her fame from Anne of Green Gables. Not that the island has nothing outside of that. Far from it.

Until 1997, the only way to get on the island was via ferry. An 8-mile bridge connecting it New Brunswick was finished and although you can get on the island for free, you have to pay to leave. It’s cheaper to drive over the bridge than to take the ferry, but depending on where you’re headed, the ferry is a great option as well.

We arrived via the bridge and I have no pictures from between Truro, NS and PEI, as I was driving. We took the non-toll roads which led us through many miles, excuse me, really many kilometers of bush country. We caught the corner of New Brunswick to access the bridge and that’s all we saw of NB.

 

Our first stop was in Summerside and we ate a picnic lunch and did some shopping along the waterfront. The weather, wow! I’m not sure I mentioned the weather yet! It never got over 80* and I’m not sure it even hit that. The humidity was fairly low, even for being on the water and we saw temps as low as 50s. Given how many 95*+ days we’d had in GA already, it was blissful!

We had about a 45 minute drive from Summerside through the potato fields to Cavendish, which is were our lodging was.

In Summerside we had found a farm to table brochure with a list of places to buy local food. We drove back a long narrow lane to a little store in someone’s yard where they were selling locally raised meat. The owner took time to chat for a bit and let us know that Mennonites had helped build her new barn!

We had booked 2 adjoining mini apartments at an old style motel located between Cavendish and North Rustico and just yards from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The beaches are red and rugged. Lois and I got up early our 1st morning there and caught a sunrise at the beach about a mile away that did not disappoint!

As we are the type that love seeing the countryside, we drove around for a while and then had to scamper back in time for breakfast and heading out for the day.

We saw the beautiful French River Habour.

We drove down a narrow lane to Cape Tryon Lighthouse. It was good we went early. Reports are that it is often busy with traffic and there’s no place to pass people.

We found the New London Lighthouse but didn’t have time to walk down the shore to get a closer photo. You have to park in (nearly) someone’s yard to see this and again, early morning was good time to go.

This is one of the lighthouses seen on the 1995 AoGG movie.

Our 1st stop was for the Green Gables Heritage Place. This LM’s uncle and aunt’s house where she spent a lot of time as a child and thought to be the inspiration for Green Gables, even though it wasn’t painted green at the time.

It has lovely grounds and Lover’s Lane is nearby as well as the Haunted Wood. They’ve all taken a hit by TS Fiona and though it was lush and green when we were there, there a lot of stumps from trees knocked down.

The new museum and gift store had a lot of interesting information about Lucy Maud. There was an interesting display of book covers AoGG translations.

Our splurge for this trip was a lobster meal. New Glasgow Lobster Suppers was where we chose to do this. I’m sure there are many other less touristy places to eat lobster but this had good reviews and a complete meal included. We weren’t sure if we wanted the included blue mussels but our waitress brought us a half bucket and they were delicious! The meal included rolls, a salad plate, seafood chowder, blue mussels, lobster (pay by the lb.), and a choice of 3 desserts with free refills on everything but the lobster. Other entrees are available if some in your group don’t want seafood.

Our 2nd full day there we drove around seeing the area, including the Covehead Light. The nearby beaches were being enjoyed!

There were acres and acres of potato fields. In 2021, PEI produced 1/5 of all of Canada’s potato harvest. There is a potato museum on the island but we didn’t have time to head that direction. The green fields below are potatoes. And a “water farm” beyond that. Oysters or mussels??

We came back for an early supper, finishing off the sausage we had boughten at the farmstand.

We had tickets to the musical in Charlottetown that evening. Since most everyone that knows of GG is familiar with how Anne came to GG, this play was based on her years in college and figuring out she was in love with Gilbert. It was not exactly by the books but more closely than the 2nd set of the 1995 movie. Being a musical it was lively and we enjoyed it!

The 3rd day on the island we were headed out again. We stopped in the harbour area of Charlottetown for a while before heading out to the Woods Island Ferry that would connect us back to Nova Scotia. We grabbed some lunch first thing (can’t resist 1 more serving of poutine!) and spent the rest of the 75-minute crossing outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine!

We barely scratched the surface of the enjoying the island. There are miles of biking/hiking trails. The Confederation Trail is 400 kilometers long! We forgot to visit Avonlea village. There’s history in Charlottetown that we missed too. As with most places I’ve visited, there’s an itch to go back to see what we missed, but a greater itch to see new places.