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Adventuring to Prince Edward Island
A delightful journey to the land of Anne of Green Gables, white and red sands and cliffs, vast vistas of the Atlantic and Saint Lawrence river, friendly people and off season peace welcomed us after we landed in Halifax and picked up our rental car. This adventure was a result of Air Canada giving us future travel vouchers because of delays and lost luggage on our 2018 Israel trip. We had until June 7 to schedule the use of these vouchers. Christjanna went to work with her amazing ability to ferret out the best use of time and energy and resources to plan delightful, fun filled and restful days. A three hour drive took us across the 8 mile long bridge that connects Prince Edward Island with Nova Scotia. Free admission onto the island and $47.50 to get off unless you choose to leave by ferry which is $79 and a 75 minute ride across the channel.
Spring is late to visit Prince Edward Island. The tulips and daffodils were fresh and welcomed us to our cottage. We stayed at a cute, two bedroom cottage in the Stanhope area of the Prince Edward Island Provincial Parks system. There are an abundance of these cabins all over the island. Tourism clearly is an important park of their economy as is agriculture and fishing. Twenty five percent of Canadian potatoes are grown on Prince Edward Island.
Our first evening we walked out to enjoy views of the closest inlet. The weather changes quickly. The sky went from full and warm sun to a foggy cloud bank rushing across the sky and dropping the temperature in a matter of moment. Rain dropped hard and fast making us thankful for layers, raincoats, umbrellas and a rental car. There did not seem to be much in the way of public transportation.
Our hosts found us a DVD player as we brought DVDs of “Anne of Green Gables” and “Anne of Avonlea” with us.
We watched one side each night which provided much “scope for our imaginations” as we planned our daily sightseeing adventures in search of the “Lake of Shining Waters”, “the Haunted Wood” and “Avonlea”. We discovered that we were among the very few privileged people to be staying on the island this week. Most events start on June 9 with more starting July 2 for the summer season. We enjoyed leisurely drives around the seaside routes as we went in search of the all things Anne.
After attending the Community Baptist Church, which I found by googling “homeschoolers on Prince Edward Island”, we made our way to downtown Charlottetown and delightful seafood. I had Maple Salmon while we shared a new set of fish and chips. A bonus of traveling with my daughters is we can all order something different and then share.
Fresh, abundant and reasonably priced seafood found us content. I got to sample Poutine which is a Nova Scotia staple comprised of French fries, brown gravy and squeaky cheese. A surprising combo and delicious!
Each day was a “new day with no mistakes in it”. We were all much in need of some down and unplanned time. Most days we slept until we woke up naturally. We leisurely drove along the coast line stopping for pictures as it struck our fancy. We made up our own menus for breakfast and picnic lunches. It is good to see we all know our way around the kitchen! We took turns French braiding each other’s hair in preparation for renting bikes.
We discovered the Delvay Hotel which was a lovely old mansion summer home converted into a hotel. They rented us bikes for a half day of riding through the park and a recommended stop at Richard’s for lobster, fish and chips and scallops. The day started cloudy and cleared up for us. A delightful 12 kilometer ride gave us a good workout and made the chairs by the lake most welcome. As the weather changed again, we headed back to our cottage to make our dinner and enjoy the next installment of “Anne of Green Gables” as we listened to the wind and raindrops dance upon the roof.
Loved reading this! The hotel where you rented bikes reminded me of the hotel where a grown-up Anne recites poetry (the Highway Man?) in the TV series.