Lucy Maud Montgomery described her beloved Prince Edward Island as “that colourful little land of ruby and emerald and sapphire”. The weather while we were there was not great so we did not see a sapphire sky or sea. However, the emeralds and rubies were very well represented.
Our first view of PEI was of red soil as we came across the Confederation Bridge. And it is not a subtle red, it’s RED! Every bit of exposed soil is red and what’s not red is green. We saw acre upon acre of tilled fields surrounded by acres and acres of rolling grassy fields. Most of the grassy fields had dandelions in them, making yellow PEI’s other official colour. Some of the fields had weathered farmhouses and other outbuildings. And we saw a lot of cows.
As we neared Cavendish, many of the farms had cottages. This is the land of Anne of Green Gables and getting tourist money must be too easy to resist. In Cavendish there are also many other places to entice the tourists to happily keep spending money, including amusement parks, water parks and kitschy stores. Green Gables is a national park and as we were in the neighbourhood, of course we had to go.
The park was not busy so we were able to get around the site easily. There was a small group of older Japenese ladies ahead of us when we got into the house but they were polite and moved along quite well. I have read all the Anne of Green Gables books but I’m not an über fan so I appreciated the house as an historical building more than as the home of my favourite fictional character, because Anne isn’t.
Along the gulf is another national park. We were able to get in without paying the fee, I guess it’s still too early for that. The parking lots are huge so they must get a lot of visitors in the summer. Some people were walking along the beach. Again, the access to the beach was by a boardwalk as the dunes would have been very difficult to get over. The sand wasn’t that red but the cliffs in the distance were. It was easy to tell the local vehicles in all the parking lots; they’re the ones with wheels and wheel wells coated in red dust.
One of the highlights of our trip was a lobster supper, actually two but who’s counting, at Fisherman’s Wharf in North Rustico. Every town we drove through has a place that does a lobster supper. In North Rustico they have the island’s longest salad bar, which includes desserts. They are a high volume establishment, and so the food is simple but good. Dale had a lobster in Digby but he said the lobsters here were much better. The first night we had a lovely server, Catherine. We learned she is a substitute teacher who grew up in Charlottetown but who now lives just outside it with her husband. She also works at a hotel in Charlottetown so if you’re counting that’s three jobs. She had a maritime accent and it was neat listening to her talk. It’s softer than the Newfoundland accent. I wonder if we have a west coast accent? I do know that when we were in South Carolina people had trouble placing our accents. They think the east coast accent is what Canadians sound like.
We went into Charlottetown and we weren’t too impressed. Again, it’s early in the season and so I’m sure we didn’t see it at its best. We did notice that there were more brick houses in the downtown than in any other maritime city we’ve visited. Charlottetown aside, PEI is intriguing and the small towns seem to have enough personality and charm to carry the province. We would come back again. Tomorrow we’re back to Nova Scotia, to travel the famed Cabot Trail. Stay tuned.