Prince Edward Island - Day 1 & 2

Thursday, August 30
Prince Edward Island has three main tourist areas; the central, the east and the west. There are scenic drives around each one that shows off the beauty of the area. As we are staying right in the center of the Island it made sense to start our tour in the central region and chose to head to the north first.

Our first stop was the Prince Edward Island National Park on the north shore of the Island.

National Park north shore. A windy and cool day.

Sand dunes. They plant grass on them to keep them from blowing away

Sand dunes for miles along the shore.

Covehead Harbour Lighthouse

Lots of surf, not a lot of swimmers today.

Within the National Park is Dalvay-by-the-Sea. There is a beautiful old home here that has been converted into a hotel. It was built in the late 1800's as a summer retreat for Alexander MacDonald, a wealthy US businessman and president of Standard Oil of Kentucky. The home stayed in the family for about 25 years then changed hands a number of times until finally ending up with the federal government in 1937 when the Park was created. It has been featured in a number of films and is currently operated under lease from the government.

Lots of red rock in the house

A nice cozy fire

Lots of dark woodwork in the home.

Starting another fire in the fireplace.

Blueboy and Pinky

Front desk

We headed further to the west and through some beautiful countryside.

PEI has lots of churches

'Anne of Green Gables' is a fictional work by L.M. Montgomery. The location for the book is Prince Edward Island. Parks Canada now manages a reproduction of the house and grounds from the description in her books. The Green Gables site is near Cavendish, PEI. This was our next stop.

LM Montgomery 's typewriter

The famous 'Green Gables' house.

Lovey gardens

Inside the home.

Anne's room

Lover's Lane. Those that have read the books know all about the house and Lover's Lane.

Even Anne herself made an appearance.

She looks cold!

Gilbert, Dianna and ?? not sure who the third one was.

We completed the northern loop of the central road tour on our first full day on the Island.

We saw shorelines.....

.....fields.....

......pretty little towns.....

....and churches. All spectacular!

We even found some back roads.....

I wonder what's over this hill??

Another spectacular view, that's what!

The last road was fun....let's try this one!

That back road led us to this. The yard was full of miniature stone buildings. This church was awesome!

Friday, August 31
We headed toward the southern portion of the Central scenic drive. The shoreline on this side (south) of the Island is very red. The iron oxide in the soil gives it the red coloring.

First stop today was to visit the site of old Fort Amherst at Port-la-Joye

This was an important fort as it overlooked the Charlottetown Harbour. Both the French and English wanted control of this harbour.

Not much remains as the archaeological work has not been completed here. All you can see are mounds of dirt that cover the old fort foundations. 

Great view of the harbour. Great spot for a fort!

One of the Charlottetown Range lights. Range lights are always set in pairs. As a ship enters the harbour the captain can see both. As he proceeds the lights converge as one. When that happens he knows to steer his ship. Range lights are still used extensively today.

A Mi'kmaq native wigwam.

The pretty little town of Victoria.

Victoria Lighthouse

Church? or Lighthouse?

The beautiful Confederation Bridge

And from the other side

Amazing what you can do with a hay bale!

Coast Guard patrol boats in Summerside

Spinnakers Landing in Summerside. Very nice spot. Free entertainment every night.

Shops built above the harbour.

Cute little stores. This was Spinnakers Landing.

Waterfront drive in Summerside.

Cavendish Farms have a bunch of potato processing plants here in Summerside. They make goooood fries and potato products.

for Shirley! :-)

Another long sightseeing day. We headed home with incredible views in our memories and in the camera.

.....and that was Our View From Here!