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!

Headin' to .....Prince Edward Island

Wednesday, August 29
We didn't have a long trip today, but after such a hot and restless sleep we were anxious to hit the road. Today we move to another Province, Prince Edward Island. Neither of us had been to the Island before and after hearing from so many people about its beauty we wanted to get there early today and begin to check it out.

The bridge at Miramichi

The end of the road before the bridge to Prince Edward Island

So down Hwy 11 to Port Elgin and then Hwy 15 down to Hwy 16 and over to the Confederation Bridge.

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and continues to endure as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.

The decision to replace the existing ferry service with a fixed link followed a heated debate throughout the 1980’s. Farmers, fishermen, tourism operators, and residents of Prince Edward Island had sharply contrasting opinions about how year-round access to the mainland would affect their way of life and livelihood. Eventually, it was decided that the debate would be settled at the polls. The federal department of Public Works and Government Services selected its favourite bridge design out of several proposals from the private sector, and on January 18, 1988, Premier Joseph Ghiz asked Prince Edward Islanders to make the final decision in a plebiscite. At the polls, 59.4% of Islanders voted “Yes” to a fixed link.

After four years of construction using crews of more than five thousand local workers, the Confederation Bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997. 

You can read more about the bridge construction here.

This is a toll bridge. There is no charge to cross onto the Island, but a toll to get off. Smart, eh! The cost for a vehicle is about $50. Our truck and trailer will be about $75. There is also a ferry that will take you back, but it would cost about double for the truck and trailer.

The entrance to the Bridge gets you up high off the water.

There is an even higher section that allows large ocean going ships to pas under.

PEI in the distance. I think we're going to make it!

Our first PEI lighthouse, the Port Borden Lighthouse.

We stopped to pick up some maps and tourism information and were soon off the find our campground. 

One of the Visitor centers as you first land on the Island.

Our first 'Anne of Green Gables' statue. Lots of references to this fictional character that has made the Island famous.

It took us some time to maneuver through the back roads the tourism gal recommended, but we did find the campground OK. We chose a Passport America campground, Harrington Campground. 

Beautiful backroads

Pretty villages

Our site at Harrington Family Campground.

Nice goldenrod fields in the campground.

A few seasonal trailers here, but very few over-nighters. Nice and quiet.

You shouldn't expect too much from a $20/night campground so we weren't too surprised when we checked in. First, if there are less than six other units in an 85 site campground two days before a long weekend there may be a reason. Other than being a bit run down, it's actually not too bad! The first site the old fella that runs the place tried to put us had power lines hanging down too low. I found out from a seasonal camper that the last guy that parked there almost tore the wires down! Part of the issue is the gentleman doesn't speak much English and doesn't understand much either. I convinced him to give us another site (it's not that he was full!) and this one was better......except we could not get the sewer cap off the line. He fixed that the next day so we're good now.

The laundry has one washer and one dryer. Both are $1.50 and work pretty well. You just have to be sure to leave the door of the room open as the dryer vent is bust and it vents into the room! The garbage barrels in the campground are mostly full and you have to walk quite a way to find one. The good news is the water pressure is good and the water tastes fine. The internet signal is strong and reasonably fast......since it finally got fixed after being down for a few weeks! The place is very quiet. It is off the highway in the back of the old farm. So overall we got what we paid for and there aren't many full service sites around for $20/night and we don't intend to spend a lot of time hanging around here.

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