TMI for PEI, For Sure…

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If it’s Tuesday, this must be Prince Edward Island I see passing by through the outside window of our Lanai Cabin. The deep reddish orange earth of the coast touching the water along the south coast of the island is unmistakable, from viewing “Anne of Green Gables” or watching DVDs from one of my favorite series “Road to Avonlea”. I spot one of the square towered lighthouses on a promontory and decide it’s time for some pictures as we make our way to port. A brisk breeze is blowing and the iron-rich soil makes colorful contrast to the many shades of green. We grab a quick bite in the Lido and make our way to Deck 3 to disembark and meet up with our tour group in the terminal at Charollottetown. Did I mention that we got to bed a little late last night due to my tardiness leaving the casino?

We’re ushered onto bus number 1 and have a tour guide named Donalda and a bus driver named Donald. Donalda has lived on the island her whole life, but in a moment you will discover why we feel she must have spent some time in the San Fernando Valley (as a Valley Girl, for sure). After starting on our way her commentary began something like this: “On the right you will see the post office, for sure. On the left is stone church that was constructed after the previous three churches burned down.” (Okay, we saw that one coming.) “On the right is the only Starbucks on Prince Edward Island; but, we have 42 Tim Horton’s, for sure. Coming up is an elementary school, for sure. Down this street notice one of our garbage trucks at work collecting the rubbish. We have most of the big stores that you have in the U.S., for sure, on the right this store becomes a Target next month. And down the street on the left is our WalMart. We’re very green here on PEI, and for sure recycling is a priority. Coming up on the left is Donald’s house, for sure. See his motorcycle out front, for sale, for sure.” Donalda was one of those tour guides that felt every moment of the drive needed to be filled with her commentary; so much of this consisted of such comments as we drove by the inconsequential.

When pressed, Donalda answered all questions, including the population of PEI of about 146,000 versus 38,000 in Charolottetown. We learned that PEI is the smallest province of Canada, with three counties, as symbolized on the province flag with three small oak trees next to one large oak tree representing Great Britain, and the relationship of the small being protected by the great. The regal lion of the realm appears on the top part of the flag. Agriculture is the main source of income for PEI, followed by tourism and followed by seafood. In fourth place and rising rapidly is the manufacture of airplane components.

We made a brief stop at a souvenir shop which featured fresh fudge and cold Coke. We decided to get three types of fudge: peanut butter and chocolate, Belgian chocolate and Maple. We had only gotten a small piece of maple fudge in Quebec City and were eager to see if this was as good. We tried some back on the bus, and believe it was almost as good, but not quite the best we’d had.



One of our stops was to see the longest bridge over frozen waters (okay, they’re not frozen in the summer). But the bridge is 18 miles long and there is a C$46 fee to leave the island (no charge to come). This compares to a C$66 ferry fee. The bridge took four years to build in the mid-1990’s and was the source of much controversy as to the negative impacts such a mainland connection would have on the island. None of the fears have come to pass, and residents take a great deal of pride in the beauty of their paradise. In the spring natives gather and clean up any rubbish, trash, debris, dead foliage that have been left by the winter so that visitors that begin to arrive in the Spring will see the full beauty of PEI.

Our lunch was at the Fisherman’s Wharf, a popular eatery that offers a lobster dinner plus all you can eat for everything else (sides, salads and desserts); but, we were here for lunch… and a lunch prepared for a tour group. While I must commend HAL for so many of the lunches I’ve enjoyed on previous tours I’ve taken through them, this is not one of them. I had been looking forward to what was a lobster roll. Now my only exposure to what a lobster roll is, is what I’ve seen on the Food Network where “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and what I saw there looked delicious. You know it’s never a good sign when the first thing you do when you get on the bus is poll passengers for their choice for lunch: Lobster Roll, Chicken Salad Wrap, or Vegetable Wrap. There were a few takers of the Chicken Salad wrap, but all other opted for the Lobster Roll. What we got was a hotdog bun with thin layer of very mayonnaise-intensive stuff that contained celery and maybe some imitation Krab (my guess). It may have contained lobster, but as for taste there was bun, there was mayonnaise, there was celery, and it all tasted like nothing. Sharon ordered the Chicken Salad wrap but was overwhelmed by the mayonnaise. I ate half of her small wrap and it was tasty, and the grilled chicken stood out, and it wasn’t bad, just as it wasn’t filling. Across the street is Annette’s, a local eatery with a small dine in section and offering a Lobster Club Sandwich for about $19. I should have tried it, but I just didn’t have an appetite.

We went to see Green Gables, the house featured in many of the writings of Lucy Maude Montgomery. LM Montgomery had taken her book to four publishers before one in Boston published “Anne of Green Gables”, and it became an instant best seller. Lucy had lost her mother to TB when she was two, and her father was out in the western provinces working, and so she was raised by her grandparents. Although she did not live in Green Gables, a distant cousin did, and so she was very familiar with the house and the grounds, giving such names to parts of the property she frequented as “Lover’s Lane” and “The Haunted Woods”. From the parking area we strolled through a large barn. There were several out buildings, plus a prominent imposing view of Green Gables, with its bright white walls and green sloping roof and trim. The grounds are immaculately maintained in this National Park. The rooms have been furnished with replica pieces from the period. A map of the two floors shows rooms used by Marilla Cuthbert, Matthew Cuthbert (her brother), and of course Anne, fictional characters in the book that has the orphan Anne come to live them (they were expecting a boy).



On the return to the ship we stopped at single manufacturing facility for Cows Ice Cream, singled out by one tourist association as the best ice cream in the world, and by Reader’s Digest for its excellence. In the facility they manufacture cow themed T-Shirts with catchy designs and sayings, such as one commemorating the visit by William and Kate on their Honey-mooooo-n. We observed the manufacture of the T-Shirts. Designs continue for 1 to 3 years, before they are retired, and never available again once depleted from their stock. They also make cheese. All dairy material used in their products are produced locally on the island. They make ice cream just three days a week, producing 3 flavors per day. When we visited, they were cleaning up from today’s work. This one facility manufactures all of the ice cream available in their 10 outlet locations. Our tour group received free samples of cheese and their top selling ice cream of vanilla, caramel, and chocolate shavings. Sharon and I each bought a scoop. Mine was similar to the free sample, but included burnt sugar, while Sharon tried the Messy Bessy ( chocolate with carmel, toffee, etc).

Again, we missed Trivia, Bingo and Sudoku, and made our way to dinner. I had Sharon order me a crunchy crab roll while I had the buffalo mozzarella, tomato and balsamic vinegar appetizer. They were delicious. I also had the Bacon and Kale Soup, which as a tasty chicken bouillon based soup. It was another fixed menu choice of sirloin steak and baked potato for Sharon. I had the gnocchi which was very tasty. We both had the watermelon sorbet for dessert.



After dinner we went to the casino, and Sharon quickly won $10. My luck didn’t fare quite as well at blackjack, and I had to give back quite a bit of my profits. I was late getting to the theatre and had some trouble locating Sharon in a packed theatre. Dan Riley was the entertainer, featuring humorous lyrical modifications of popular tunes from the 1950’s, 1960’s and some of the 1970’s with impersonations of the artists that made the original tunes famous. (Blue Bayou became a song about going back some day to find his toupee that blew by you). His repertoire included tunes from Johnny Cash to Ritchie Valenz, and even a humorous bit of Elvis (whom he claimed he planned never to imitate because years ago he said there were already too many people trying to, and that there were estimates that by 2050 half of the people in America would be Elvis-impersonators). But someone from the audience asked, and ever since the bride at a wedding had asked him to do “Love Me Tender”, he hasn’t been able to say no. There was also a group in the audience from Buffalo that he apparently met at the Detroit airport where their flight was delayed so long they missed the ship and were bused to Quebec City. He called them the Buffalo Ship Skippers.



Well we’re coming into Sydney so time to get Breakfast before our tour starts for sure.

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