A Lifetime dream fulfilled - Prince Edward Island - September 2011

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... just a continuation of our earlier blog from Maine. We crossed the border pretty late at night into ST. ANDREWS BY-THE-SEA VILLAGE. As mentioned in an earlier blog we are on our way to Prince Edward Island from Connecticut, but there is no timetable so we are literally just going with the flow. Earlier that night we found a pretty good deal on the FAIRMONT ALGONQUIN HOTEL IN ST. ANDREWS. It's a beautiful old hotel with beautiful rooms. We really liked it. Well it's just an hotel (unfortunately there is too much to see and do in general so we generally spend very little time in hotels) and the next day we were on our way again. We cruised around town in St. Andrews and were really impressed by it's coziness. Reminded us of a very typical east coast fishing village that triples in size during the summer months. We quickly found our coffee fix at Honeybeans Coffee & tea where we had some pretty good coffee and carrot cake. We walked around the shops - especially WATER STREET FOR SHOPS/ BOUTIQUES/ GALLERIES. We found some really out-there things - always fun to walk around these little towns and see what they are trying to sell to people.

The other interesting part is that this is sort of the start of the BAY OF FUNDY. Before this trip we have never heard of the Bay of Fundy, but we quickly learned about the Bay of Fundy. It is the bay/area where there is the highest discrepancy between high tide and low tide. The bay is pretty vast and at places there is up to a 12 foot difference between high and low tide (could be more). It was time to start our drive of the FUNDY COASTAL DRIVE (ST. STEPHEN to AULAC) and enjoy the scenery. Off course we were now in the real heart of blueberry country. We stopped a couple times and had really, really good fresh baked blueberry pie (I hate fruity pies, but these won me over). Our first real stop was to stop and SEE TIDAL BORES AT RIVERS IN SAINT JOHN. It's in essence this phenomenon where the tide is so strong that the rivers actually start flowing upstream and in parts of the river at SAINT JOHN it is pretty evident. The town itself was very unimpressive and run-down so we did not stick around for very long. We continued on our way along route 1 and eventually turned onto route 114 to Alma. FUNDY NATIONAL PARK around ALMA was the next stop on the map. The drive to Alma was really, really pretty. Right before hitting the coast you drive on top of this plateau and the views from on top are unreal (the first of many awesome views). You can see as far as possible to the eye. We took the winding road down and paid our 14 Canadian dollars to go into the park. As an FYI - you don't have to pay if you are just going to drive through the park, because the ticket booth is several miles from the actual park entrance and no one checks people coming and going into and out of the park. They only check for admission once you are parked (you have to leave your admission slip in the window). We took a quick drive through the park and found one of several covered bridges - the only one we saw was POINTE WOLFE FOR RED COVERED BRIDGE @ FUNDY NATIONAL PARK. This was a beautiful red covered bridge right on the bay.

Alma is a very small little fishing village and this was the first time where we really became aware of the "power" of the tide. WATCHING THE TIDE ROLL AWAY AT THE BAY OF FUNDY was definitely pretty awesome to see in Alma so ALMA BEACH FOR TIDAL CHANGES is where we went. We did not actually see the tide come in and go out (for that you have to be in one place for at least 12 hours and we just don't have that much time to spend in one place). When we got to Alma there were no water so obviously it was low tide. We parked and started walking around on the deserted beach that was still really wet, but the surf was way out there. Wow - this is pretty big. We were not really wowed until we saw the boats. They were "docked" at a pier, but they were literally about 10 feet below the pier parked on "dry ground". At first we just kind of thought that the boats are not in use anymore and that they are just permanently on dry ground. But then we figured out that these boats are actually used every day - it was just the tide that pulled back. Unbelievable. It was really fun walking around the beach barefoot and watching life unfold on the beach as the water pulled back. All sorts of creatures emerged from the rocks while others started to hide from the sun so that they don't dry out (crabs). The coast around Alma was very rocky and really pretty.

Alma was too small to keep us interested so off we were to the next unknown adventure - the HOPEWELL ROCKS somewhat close to MONCTON. We got there pretty late. Again we had no clue what to expect and just happened on this pretty unexpectedly. We walked and walked and finally got there. Again the wonder of the tides. During low tide you have these massive rocks that are totally exposed (they are more like little islands) and on top of them you can see trees and other vegetation growing). You can really see how the erosion has eaten away at these rocks in the middle part. At some point these small islands will just topple over because with age they are getting thinner and thinner in the middle (every man and woman's dream). The real amazing part is the fact that the "islands" during low tide stand 30 - 40 feet up in the air and you can walk right up to and underneath them. During high tide they are mostly covered and all you can see is the trees. These ROCKS ON THE COASTLINE is just one of the many unbelievable features of this amazing stretch of coastline. Off we went since we still had a long long ways to go before we got to PEI. Dinner was in Moncton where we stopped at the Tide and Boar. It was an instant hit with us since the food is very different and "inventive". We started off with cucumber soda which was very different and a bowl of pretty good chowder. Nikkie had the cornish hen and I did the duck poutine. We've been to Canada a couple times now and still have not tried the poutine - which at first just sounds completely disgusting even though they consider this the national dish of Canada. Poutine is simply french fries "chips" with gravy and cheese curds. I love french fries, but this combination just sounds a little out there at first sound. This was a little more classy type poutine and I added the duck to give it a little extra class. I was blown away - it was awesome. The combination sounds terrible, but it is heavenly. We finished with coffee and beer-a-misou. Oh yes you read that right. Not tiramisu - beer-a-misou. Definitely a hit and a sure highlight of our trip. As you'll keep seeing we just had a lot of really god food on this trip.

We finally made it to PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND that night after driving what felt like forever. We slept just outside Charlottetown and the next morning headed straight for the northern part of the island to "BEACHING IT WITH A LITERARY CLASSIC". This is a long story, but through this trip we fulfilled a life-long dream of Nikkie's. Nikkie grew up with the series "Anne of Green Gables". It is loosely based on the life of the author Lucy Maud Montgomery who grew up on PEI in the area so in all her books she describes areas and buildings where she actually grew up - today most of these are open as museums. So off we were to CAVENDISH looking for miss Anne. We found GREEN GABLES HOUSE @ PEI NATIONAL PARK and did the obligatory tour of the property that includes lovers lane and the CAVENDISH COMMUNITY CEMETERY FOR MONTGOMERY GRAVE. The museum and tour of the property was pretty much like any other museum property, but it was so cool to see Nikkie smile ear-to-ear for 4 hours straight. The area around Cavendish is really really cool to drive around because there is so little development out there. All you see are lots of farmland, docks with fishing boats and endless little roads that leads to no where in particular. There are many other places celebrating the life of Mrs. Montgomery so we drove around and took in all the sights. There are many scenic drives on this small island and we completed a big part of the BLUE HERON DRIVE. We love driving because this is how we discover and see things that few people ever see. This was probably also one of our best days of travelling as a couple. After visiting miss Anne we took a break for lunch at FISHERMAN'S WHARF RESTAURANT in NORTH RUSTICO. A local legend restaurant that's probably become just a little too commercialized None-the-less we shared the seafood platter that included a variety of seafood items. We also had some pretty good chowder and as always we had to try the local oysters since we have turned into oyster monsters. The food was ok with the oysters a highlight since it was local and fresh. Next up was the NEW LONDON REAR RANGE LIGHTHOUSE in CAVENDISH. This trip was definitely focused on good seafood and lighthouses.

Next up for the day was getting lost on some side road and unexpectedly ending up at the BEACH and another lighthouse. The coastline was spectacular and completely deserted. We were the only one's there. Our trip to the beach was followed by another drive where we got a little lost and found a pretty little house right on the ocean. As Nikkie was peaking through the sunroof to take a picture we saw an unexpected little visitor - a fox just ran right by the car with not a care in the world and not even taking notice of us. it ran through a field so we decided to follow. We drove around and waited on the other side of the field for it to come out. Patience gets rewarded and there he finally came out. Instead of running across the road he started running down the road while we followed slowly with Nikkie just snapping away. Every once in a while he stopped, turned around and struck a pose for Nikkie. This probably went on a for a good 15 - 20 minutes. Finally he stopped and started heading straight back to us looking for food. We gave him some scraps in the car and he finally took off again. Wow - how awesome that was. And yet the day was not done yet. Next we headed to PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND NATIONAL PARK for the final stop of the day. A beautiful cold sunset on the beach was the perfect end to a perfect day. Yes God is good and what we saw that day was absolutely spectacular. We finished the day with "dinner" at AMANDA'S RESTAURANT in North Rustico. It was right across the street from the Fisherman's Wharf where we ate earlier that day so we decided to give this place a try. All we could do was just laugh the entire dinner. It was a little place with plastic chairs and plastic tables. I got the scallop burger (sounded interesting) and Nikkie got pizza since we've been eating seafood for 3 straight days. Well, her pizza was pretty obviously a boxed pizza warmed up in the oven and my "scallops" were still pretty frozen by the time they got to me on the bun that was definitely several days old. Oh we just had a laugh. We were tired, very happy and will always appreciate these moments where we can only laugh at the situations we get ourselves into. We can go from 5-star dinners to this and just laugh. Our resting place for the next couple nights was the KINDRED SPIRITS INN in CAVENDISH. A very nice little inn where they serve tea and cookie slate at night and a good breakfast in the morning. Oh what a day.

Our next day was spent driving out to CHARLOTTETOWN to get back to civilization. We walked around town a little bit and explored PEAKE'S WHARF FOR SHOPS, but there were not that many shops and they were all very touristy so there were no purchases made. We also explored around OLD CHARLOTTETOWN - especially GREAT GEORGE STREET IN OLD CHARLOTTETOWN. It's a beautiful leafy area with a beautiful old cathedral. Again the idea was to eat as much good food as we could and especially to good EAT good OYSTERS. Especially in this area where they grow the MALPEQUE BAY OYSTERS. We walked into Globe World Flavors restaurant in Charlottetown (sort of just strolling around and deciding to grab a bite to eat). We started with the malpeque bay oysters (delicious), the Culcutta Mussels (some of the best we have ever had) a bowl of choder (very rich) and seafood pasta (very good but again very rich). With our tummy's full we decided to drive some more (the theme of our trip) and decided to do the POINTS EAST COASTAL SCENIC DRIVE (KINGS BYWAY) which starts in the Charlottetown area. Again just more of the same - rolling farmlands, pretty ponds, lonely dirt roads that more often than not lead to a beautiful lookout over the ocean or a lonely lighthouse, and oyster farms glowing in the setting sun' reflection. Another magical drive. We saw a lot of lighthouses and the scenes were just absolutely breath-taking. It was time to head back to the inn (we saw as much as we could in the daylight) and prepare for another long day's drive the following day.

On our way off PEI we have to pass over the CONFEDERATION BRIDGE (I believe one of the longest bridges in the world if not the longest - around 17km). You'd think by this time we were ready to head home but instead of heading straight south after getting off PEi we made a sharp left and headed to CAPE BRETON ISLAND (way out there). The drive was very long and pretty at times. we just kept looking out for moose, but did not see any on the way. We did however see a BALD EAGLE that was in the process of devouring what seemed like a seagull. We finally made it to Cape Breton Island and immediately started looking for the world renowned CABOT TRAIL. As a side note - fill up with gas whenever you can because gas can be very scarce in this area of the world. One of the reasons we decided to do this insane drive was to view the spectacular FOLIAGE the island is known for. CHETICAMP was our destination and on the way we finally saw the very illusive.. yes you guessed it... we saw a moose. Yep - we are sort of far along in life and this was our first moose sighting. Off course we took our little mid-size car off-roading to follow the moose. We got somewhat close, but we can tell you that it was huge. I definitely do not want to meet this fellow face-to-face late at night while driving along at 70-limes an hour. It was close to sundown so we just checked into our little inn - Auberge Doucet - and started making the DRIVE 6-MILE STRETCH NORTH OF CHETICAMP. It was spectacular, beautiful, steep and fabulous. At the top we stopped and watched the sunset. Wow - we saw a lot of really, really cool sunsets on this trip and this one probably topped them all looking out over the ocean and down the coastline while the sun was setting. Back in town we went to the Restaurant Acadien for a meal consisting of meat pie & crab cake and a turkey dinner (both pretty good considering the options in town is somewhat limited). And we ended it all with blueberry pudding w/ hot sauce (really really surprisingly very, very good). The restaurant reflected the Acadian people who settled in the area and was very similar to what you would think of the amish. The food was just very homey and wholesome. The night was still young and our inn was very basic and modest so we did not feel like hanging out in our room. Instead we settled for a seat in the packed All Aboard Restaurant. There were live entertainment and we settled in with a couple of beers and fresh mussels for $5 a bowl (can't beat that and we generally will not say no to mussels or oysters). The night got rowdier, the music better and the dancing started to happen. Yes it was a good night of Irish dancing and music in Acadian country.

The next day it was off to complete the Cabot Trail, see a lot of things around the Cabot Trail and start the long drive home. As you leave and drive north from Cheticamp you immediately enter CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK which makes up most of the Cabot Trail. The road winds and winds upwards for several miles (we did have our 2nd MOOSE sighting in CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK (from somewhat far away, but they prove to be fairly illusive creatures)). The first part is to DRIVE PETICHAMP TO PLEASANT BAY. A short but spectacular drive. After Pleasant Bay it flattens out at the top and you see a lot of dead trees (really really beautiful as weird as that may sound). Next up is CAPE NORTH TOWN. Just another small Canadian town, but if you hit a left here (this is the part where we seemed to be pretty lost because we had no GPS and the roads we were on did not show up on any maps) you DRIVE TO MEAT COVE TOWN. Meat Cove seems like it has about 5 people (that is being generous). The drive is absolutely spectacular. We turned left and tuned right and tried to follow some signs. The road was pretty much a little dirt road and we quickly at one point discovered that we were driving on a little dirt road with trees next to it and on the other side of the trees were cliffs of several hundred feet plunging down into the ocean. So I quickly slowed down and made sure that I don't accidentally leave the road. We finally got to the town and the views were spectacular. The most northern point on Cape Breton Island with not another soul in sight. We got lost and we had fun getting lost and it was so worth it. Again this is what we do and this is what we love to do - getting lost and exploring what we did not intend to explore. Back on the road to NEIL'S HARBOUR TOWN we stopped and again got off the beaten path FOR WATERFALLS IN CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK. Not much to speak off for the waterfall, but a small one none-the-less. Also on the road you pass the HIGHLAND CROFTER'S COTTAGE. It's just a little old cottage. Really not much to see, but a chance to stretch the legs. This part also has several small trails that you can hike (I think there are some longer one's as well) so we stopped and HIKED AROUND CABOT TRAIL at CAPE BRETON. The trial was short and around a beautiful pond/small lake with the leaves starting to change colors. Again no one in sight so it is very peaceful. Since it was pretty cold we pulled over in Neil's Harbour at the Chowder House for mussels and clam chowder. Nothing like a hot bowl of chowder while it is cold outside. NEIL'S HARBOUR TO SOUTH HARBOUR is just another small part of this beautiful trail. At INGONISH TOWN we pulled over for a view of the CAPE SMOKEY MOUNTAINS. Next up we parked at the KELTIC LODGE AND WALKED TO THE END OF THE PENINSULA for more beautiful views across the ocean and down the coastline. The drive ended at BLACK BROOKE COVE FOR ROCKS. And at this point in time it was time to head back for the long trek to Moncton.

After Moncton we came back through the BAY OF FUNDY HEMISPHERIC SHOREBIRD RESERVE @ MARY'S POINT. Not too many birds there, but again the complete isolation with no one else around is just a special feeling that you don't get to experience a lot these days. Before crossing back into the US we had lunch at the Bistro on the Boulevard in St. Stephens. Nikkie had the beet & goat cheese salad and I did the sausage sandwich. Not a good meal at all. The food was beyond plain and not good at all. Just saying it as it is.

So a couple tips for the trip. One thing that was good and bad. We went in late September and most of the trip we were pretty much the only ones wherever we went, but it was also not the greatest weather. In general we (I) just don't believe in too much planning ahead. Accommodation was really easy to find and there were space available everywhere (again this may have had to do with the fact that we went in late September). The seafood was phenomenal everywhere. Foliage time was really pretty, but we were probably there a week too early. Other than that just make sure the car is always filled up and explore as much as possible.

So the books were awesome to us and the things we got to cross off included Bay of Fundy, Cape Breton Island, the Cabot Trail, Prince Edward Island, St. Andrews By-the-Sea, Charlottetown, touring PEI's Back Roads, watching the tide roll away in the Bay of Fundy, beaching it with a literary classic, Confederation Bridge and Cape Breton Villages. So 186 down and 5,595 to go.

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Photos

Prince Edward Island
Another one discovered through a backroad

St. Andrews
The Fairmont Algonquin

St. Andrews
Pumpkin pound cake - just the way to start a long days drive

St. Andrews
Bright sun over the Bay of Fundy

St. Andrews
I wanted to bring them back home, but I got shot down

New Brunswick
Blueberry country - fresh blueberries and pies as far as you can see

New Brunswick
Standing on top of the Bay of Fundy

New Brunswick
Bay of Fundy

Fundy National Park
One of several covered bridges

Fundy National Park
Posing!!!

Fundy National Park
View through the covered bridge "window"

Bay of Fundy
6 hours later and this is 12 feet under water

Bay of Fundy
"Spa" for the feet

Alma
Yes a couple hours later these boats will be floating

Alma
... more covered bridges

Hopewell Rocks
Trees growing on top of rocks

Tide and Boar - Moncton
Poutine with duck - so so good. I'm a believer

Tide and boar - Moncton
Beer-a-misu

Anne of Green Gables
Pretty sunflower

Anne of Green Gables
A life's dream come true

Anne of Green Gables
Jumpin' for joy

Comments

[Anastasia78]

That's Anne with an E
I'm a huge Anne of Green Gables fan too! I read the whole series when I was twelve and then again at twenty. On the day our daughter was born my husband bought the set for her to read when she was older

[D MJ Binkley]

Dreams fulfilled
MJ here. Sadly, I've never read those books but your blog makes we want to. Dave went to the Bay of Fundy when he was a child and has great memories of that trip. I hope to make it up there one day. Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Loved the fox photos.