A Short Visit to Canada's Smallest Province
Prince Edward Island
Despite calm seas, Mack was seasick on the crossing to PEI and therefore looked like a crazy person sitting out on the deck in the cold rain. I braved the weather with her for a bit, but eventually acquiesced and sat in the heated interior with the other passengers. Thankfully, the trip was short and we had landed at Wood Islands, PEI in no time.
We drove westward upon arriving on the island through a rolling patchwork of potato and soybean farms to Charlottetown, the provincial capital.
A stay of 24 hours in the capital proved plenty, and we spent it strolling the old streets and waterfront and learning about the formation of the Confederation of Canada. In the 1870s, largely due to fears of an invasion from their southern neighbor (woops), the first meeting of the colonial leaders of what is now Canada took place in PEI. The island, and Charlottetown in particular, holds onto this historical claim to fame with an iron fist, and you see pride in PEI being the “Birthplace of the Confederation” everywhere.
From Charlottetown we drove a short distance north to Prince Edward Island National Park on the opposite shore of the skinny island. The park is renowned for its beaches, and while they’re really nice (though Wrightsville is nicer), and the couple short trails we walked peaceful, the gem of the park was its red sandstone cliffs that hung over the ocean waves in the Cavendish section (the park is spread out into three disconnected sections).
We were about ready to write the park off as another nice but “is it really worth the NP distinction?” park, but once we got to the cliffs that perception changed, and we were both convinced of its earned status.
After finishing the park, we made a quick stop at the Anne of Green Gables National Historic Site (mostly since it was free due to the Parks Pass we’d purchased when arriving in Canada). What we found was a bit comical to us: the house didn’t belong to Anne (who, we learned in the museum, was a fictional character) nor to L.M. Montgomery, the author. Rather, it was Montgomery’s cousin’s home. We had the impression that PEI was grasping for straws when creating a state-of-the-art historic site around the author’s cousin’s house (which Montgomery barely visited), but the enamored English teachers who perused alongside us in the museum clearly felt differently. To each their own!
If you’re a fan of Anne’s, maybe this is your place and you’d be more reverent, but we mostly just got a kick out of our abbreviated visit and then continued onwards.
We parked for our second and final night on the island at Seacow Head Lighthouse, one of the more scenic camping spots we’ve found throughout the trip, and enjoyed a relaxed evening before slowly leaving PEI the following morning over the nearly 10-mile long Confederation Bridge back to mainland Canada. We bridge dropped us off near the city of Moncton in New Brunswick, where we’d been a couple weeks prior.
We spent only two full days in PEI and by no means saw everything. We’d heard good things about the far east of the island, with cities Montague and Souris, as well as the beaches in the west. In two days, however, we were able to see the two main highlights of Charlottetown and PEI NP and spend enough time driving through the endless pastureland to get a sense for the island. Plus, we were so stoked about our next destination that we wanted to get moving. We were going to Quebec!
Wanted to finish your trip in the North, so did that today. Really enjoyed seeing all the land you kids
covered! What lot of beautiful country! I really enjoyed it!