Friday, October 28, 2011

On to PEI!

From Dad's place Pie & I went on to Miramichi to visit my cousin Drew & his family.  It was just an overnight stop but a great visit!  We adults went out for supper at a fantastic little, old pub called O'Donaghues.  Good food & atmosphere.  Then we went back to Drew's to visit before going on to stay overnight at the Rodd Miramichi.... omg I fell in LOVE with the bed.  Hands down THE most comfortable hotel bed I've ever slept in.
The next day we got up and drove to Prince Edward Island (PEI). 
We had decided to take 'the bridge' from New Brunswick to PEI and then the ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia.  Wow, what a bridge!  The Confederation Bridge is the longest bridge in the world that crosses ice covered water (although this time of year there's no ice)  If you click the link you can find out all kinds of interesting things about the bridge and building it.  For example it was quite a controversy over whether or not to build a fixed link from PEI to the mainland, it was passed with a vote just under 60%.
(oh and by the way to my American friends... Confederation is a pretty big thing out here,its not a North VS South thing from the US.  Confederation here refers to the birth of Canada) :)
So yes, crossing a big bridge, here's the approach
On the bridge for a few minutes, yes minutes.  It takes about 10 minutes to cross... going the speed limit of 80km/hr (about 50 miles/hr).  Yep, here's more bridge
When we got to PEI we decided to drive around the East side of the island.  Before dark we got to the 'eastest' part, East Point, and the lighthouse there
It was getting kinda dusky but we decided to keep driving and see what we could see before it was dark.  I have to admit I was surprised to see the wind turbines, for some reason I never considered that they would be here... it just didn't seem to be a coastal thing.  But in retrospect there is some awesome wind here!
I found PEI to be gorgeous.  Charlottetown is a nice city, and close to pretty much any point on the island.  The rest of it, at least what we saw, was rural.  Sheep, cows, horses... and gorgeous scenery.  I would consider moving here if I ever needed to relocate, except the Western horse community doesn't seem to be very strong.
Thursday Pie indulged me and I got to fulfill a girlhood dream... I went to Green Gables!
"Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery has always held a special place on my list of favourite books.
Montgomery actually used a local home as her basis for Green Gables, enough so that locals knew it instantly in the book.
I'm not sure if Anne of Green Gables was a popular book in the USA, if you aren't familiar with the story click the link. 
Here is Green Gables, the actual original home the book is based on.  If they were real this is where Matthew, Marilla & Anne would have lived.
And here is Matthew's barn, sadly it is a reconstruction.
Pie & I also went to BOOMburger, fantastic, really fantastic burgers (I'm a burger girl, give me a good burger joint over a fancy restaurant any day lol).  I love that they source a lot of their ingredients locally (local being PEI, it isn't a very big province)  Then we went to Cows, which is right next door, for some souveniery things and ice cream.  If you ever get a chance try it, its been voted the best ice cream in the world!
We also went to Cavendish and checked out the beach.  Not for the beach but for the view, which was gorgeous but so bitter & cold that day.
We stayed at the Rodd Charlottetown.  Its kinda the 'crown jewel' of Rodd hotels.  It started out as a CN railway hotel... quite the snazzy place back in the day, it opened in 1931.  The hotel itself is gorgeous but the bed was NOT comfortable at all and the staff seemed kinda snooty.  (I guess maybe a plain jane burger girl isn't fancy enough for a 5star hotel??)
Thursday we got up and were on our way to Nova Scotia, last stop before we head home!

7 comments:

  1. I read "Anne of Green Gables" twice in my lifetime so far -- no guarantee I won't read it again! But what does "PEI" stand for? Looks like you had a great trip. Love the long bridge.

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  2. Yeah! that book was required reading at school for us! When I went to Nova Scotia in `74, I also managed a trip to PEI. It was winter then. Very Cold!!
    But a year later we were back. I have loved the place since.

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  3. PEI is one province I keep missing... Should really take the time to go there (well, NL too, actually). Lots of people from ON go to PEI in the summer for holidays.

    Sound really nice. WInd turbines are all over the place here in Ontario. Lots on Lake Ontario, and the other great lakes.

    Sounds like you are enjoying Halifax. I lived there for a summer many years ago - really nice people and nice city.

    I'm so glad you and Pie are having a nice holiday!

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  5. Um - not sure why my comment posted twice!!

    Regina - It stands for Prince Edward Island - one of our Canadian provinces! :-)

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  6. Thanks for the tour!
    Other than a stop at Prince Rupert on a cruise, I have only been in the eastern part of Ontario and Quebec.
    Some day I hope to get to explore the beauty of all of Canada!

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  7. This is so funny, I read this back when you you first posted it. Then I got lost in all of the links here and totally forgot to comment. This is so typical of me. This really sounds like a great vacation and thank you so much for the links, I love that!

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Wordless Wednesday ~ new trailer!