Prince Edward Island: From Rustico To Point Prim

This morning I opened my shutters to the bright light of Rustico Bay for the last time and it was with a sad reluctance that we left our cottage at Seawinds to head for our second cottage on Point Prim.  The town of Rustico worked its way into our hearts, so leaving was bittersweet because we knew our new cottage would be pretty too.  Goodbye, Rustico Bay!  I hope we meet again…

Today’s first stop was the Orwell Corner Historic Village on the far side past Charlottetown.  This was an interesting prospect because they have an agricultural heritage museum there, along with an 1895 farming village with all the original buildings, some of which were used in the filming of Anne of Green Gables.  There was a film with interviews from elderly folks who grew up in farming families on PEI and the stories were fascinating.  The museum also had farming machinery from the time period, along with carriages, sleighs, and tractors all the way up to present day. This is your obligatory nerd alert.

When you leave the museum and walk down a red lane with the leaves of poplar trees whispering in the wind, you come upon a church with a cemetery that is still used today, along with a one room schoolhouse, a general store, blacksmith, and several barns.

In the schoolhouse someone had written “Anne Shirley has a very bad temper” on the blackboard, so we left our mark by adding “I must not tell lies” from Harry Potter because…nerds.

The barns!!!  We knew that these had been in the films, but it wasn’t until tonight that we realized we were standing on the hallowed ground of the Green Gables farm!

Obviously this is still a working farm with geese, chickens, rabbits, and other fun friends.

After our little dose of history, we headed along the coast for another stop on our epic lighthouse tour, the Wood Island Lighthouse right near the ferry terminal.  While we were there the ferry was pulling into the harbor, and this is a ferry to be reckoned with.  It’s the largest one in the history of the island with the ability to carry 215 cars.  When we were leaving the area there were enormous semis full of timber and supplies, along with many cars already lined up, waiting for the second trip of the day.

The amazing thing about every lighthouse we’ve visited so far is that all of them have their own stories to tell.  Each one has something special it wants to teach us when we walk in.  As we pulled up to Wood Island, there was loud folk music playing into the breeze.  This one was fascinating because there were rooms detailing shipwrecks, lighthouse keeper responsibilities, rum running history during the prohibition, and pictures of the old ice ships used in winter before any of the ferries came along.

One of my favorite things about the island is all the sea glass!  It’s everywhere, and people here love to go looking for sea glass.  There is a whole room in the lighthouse devoted to it with collections of all different colors.

I took the picture below for Rob.  He has always wanted to find a red piece, but we have a lot more searching to do before that happens!  There was a also information about the history of glass.  Depending on the color and shape, there are people who can tell the age of it, and there are still pieces from 1900 that make their way to the shore here today.  Not surprising when one considers all the shipwrecks that have happened off these shores.

At one point there was a family of lighthouse keepers with seven children living in this building!

 Naturally, we headed straight to the beach to look for sea glass…

And met a lobster along the way.

From the lighthouse we headed back to Point Prim to see our new cottage for the remainder of the trip here.  We pulled into this lane and drove between farm fields all the way to the water.  At the end of the road, the little one on the left is ours.

All the lilacs around the island are blooming, filling the air with fragrance, and a large vase greeted us when we arrived!

The view is quite grand, looking across the bay to the Nova Scotia coastline.  The tide was so far out when we got there and by the time we returned from dinner it was up the rocks by the grass.

One thing to note about Point Prim is that its loveliness comes from its remoteness, but this also means that options for food are far and few between.  There is a chowder house down the lane, but we wanted to save it for another night, which meant we had two options – drive a half hour up the coastline to a restaurant that may or may not be open, or head a half hour back to Charlottetown for a more promising option.  So drive back we did…

Following dinner, we raced to the Point Prim Lighthouse to see the sun going down.  We passed fields of dandelions, lupines in bloom on the side of the road, and of course, the lighthouse.

Rain threatens us tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll be able to find some indoor things to do.  So far, the weather has smiled on us and we’re grateful for every ray of sunshine that has made this place sparkle like the rare jewel it is.

Prince Edward Island: To The East!!! And Everywhere In Between…

We started off the day by heading in the wrong direction and then turning around to see our final Anne of Green Gables destination, the museum in Park Corner, PEI.  In several guidebooks we saw, not only was the town of this location listed differently, but so are the times that it’s open, so I’d like to clarify for the general public that at this time of year, the Anne of Green Gables Museum is open from 10-4 and it is located in the town of Park Corner along Route 20, NOT in Kensington (we are very grateful to the folks in the pub there who turned us in the right direction).

The museum is the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s (LMM) aunt and uncle.  She was married in the living room there and vacationed there when she was younger.  Her Emily of New Moon books, and Pat of Silver Bush books are based on this location.  But perhaps my two favorite discoveries here were that the Lake of Shining Waters is a real lake (!!!)

And Katie, Anne’s imaginary friend in the looking glass was actually LMM’s real life imaginary friend, her reflection as seen in this bookshelf.

 One of the most surprising things on this trip, especially for Ashley who’s read all of her books (several times) is how much of LMM’s real life, experience, and places were woven into her stories.  One might even go so far as to say they are fictional autobiographies and memoirs perhaps?!

After a chilly, windy, sort of rainy walk around the property of the museum, we headed to Dalvay By The Sea where the exterior shots of the White Sands Hotel were filmed, where Anne is writing and pages of her book go flying in the wind.  The inn is located just inside PEI National Park and as soon as we saw it we knew we had to come back for lunch.  We were the only ones in the dining room and were able to wander around the gorgeous rooms when we were done.  It was lovely!

Then we made a rash decision to just drive up the north coast all the way to the easternmost point of the island.  We stopped at the visitors center in St. Peters and met the most wonderful lady!  She and her husband have been farming potatoes for over 20 years and have 48 acres.  We learned that 70 percent of ALL the potatoes grown on this island go to Cavendish alone.  If you could see the scope of the fields here, this would blow your mind.  That means, all those crazy Anne of Green Gables tourists eat a TON of fries.  Holy cow.  She also told us that when they harvest the potatoes, they have to sort the golf balls from the crop. What?!  Apparently, when islanders get bored, they use the farm fields as their own personal driving ranges!  Not so fun for the farmers who get fined if a golf ball breaks the blades of a fry cutter.

As we headed up the coast, we saw more vistas and lighthouses.  This one was located at Shipwreck Point in Naufrage which sounds like it should be a cheese, but it means Shipwreck in French.

We made it to East Point Lighthouse just before they closed and ran up the lighthouse to see the waves rolling in.  There was a big pile of sea glass on the counter when we got there and I’m dying to hit the beaches to find some.

On the way back we stopped in North Lake Harbor which is apparently the tuna capital of the world, where they catch record size fish and anglers from everywhere come to compete.  There was also a windsurfer there who was taking advantage of the epic waves.

Everything was closed when we got back so we went to the Blue Mussel Cafe in North Rustico Harbor again.  The food here is great and the people who own it are even better.  They treated us so kindly and welcomed us back!

We talked to the owner for a while about the island and learned that 80% of the world’s mussels come from PEI.  It’s incredible.  We’ve seen the mussel “farms” all over the bays and it’s incredible to think of the places those little shellfish will go.  The owners also run a restaurant in Honduras and split their time between here and there.  Most of the permanent residents on the island work in one of three industries, farming, fishing, or tourism.  In fact, those in the tourist industry are unemployed for months out of the year until the season begins again.

One thing we absolutely love about this place is how utterly kind and helpful everyone has been.  The locals have asked us where we’re from, offered incredible suggestions on places to see, and have even helped us find our way when sitting at a stop sign.  This island has a very pristine coastline, in fact as we were driving the cost today, we passed dozens of farm fields will million dollar views, yet we learned that there are no land preservation laws here.  The desire is for most of the land to be used for farming and agriculture, and the farmers receive government subsidies.  It is beyond refreshing to see land revered in this way and kept so unspoiled not because it’s mandated, but because there is an appreciation and a conscientious use of it.  We did look up some real estate on line, you know, just for kicks, and discovered we can buy a water view lot $25,000.  I’m not even kidding.  Some of the really large homes here with giant windows that look out on the water, run about $250,000.  Forget the Hamptons, let’s move to PEI!!!

Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables

Today was our designated Anne of Green Gables day, and I want to start this post by addressing the judgy people out there who would accuse us of falling into the tourist trap while here on PEI.  For Ashley and I, we knew there was potential for cheesiness, we knew it could be horribly tacky, and we knew we couldn’t leave the island without seeing the Anne-related sights.  With that said, I have to tell you, both of us were quite touched and very impressed at how well done the Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery (LMM) heritage places are arranged. They are legit historic locations that are considered an important part of island history (with the exception of Avonlea Village which is a waste of time).  Our first stop today was the Green Gables Heritage Place which was a site owned by LMM’s grandparent’s cousins.  She played there as a girl, and then based the setting for the Anne stories on the Green Gables house.

Her grandparents home where she grew up was a short walk from this site.  The rooms in the house are decorated to match the descriptions in the Anne books.  As we walked around the property, breathing in the scent of lilacs, looking up at the green and white structure, I got seriously choked up.   Here it is, this place I’ve been dreaming about seeing for years and years, here we are, standing on the grounds.  Anne’s room was delightfully “Anne-ish,” broken slate and all…

The Anne of Green Gables stories were so special to me when I was growing up, and even more so when I moved to Tennessee and realized that Anne is a woman who is trying to get back home to the place that she loves.  I sob every time I watch the films because I think of Long Island and the North Fork and how much I wish I could move back there, how my heart is forever captured by the shoreline.  Turns out, LMM got married and moved to Ontario, and for the rest of her life she wanted to return to Cavendish and the place where she grew up.  She was quoted as saying that she had done a “violence to her soul” by leaving that place, and she identified it as home up until her death when she was brought back and laid to rest in the Cavendish cemetery.

We walked through the Haunted Wood (yes, that Haunted Wood that is talked about in the books) and saw the original site of LMM’s Cavendish Home.  Walking through the fields and seeing scenery that made my heart want to burst made us realize what an incredible job LMM had done in portraying PEI in her stories.  Why yes, of course we could see Anne and Diana running across the fields to each others house!

After we left the Green Gables house, we headed over to LMM’s Birthplace, another historical site that has been lovingly preserved by the people of PEI.  The rooms are full of her letters, pages from her scrapbooks, and even her wedding dress and honeymoon shoes.  It’s all so personal and really gave us a sense of who she was.  It also makes you realize how the movies truly tried to capture what life on PEI was like.  In fact, we saw some old pictures of the island from that time and it actually looks almost exactly like it does now.  This place is so well preserved and pristine, that it’s not hard to imagine LMM growing up in these exact surroundings.

We then headed on another exploratory drive just for the heck of it and ended up finding an adorable tea shop where we had raspberry cordial, scones, and rhubarb pie!  We continued down Route 6 toward North Rustico Harbor and entered a different part of PEI National Park where the coastline is carved with jagged red cliffs.

At one point we spotted some foxes frolicking in the distance.  When we hopped back in the car, we ended up seeing another on the road.  We stopped and he started circling the car to check us out!  His coat was gorgeous and I was immediately thankful for parks like this that protect these beautiful creatures.  It felt like we were in Narnia and he was coming by for a chat!

On to North Rustico Harbor, the cutest little town on the face of the planet.  As we drove down the road I thought my heart would explode.  Everything about this place is adorably perfect and lovely and idyllic and every other cute thing.  We parked the car and took a stroll down the boardwalk which borders the harbor, where we ran into a local gentleman who had been a lobster fisherman for 54 years.  He grew up in North Rustico and it sounded like he hadn’t left much in his lifetime, yet his admiration for the place was evident in the way he spoke so lovingly about it.  That’s the thing here, these houses on the water aren’t summer homes.  They belong to people who live here year round, most of whom grew up here, and they love it to pieces and say things like, “It’s the best place in the world” and it’s so touching to see and makes you feel like you’re getting a peek into a magical little fantasy.

I am in love.  The past couple of months have been stressful at home and at work with projects and changes, yet a couple of days on this island has refreshed my soul.  It’s like the stress has fallen away and my shoulders aren’t tight anymore.  The air here is so clean and salty, always blowing off the sea.  The scenery is almost too much to take in and my heart feels so full.

Prince Edward Island: A Dream Come True

I feel like someone picked me up and dropped me smack dab in the middle of a happy dream.  Ever since I was a kid and watched the Anne of Green Gables movies, I’ve wanted to visit Prince Edward Island (PEI) and this year, Ashley and I made it happen.  We flew into Halifax yesterday and embarked on a very long drive to PEI.  Along the way we stopped at a drug store to get a few things and voila, there’s the expensive sunscreen that I order directly from Canada sitting on the shelves for a steal.  This lady Barb who worked there talked our ears off and told us about PEI and how we’d just love it, so we hopped in the car and headed toward the Confederation Bridge straight into no man’s land.
To say that PEI is remote might be the biggest understatement of the year.  We drove over the bridge and suddenly found ourselves on a potholed country road surrounded by farm fields dotted with pine trees as far as the eye could see.  It was breathtaking.  The rolling hills were covered in a patchwork of deep red soil and brilliant green fields covered in swaying dandelions.  The drive went on and on and
we kept thinking we’d run into something, a store, a gas station, something, but no.  And we kept saying things like, where the heck are we, how do these people eat, do you think they just go crazy in the winter?!  It was this mixture of beauty and confusing solitude.  The town of Rustico was the destination of our first cottage at Seawinds.  Since we hadn’t eaten since noon and felt like we were about to die, we tried to find a place to eat…at 8 pm…we might as well have tried to find a carnival in the middle of a farm field because this place SHUTS DOWN at 8 pm.  We finally stumbled upon a cluster of small buildings with a fish and chips place that was open till 9.  On a good day, the food was meh, but that night, we tried poutine for the first time and nearly died and went to Heaven.  Poutine is french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds.  I mean…

 Then we got to our cottage.  This is our cottage which looks over two separate bays and has an almost but not quite 360 view of the water that makes my heart want to burst.

We woke up this morning and immediately headed for PEI National Park since the sun was shining and the clouds were blowing across a shockingly blue sky.  We pulled into the park and just slay me already, the views were killer and sure enough, we passed Dalvay By The Sea, one of the filming locations for
Anne of Green Gables.  More on Dalvay another day.
The beaches here have these massive dunes and are startlingly pristine.  We literally had the place to ourselves.  Ah, the beauty of traveling before the tourist season starts! There are pieces of this place that remind me of the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard, but here the people and the homes are secondary to the nature.  We drove along the coastal route through the park, stopping at every place there were steps leading to the beach.  At one point we saw a sign for a hiking trail into the woods and thought this would be a good idea.  This is a warning for anyone planning to travel to PEI at any point in time that is not the dead of winter.  The mosquitoes here are the size of birds and they will kill you.  We got about 20 feet into the woods and were lost in a cloud of mosquitoes which sent us running to the car in utter panic.  As we closed ourselves into the safety of our car, we soon realized that 20 of them had hitched a ride with us, in which more panicked squealing and freaking out along with the insane rolling down of windows ensued.  Bug spray was added to our list of “things to buy on PEI.”

Once we were safely out of danger, we headed back down the coastal route and stumbled upon a tiny fishing village called Covehead which has the most ADORABLE lighthouse I’ve ever seen.  I couldn’t handle the cuteness of this place.  The views surrounding this village were second to none.  There was a little row of buildings consisting of an ice cream shop, takeout place serving lobster 15 different ways, and many lobster shacks with traps sitting outside of them.  The lighthouse nearly killed me.  It was straight out of a Wes Anderson film, being adorably petite, yet still functional with a revolving glass light at the top.

Then to Robinson’s Island Road where we stopped at another random trail leading off into the dunes only to discover this teensy place.

On the way back to Rustico we stopped at a cluster of shops called The Dunes Studio Gallery & Cafe only to be surprised by gorgeous art and stores selling tons of really lovely handmade items.  The back
property was impeccably landscaped with ponds, perennial beds, statues, and driftwood furniture art pieces.  There was a small café where we had tea and coffee while looking out onto the beauty of the gardens.  It was a peaceful transition from the coastline back into the middle of the island.

 We also passed The Great Canadian Soap Company which is a magical place for anyone
with sinus issues.  All the soap is handmade on the island with goats milk.  We even got to meet the goats!!

Last event of the day was the Anne of Green Gables musical in Charlottetown.  Holy cow, there are stores here!!!  Charlottetown is where the university is and there is actually a bustling nightlife here with restaurants open later than 8 pm.  The best was I can describe Charlottetown to anyone from the East End of Long Island is by saying it’s like Riverhead in sense that once you get out of it, the scenery changes.  The town has some pretty historical buildings, an art museum, and some nice restaurants.  We were both pleasantly surprised by the musical and ended up loving it.  We were lucky enough
to catch the last preview night of the show and were able to get cheap tickets and sit in the first row behind the orchestra conductor who bobbed up and down all night while the cast sang songs telling Anne’s story.  It was heartwarming and everyone in the play was really talented.  I think it’s pretty amazing that they are keeping this tradition alive.

 
Tomorrow we are off to Cavendish for more Anne of Green Gables adventures….