Prince Edward Island - Part 1

Beach at PEI National Park

At last! The big turning point that we have been looking forward to. This was the destination for September! Home of Anne of Green Gables fame, interesting history, beautiful farm scenery, fabulous beaches, quaint little towns, entertaining maps....where to start, where to start? Our first day dawned cold and raining and blowing, not all that promising. We had some internet so we muddled through part of the day, really itching to get somewhere but hardly able to see anything with the rain and wind. Finally, about 3:00 I was getting cold and bored so we packed up and headed up the road. We took part of the scenic road, mostly rainy coastal views. We decided to go to the Acadia Museum to glean some history of the island. 

North Cape Lighthouse

Sea Cow Bay Lobster Boats

The Acadians descended from the first French settlers to come to this area. They were quite successful with agriculture and fishing, managing to grow and catch most foods that they needed and trade for the other necessary items. In the mid 1700's when the British took over they decided that all of the French living on the island needed to sign an oath of allegiance to the crown. The Acadians refused, and they were forcibly rounded up and shipped off either to the Louisiana territory, where they became the Cajun population or back to Europe. 2/3 of them didn't survive the trip, it was a massacre. A few escaped to the mainland and a small group went into hiding here on the island. The British then divided up the island and gave it to a bunch of Brits who didn't even live on the island. A number of years later the Brits allowed the the Acadians to return to PEI, to be tenant farmers for the owners. It wasn't until over 100 years later that they got their lands back after the brand new Canadian government bought the land back from the British.

 They organized themselves into cooperatives of all kinds that exist today. We have seen fishing, grocery, gas, farming, and business co-ops all over the island. The 15-18 families that stayed here during the bad times formed the backbone of the new community and their names are everywhere, street, stores, most grave markers, businesses, and farms. The Irish also have a long history here and have integrated into the Acadian Culture. I don't know about today but the Acadians who built PEI were exceedingly hard working, had huge families, and were very loyal to their roots and their culture. You definitely get the feeling that not too much has changed in that regard. It took me a while to understand why so many homes had a "Texas Star" tacked to their homes and barns. At the museum we saw that their flag is the red, white and blue stripes like the French flag, but the Acadians have added a gold star to the blue field. I don't know what the protocol is for hanging a star but there are a lot of them!

The island is roughly organized into 3 sections....We did the northwestern section first, driving along the coast in the rain to get to the North Cape area. We stayed at a boondocker site in Tignish at the very north end. The owner wasn't even home so it was a nice quiet night next to a large church and cemetery. The next morning dawned with sunshine and a brisk breeze. We headed up to the North Cape wind farm, a collection of at least 20 large wind generators cranking away in the fresh wind coming off the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They also have a nice nature walk around the cape with signs giving information about geology, bogs, birds, and fishing. On our way away from the cape we stopped at Sea Cow Bay to photograph the lobster/fishing boats and talked to a couple of fishermen. Their mainstay is lobster, there are two seasons, spring and fall. By Oct. 10 the season is over and the boats are hauled out. Many boats are stored at peoples' homes so you see large lobster boats inland, parked next to a barn or house. A specialty fish that they also fish for is blue fin tuna. A single fish can bring in 1000's of dollars from Japanese buyers. Each boat gets a limit of one tuna, then they have a lottery for the 50 or 60 tags that are left over. We learned a few days later that a big one had been caught, over a thousand pounds! That made the news!

Can you see the worker up top?

North Cape Wind Farm

Boat Ramp sunset

French River

  

We followed the northern coast into the middle section of the island. The highlights here are the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Site and the PEI National Park. I never imagined there would be a National Park dedicated to a children's author and her books but my, have they done it here. I never read the "Anne" books but we watched the BBC series on our way to Canada. I'm almost an expert.

St. Mary's

The setting for the books was inspired by the Cavendish area, where the author spent her childhood. Green Gables was the farmhouse where Montgomery visited her aunt and uncle when she lived on the island with her grandparents. If nothing else, Montgomery clearly cherished her childhood home and is very much responsible for its preservation and enjoyment by many, many people. Apparently the Japanese have a special fondness for her books and Green Gables is a destination wedding venue for many young Japanese. While we were there, there was a very giddy group of young Japanese ladies striking the most hilarious poses for their photographers.

Jill of Green Gables

Green Gables

 We also enjoyed several days at PEI NP where we lounged on the beach, walked through the woods and wetlands, and I rode my bike around the lakes of shining waters. We read all the signs and just as you would expect there was more information about the geology of the area. You knew it was coming....I'll be brief because it is pretty straightforward. PEI is basically a big shelf of soft, dark red sandstone. The sandstone was deposited from the erosion of the Appalachian Mountains when they used to extend all the way to New Brunswick. This took a long time, starting about 4-500 million years ago. Well, you add some glacier thrashing, ocean pounding, winter ice grinding and you get some pretty fabulous coastline carved out of red sandstone. But what about those buff colored sands? I'm sure you're asking that right now! The sand particles are actually quartz once you grind the iron off of the outside of each grain with 100's of years of buffing. Go figure! Add lots of wind over eons of time and you get the beautiful blonde dunes you see in the pictures, all coming from that red, red rock.

Red sandstone cliff of PEINP

Beach boy of PEINP

Sand dunes of PEINP

Continuing south through the mid section we boondocked at Rocky Point for the night. We caught our host, Bob, the night before he was heading south for the winter. He is headed for the SW and we may catch up with him later in our trip. The next day we visited Fort Amherst, the old fort that protected Charlottetown from whoever was invading this time. Then it was on to Charlottetown, the biggest burg on the island. We find that the cities are not as entertaining for us as the natural areas. Cities seem to be focused on shopping and eating out, two activities that we don't really do very well. We generally ride our bikes around looking at the neighborhoods of old, gracious homes, tool along the waterfront, looking at boats or finding nice parks to hang out in. Today we found the lovely old building called Province House that housed the first meeting of the Fathers of Confederation. They were the group that led the way to the creation of Canada as a country. PEI still uses it today as their legislative building. They had a good video relating the history of that special event.

Spent the night near the police station. Near, not in! 

This post has gotten very long, I guess we've been here about a week. So I'll wrap up this post. PEI is certainly worth more than one post! It reminds us very much of the San Juan Islands....