Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is not very large…about 250 km from tip to tip.  It is crescent shaped and when you look at it on a map, it short snuggles in the St. Lawrence Bay with New Brunswick to the south west and Nova Scotia to southeast and east of it.

My tour explored the Central Coastal Drive which runs along the St. Lawrence Bay to the Prince Edward Island State Park and nearby Cavendish (the fictional Avonlea)  where the house made famous by L. M. Montgomery’s novel, Anne of Green Gables, can be found.

It is about an hour’s drive from the port in Charlottetown to the Green Gables house.  With this drive, you see acres of rolling farmland where they raise all kinds of potatoes, corn, and wheat.  You also see a number of dairy farms. 

 

 

The farm houses are surrounded by neatly mowed lawns of at least an acre or more.  Almost all were decorated for Halloween or Thanksgiving (This coming Monday is Canada’s Thanksgiving Day).  You can see why this province is called the “garden province”.

You also pass areas where they are raising mussels, harvesting oysters, or trapping lobsters.  The labor that goes into the proper raising and gathering these shell-fish is amazing, and you can see why the prices might be high for the luscious products.

 

The Central Coastal Drive highlights the most picturesque sea views with their red sand-stone cliffs and sandy beaches.

 

The highlight of the tour, of course, was The Green Gables Heritage Place.  During the high summer season, it is jam packed with tourists.  But today, only two busses from our cruise were there. In fact, I was able to go through the house is a leisurely fashion with only three or four other people.

Since the tourist season is almost over and winter will begin in a few weeks, they are painting and repairing it now.  This is what the front of house looked like in early 1900’s.

 

It almost looks the same today.

In real life, this farm was the home of cousins of Montgomery’s grandfather.  Although Montgomery never lived here, she visited often. The house and grounds have been restored and decorated as Montgomery described in her novel and depict a typical PEI farm of the 1800’s.

On our way back to the ship, we drove around downtown Charlottetown which is the birthplace of Canada. It has all kinds of interesting shops, museums, historical houses and government buildings.

This is a park in the center of town.  The raised flower bed was created in honor of Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they visited here.  The town has continued to plant it ever since.

Down the street a couple of blocks is the fire station with an old fire truck displayed.

 

  I wish I had had more time to explore more of this lovely town.