PEI

On our way to catch the ferry from Caribou, Nova Scotia, to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, we stopped by to see the reproduction of the Hector, famous as the ship that began the substantial migration from Scotland resulting, for a time, in the provinces of Nova Scotia and PEI being predominantly Gaelic speaking. Its 1773 voyage with 189 colonists followed a similar voyage with Scottish immigrants to Boston. Amanda’s father’s family reputedly immigrated to Louisiana from Scotland, by way of Canada, so we looked for the Buchanan tartan, among the tartans adorning the lamp posts in the town.

The biggest surprises about PEI were just how much of a farming community it is and how big a role Anne of Green Gables plays in the tourist economy (and what it means to be Canadian). Setting out on our drive from the ferry port to Charlottetown, we were struck with how much the island looked like an idealized and even more rural Lancaster County, PA. The rolling fields were quite beautiful and very prosperous looking. Agriculture is a very big part of the economy of the province. It also fits in well with the spirit of Anne, the spunky heroine of a series of books that even Mark Twain admired. We checked out the musical version during our first evening in Charlottetown. Above a tourist adorns a straw hat with red pigtails (Anne’s signature look) to pose in front of her childhood home, now a national park site.

With such an abundance of seafood, we decided to eat our way around PEI. We started with excellent lobster rolls for lunch down at the harbor when we arrived in Charlottetown. For dinner, we went to a small family-run restaurant downtown for mussels and oysters. Lunch the next day was at a little restaurant along the road in St. Peter’s where we had a curried seafood chowder and fried scallop sandwich, followed by a late afternoon snack of Malpeque oysters at Stanley Bridge (above), and a dinner with grilled scallops and smoked salmon. Yum, indeed!

The Canadians really know how to build walkways. This half-mile long boardwalk mostly floated on the pond and was anchored with large chains.
These are “parabolic dunes,” shaped by the wind. The crescent shape is due to the wind consistently blowing in one direction and the dune being somewhat anchored by vegetation. There are also parabolic dunes in the Provincelands on Cape Cod.
Yes, the sand is red.
We followed our usual habit of hiking in the National Parks we drove through, this time Prince Edward Island National Park, with its red sand and crumbling cliffs. Except for the red part, it reminded us a bit of Cape Cod.
We were told that PEI has the warmest saltwater north of the Carolinas. Contradicting this, we dropped in and talked for a while with a man running a shellfish store at Stanley Bridge who maintained that the Malpeque oysters are superior to anything down where we live because the waters at PEI are colder. He shucked two enormous oysters for us to try. We had to admit that the oysters are exceptionally good and may have a more interesting taste profile than our Wellfleet oysters, although we quibbled that PEI mussels are rather small compared to the ones we used to enjoy in Belgium. He told us that they don’t let the PEI mussels grow out any bigger because they develop pearls. That’s a shame. So, we give very high marks to the PEI Malpeque oysters, but still prefer Zeeland mussels. With that, we headed back to Charlottetown.