Last Day on Prince Edward Island

Hi Blog!

It's hard to believe we spent 8 days on Prince Edward Island and barely scratched the surface. Sunday, June 3, 2018 was our last full day. There were a few places we wanted to catch before starting our pre-move chores. But first, a look back.

We took this photo from the beach near our campground. There is a heron fishing in the shallows. You can barely see him in the left-center middle ground of the photo below, but we wanted to share the color of the sand and water. The reds, greens and blues are endless.

On Sunday, we started our day by driving out to Dalvay-by-the-Sea, a National Historic Site of Canada. The hotel and property surrounding it are part of the Prince Edward Island National Park. Dalvay is a Queen Anne Revival style hotel, originally constructed as a home for an American industrialist. The hotel is a popular attraction for visitors to Prince Edward Island and has been featured in the Anne of Green Gables movies.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visited Dalvay-by-the-Sea during their 2011 royal tour of Canada. William took part in training exercises with the Canadian Forces, executing a "water bird" emergency landing procedure over Dalvay Lake in a Sea King helicopter.

While all this history is fascinating, the real reason for our visit was the Parks Canada Red Chairs that are advertised to be here. However, the weather had turned horrid. The temperature dropped to the low 30s and the wind blew the misty rain sideways. The Red Chairs were located somewhere on the opposite side of Dalvay Lake offering a fantastic view of the hotel. However, no chairs, even Red Chairs, are worth the risk of hypothermia, so we settled for brown chairs closer to the lodge. We lived to search another day!

With the Jeep heater going full blast, we headed to downtown Charlottetown. Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of the United Kingdom, Charlottetown was originally an unincorporated town that incorporated as a city in 1855. It was famously the site of the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, the first gathering of Canadian and Maritime statesmen to debate the proposed Maritime Union and the more expansive British North American Union, now known as the Canadian Confederation. From this, the city adopted as its motto "Cunabula Foederis" – "Birthplace of Confederation".

Our first stop was to see St. Dunstan's Basilica, which is the Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown. It is named for St. Dunstan the Anglo Saxon saint from Glastonbury. The current stone structure was rebuilt in 1916 after a fire. The Basilica was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990. It's spires can been seen for miles around, and, in fact, was one of the first landmarks we spotted as we gazed out on Charlottetown Harbor from Rocky Point in one of our first outings on PEI.

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into one Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. Upon confederation, the old province of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec; along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the new federation thus comprised four provinces. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current union of ten provinces and three territories.

Here Kathy chats with a few delegates attending the Confederation Conference.

By now, we had worked up quite an appetite. Dave had his heart set on PEI Chowder. Every restaurant has its own secret recipe. We decided to try the Water Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound and were not disappointed. While we waited for our chowder, we admired all the license plates from around the world. Some of you may remember Dave's gumbo obsession while we were in Louisiana. Now that we are in the Canadian Maritimes, chowder may become the new obsession.

After lunch, we had a slight break in the weather and decided we could risk a walk around Confederation Landing Park. We noticed this large oil tanker in the harbour next to a tall sailing ship, with fishing and pleasure boats in the marina to the left:

We almost got around the park before the wind and rain came back. It was a mad dash to the Jeep. We decided to drive over to Victoria Park. Along the way, we stopped for this view of the Brighton Lighthouse. During our kayak paddle, we could see this light from the far shore of North River near our campground, but we dared not cross the river to take a picture, due to the high winds and waves. It was fun to see it up close and look across to see where we paddled.

Victoria Park offers a variety of outdoor activities including tennis courts, ball parks, grassy fields, swimming pool, and playground. We were interested in taking a walk along the boardwalk. Recently renovated, the boardwalk allowed us a look back at the city. You can see the spires of St. Dunstan's peering over some of the waterfront houses:

We could also see across Charlottetown Harbour to Rocky Point and the Port-la-Joy/Fort Amherst National Historic Site. If you look really hard, you can see the three lighthouses we visited in our blog from the south Central Coast Drive.

On our way back to the Jeep, we got one last look at the Brighton Lighthouse.

And so ends our touring on PEI. After groceries, tank cleaning, laundry and loading the bikes and kayaks, it was time to relax. We leave PEI with a view of the full moon rising over the West River.

Tomorrow, we head to New Scotland! Stay thirsty my friends.