Prince Edward Island, Canada

Tues, Jul 30

Today is a travel day.  We got an early start in the fog to the ferry dock about 3 hours away for the trip to Prince Edward Island.

A foggy start this morning in Nova Scotia

While we were in New Brunswick I noticed on the map that Prince Edward Island might be another stop on our tour of the Canadian Maritimes.  Like the rest of the provinces, I knew (and know) very little about them.  This makes a nice round out of the trip without having to double back on some of the roads we've already traveled.

A foggy arrival in Prince Edward Island

The ferry ride was about an hour fifteen minutes.  Probably the biggest ferry we've been on.  It has four decks.  The lower deck is for trucks, RV's and other oversized vehicles.  The next deck is for cars, and the upper decks are lounges and restaurants.

It seemed appropriate that we would arrive in PEI (as it is referred to) in fog in as much as we had left Nova Scotia in the fog.

We've settled into a nice campground which seems to have been carved out of a large farm.  We are seemingly well out into the rural area.

PEI is relatively flat and there are lots of farms.  One of their primary agricultural crops is potatoes. There are huge fields planted.

We've taken the afternoon and evening to relax around the campsite.  Tomorrow we'll start the touring.

The Canadian Maritimes - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

Wed, Jul 31

A lazy morning followed by and active afternoon.  And a day without rain, or hardly even a cloud.

First stop was an unusual (probably the most unusual we've ever seen) crafts store, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  It is housed in a stunning building overlooking one of the most beautiful gardens we've seen.  The majority of crafts are imported from Indonesia, where the owner has a second home and lives there in the winter.

Clara tries out some of the unique wooden furniture

Clara enjoying the beautiful gardens

Dave, enjoying the beautiful gardens

Then to Charlottetown, the capital of the Province.  It's a relatively small town, but still too large for me.  However, they've done a nice job of redeveloping their downtown and waterfront.  Of course, there were craft shops, and Clara enjoyed them.  It's hard to understand - I can go through one of those stores in about 2 minutes.  But she finds all the little interesting things to look at, and can take quite a bit of time.  That's okay, we've got plenty of time.

Scenes around Charlottetown

This island is known for its potatoes.  There are seemingly thousands of acres of potatoes grown.

Potato fields go on forever

The honor system of buying a bag of potatoes

From Charlottetown, we drove about 30 miles to Summerside, home of The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada (www.collegeofpiping.com).

We had been told that they have the best show on the island, I we have to agree.  We spent a wonderful evening enjoying dance, song, and piping.  They even told some jokes.  "What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion?   You don't see anyone crying when a bagpipe is cut into pieces."

Thurs, Aug 1

We took most of today to relax around the campsite.  We did some minor provisioning and drove to a little coastal community just to see what was there, which wasn't much.

But this afternoon got rather interesting.

Two motorhomes moved in on either side of us, and we quickly found out that they are from Quebec and only only speak French.  They are friends from a very small island which is a part of Quebec, but on the map appears to be closer to and North of PEI.

Through sign language we eventually figured out (I think) that he is a fisherman on the island and comes here on holiday (a 5 hour ferry ride).  He really was interesting, and tried very hard to communicate, but only a word now and then got through.  Apparently, the people on this very small island only speak French and there must not be much interaction with English speakers.

Then, about dinner time, a lady approached us with 3 kids and 2 Japanese teenagers who are here in PEI on an exchange program.  She wanted to show the Japanese girls what a motorhome looks like because they don't have them in Japan.  Neither of the girls spoke English, so it was another round of hand signals trying to make each other understand.

These Japanese girls visited us for a few minutes this afternoon.  They were intrigued by the motorhome and I'm not sure they really understood what it was.  I think they thought it was a permanent home.

By the time we had finished all of this both of us are exhausted.

The RV Park we are staying in is in a very rural setting

Tomorrow we head back to toward the USA, but first we're planning a couple days in New Brunswick at an RV Park we visited on the way here and thought might be a good place to relax for a couple of days.