Prince Edward Island & Nova Scotia

This post we consider our: “Foodie and Nature Blog from PEI and Cape Breton, NS” or, “How many Lobster Rolls can 3 women eat in a 10 day stretch?”

We spent a week on Prince Edward Island thinking we would sunbathe, hike and explore the many lighthouses across the island. We ended up driving forever through dairy pastures and farmlands, stopping at every building that looked like a souvenir shop and ice cream parlor, and following a guide of “where to eat the 5 best Lobster and Lobster rolls on the island”. Sue’s sister Sandy joined us for this portion of our Canadian journey. We introduced her to our favorite stores: Canadian Tire, Dollarama and Cows Ice Cream. Luckily, she also had great ideas of how to fill our time. We enjoyed walking through the Anne of Green Gables authors farm, finding the good food, and exploring the central and east side of the island. We bought fresh new PEI potatoes and yellow green beans from a roadside family farmstead… yummy! The beaches on PEI are really geographically different from the next: sandy, rocky, red, pink. beige, calm and rough. We did get to see quaint harbor fishing villages and beautiful art galleries. Some other highlights were visiting the goat farms and getting to see some silly goats and purchasing handmade soaps. Seeing the kids jump off the sides and bridge at the Basin Head Provincial Park and float out to sea, was insane! Sallie really considered joining the group of jumpers, even in her dress. She’s sure the crowd would have gotten a charge out of it, but she kept her composure and just watched along with the other witnesses. BTW, the water was FREEZING (maybe that’s the real reason she didn’t jump?)

Back over the Confederation Bridge connecting Nova Scotia to PEI we camped near Cape Breton National Park. We also ate our way through this part of NS… more lobster, lobster rolls, mussels, chowders and NS snow crab. We learned 2/3 of North Americas’ snow crabs are caught off the waters of NS. And they were so yummy! 

Our main goal was to traverse the famous Cabot Trail. We were given the advise to do it counter clockwise, so we did. We decided not to kill ourselves and try it all in one day, so we stayed the night at the historic Keltic Lodge. The scenery of this part of the island was magical: high cliffs, rolling waves, forest and highlands. We finished our trek at the beautiful and challenging Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs Golf Courses that Sandy will probably come back and play someday.

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, Parks Canada gave away parks passes and of course, we got one. This has allowed us to visit historic sites that otherwise, we probably would have passed up. Near Cape Breton is the Fortress of Louisbourg and Alexander Graham Bell’s favorite Canadian homestead. In Louisbourg, we got to visit the actual fort learning of life back in the 1740’s. It was fun to see the geese taking their afternoon stroll through the streets, watching a “thief” get his public humiliation in the stocks and we got to experience a cannon and musket firing.

We also learned more about the experiments and research Bell did with developing auditory language and techniques to help the deaf, hydrofoil airplane designs and different kinds of ways to use energy, besides electronics. His out of the box thinking and imagination were astonishing and brilliant. 

We found an awesome chicken restaurant near our campgrounds and got a kick out of its name!

Our time with Sandy had come to an end and she went back to San Francisco for her continued trips around the world with friends. We then headed off to the Marine Atlantic Ferry for our 6 hour trip to “The Rock” Newfoundland.

More adventures to come…

Leave a Comment