Prince Edward Island is comprised of four unique regions. The North Cape Coastal Drive, Anne's Land in Cavendish, Charlotte's Shore near Charlottetown and Points East Coastal Drive. On our initial visit to PEI in September, 2003, we wanted to get the "flavor" of the island, by visiting all four regions. This trip we wanted to concentrate more on biking the Conferation Trail, attending traditional Ceilidhs, (also known as "kitchen parties") and enjoying both the seafood and the relaxed atmosphere that draws people to Prince Edward Island.
Our first stay was a week at Pine Hills RV Park in Harrington. It's convienently located between Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island National Park. We enjoyed an evening picnic at the beach while watching the sunset. We biked the Confederation Trail from Winsloe to Peake's Landing in Charlottetown where we enjoyed free samples of barbecued lobster, mussels, and rainbow trout.
Charlottetown is the capital of P.E.I. Here you can enjoy just about any type of food, (our favorite being seafood) and browse through every type of clothing, antique and gift shop.
Another day we drove along the shoreline on the Points East Coastal Drive stopping in Cardigan to bike the 12 miles round-trip (again on the Confederation Trail) to visit the MacDonald Gardens in Georgetown. The town's pastor gave us the history on the garden. Fifteen years ago someone had a vision of turning the marshy area in the center of town into something for the eye to behold. Now it's tended to by a staff of four and each memorial garden is bursting with colorful flowers and greens from spring to early fall. We continued our drive into Souris (pronounced Soree) to check out the ferry to "les de la Madeliene," a small French island off the northern coast of Prince Edward Island. Having discovered it costs $200/roundtrip for two persons with bikes and at least one overnight stay at the island, we opted to pospone it for a future visit.
There are so many festivals on the island throughout the tourist season that we had to be selective of which ones we attended. One we enjoyed in particular was the Visual Art Festival held at the New Glasgo Country Gardens. Island artists painted random scenes and their finished work was auctioned off as a fund-raiser for a local Hospice organization. Along with the enjoyment of the gardens was a Ceilidh and a nice lunch at the PEI Preserve Company Bistro.
On August 12th, we moved to Twin Shores RV Camping in Darnley where we stayed until our departure from PEI
on Sept. 4th. We were pleasantly surprised to find the area to be completely surrounded by ocean. It was the perfect place to cycle, take early morning walks on the beach and visit surrounding towns on the island. We also discovered there are over 500 geo caches on the island so if time permitted, we added it to our agenda. Best of all, the WiFi signal worked. Yeah!
