We looped through PEI National Park today; it’s mainly a narrow strip of the beach along the north side of the Island. Today is Canada Day (142nd birthday), so admission was free. The shoreline on the island is what we would call in Washington a “low bank” shoreline; you might see a huge wheat field run right up to the water. Prince Edward Island has beautiful rolling fields and has been called “Canada’s million acre garden.” It does have a lot of fields in agriculture, but even they are just idyllically beautiful. You see meadows, rolling hills, beautiful lakes, picturesque valleys and white farm houses, and everything laid out in the most beautiful way. Then the shoreline is the same collection of beautiful small fishing villages, and we will have some photos on line.
Finding all the little home grown specialty shops and businesses is like a huge scavenger hunt on the island. We went from the national park to finding businesses of interest in various small towns: goat milk soap, gouda cheese, PEI Preserve Company, and there are many other small business enterprises to be found all over the island. We picked up some fresh potatoes and strawberries along the road. Plus, it’s beautiful just driving around. Tonight we drove into Charlottetown to see the musical, “Anne of Green Gables: The Musical” which has been running for 45 years and has been seen by 2.25 million people. It was very professionally done with actors from all over Canada who have impressive acting credits. Then we stopped for Cow’s Homemade Ice Cream before heading back across the island at night.
We are camped in the Green Gables part of the island, because we’re just a mile or so from that original house (great story, but don’t plan to visit the house, which is a little too touristy for us). Things are expensive in Canada. Milk here is six dollars a gallon, gas over four dollars, and everything, just ordinary things in the U.S., are top dollar. Plus, they don’t usually offer to give a fair exchange for the value of the dollar, so we have to overlook a lot of little things to be the nice tourist. On the other hand, it’s just an amazing feeling to know we’re on a beautiful island in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They get a LOT of tourists here. The family on one side of us is from Newfoundland and on the other side is up from Florida.
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