PEI

Greenwich

With a bit better weather today, we set off to explore a bit more of PEI. Our first stop is Greenwich, which is about an hours drive from Charlottetown. Greenwich is a small community that is part of Prince Edward Island National Park. What’s interesting about this place is the Greenwich Peninsula which is home to a network of sand dunes and beaches. This makes for a fairly unique landscape and cool trails to explore. After reading about it, it tops my list here on PEI and so its our first stop of the day.

Greenwich Sand Dunes Trail

There are multiple trails in the Greenwich area, and we opted for the four kilometer Sand Dunes trail. All the trails in the area start with a leisurely walk through open plains. You then arrive at a fork for the different trails. Our sand dune trail takes us through a forested area. Again, being fall, the colours along the path are quite spectacular!

Eventually, the trees open up to this lake/pond area. If I recall the signage correctly, the water in this area is “trapped” due to the high coastal sand dunes. It’s a pretty unique view because once the trees open, you see water and wetlands and then the large dunes beyond that.

Once you get to the edge of the water, the boardwalk turns into this really cool floating bridge. This bridge takes you through the water and delivers you at the base of the coastal sand dunes. It’s a really cool walk, especially on a nice day, which we were lucky to have!

The last “challenge” is a rope ladder that takes you up and over the coastal dune and onto the beach. On the other side of the dunes is a huge stretch of beach. It’s really pretty and the sand is very fine and soft. On a warm day, I’m sure its possible to mistake it for a more “southern” sun destination beach! It’s too bad that its a bit chilly to enjoy, but I have to imagine this is a prime spot in the summer.

One of the benefits of travelling during shoulder season, is you aren’t competing with other tourists. For just about all of our time here, we were the only ones on the trail. It’s a cool experience, especially in some of these landscapes where there’s no one around for miles!

Mama Minion

I do want to take a moment to acknowledge Mama Minion here. Before embarking on this walk, this trail is advertised as a “moderately” difficult walk with a rope ladder at the end. Mama Minion had some reservations about being able to do this. I’m happy to report that not only did she get through the whole walk and ladder, she did it unassisted! It’s encouraging to see that despite some anxiousness, she’s still willing to try! And in this case, share this cool experience with us.

Prince Edward Island National Park

After the Dune walk, our next destination is Prince Edward Island National Park. Even though Greenwich is a part of the National Park, its not actually connected. This means we have to drive a little under an hour to get to the main part of the park.

Covehead Harbour Lighthouse

Unfortunately, upon entering the park, we find that a majority of the park services and areas are closed for the season. (One of the downsides of travelling during shoulder season.) We do end up making a stop however, at the Covehead Harbour Lighthouse. This is right off the main road and the lighthouse is situated on its own sand dune. It is representative of a lot of lighthouses of its era and has a pretty good view of the beaches too! I will say that after seeing two examples of PEI beaches, I do have a desire now to visit in the summer and see what it’s like in full swing!

Dalvay By the Sea

One other stop we make in the park is Dalvay By the Sea. This isn’t on any of our lists and we really just wanted to see if there was food and possibly a bathroom we could use. What we find is a very well kept fancy cottage and grounds. Apparently they do events and a very fancy food service when in season. The inside is beautiful and I can see it being a very nice (and expensive) vacation stay for some.

Sadly, because a majority of the things in the park are closed, we didn’t make too many other stops.

Green Gables Heritage Place

We then drive to Green Gables Heritage place. This is the farmstead which is the inspiration for the Anne of Green Gables novel. It’s pretty much on every tourist list for PEI and so, we wanted to check it out. The parental minions didn’t seem too enthused. When they visited with The Sister years ago they didn’t find it too interesting and gave it a pass. According to the parents, even The Sister who read the book didn’t enjoy it much. Having not read the book the prospects didn’t look too good for me. Additionally there is a fee to enter. All this being said, we didn’t actually go in. We checked out the visitor centre but that’s about it. Maybe I missed out on something amazing, let me know if I did. But, as of this writing, I have no regrets about this one!

Boom Burger

We start to make our way back to Charlottetown. On the way back we want to stop at Cows Creamery. But seeing as we haven’t eaten anything all day, we figure it’s probably best to have lunch before getting Ice Cream. Thankfully in the same area as the Creamery is a burger place called Boom Burger. It’s unique to PEI, and has a very Five Guys feel to it. We order burgers (of course) and some fries to share. I’m not sure if it’s because we are hungry, but it’s pretty good and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back if I’m ever in the area!

Cows Creamery

Cow’s is a pretty well known Ice Cream brand in Canada that started on Prince Edward Island. While I’m not a huge Ice Cream guy, being able to go to an iconic location like this is pretty neat. The Cow’s Creamery location has a small area where you can walk through. There’s a short video that talks of Cow’s history. You then get to look at different production areas. Cow’s is now more than just an Ice Cream company, they also do a lot of different print products as well. So you get to see some of that production. Ultimately though, we’re there for the ice cream and so on our way out we each get some.

While I’m not a huge ice cream guy, Papa Minion is. Before this creamery visit, we did pop into a few other locations in search of his favorite flavour: Maple Walnut. To our pleasant surprise this creamery location has it! Sufficed to say, Papa Minion was a pretty happy camper.

Olde Dublin Pub

Not long after returning to our hotel, we set out again. This time for an early dinner/happy hour. From our exploration of Charlottetown yesterday, we noticed that Olde Dublin Pub has buck a shuck oysters during happy hour. Seeing as a few of our seafood aspirations still haven’t been met. We are keen to get our fill of oysters. So at around four we head to the pub and start ordering oysters and drinks. Since we figure we’re likely not going to grab dinner, we later also end up ordering a few items off the menu. I end up with a Guinness pot pie and it really hits the spot.

What also makes this a fun experience is that there is live music going too. It makes for a super relaxing early evening. By the end we are stuffed with oysters and food and make our way back to our hotel.

We spend the rest of the evening, finishing off Squid Game with Mama Minion and then heading to bed.

Confederation Meeting Replica

The next morning, we are due to check out of our hotel and start to make our way to New Brunswick. Before we leave though, there is one last thing I wanted to check out. As mentioned during our walk around Charlottetown, we weren’t able to visit Province House due to renovations. However, I learned that there is a replica of the Confederation Chamber in the Confederation Centre of Art. It’s free to visit so after getting another Receiver Coffee in the morning, we walk over to check it out.

It’s not a huge exhibit and its mainly a replica of the chamber itself. There is some signage and displays around the area that talks about the different people that attended the meeting too. While small, it does give you a glimpse of the very beginning of Canada as a nation and being Canadian, it’ a pretty cool thing to see (albeit not the “real” thing).

Confederation Bridge

After visiting the Confederation Chamber, we check out of our hotel and drive to the South West side of PEI. Here we will cross over the Confederation Bridge into New Brunswick, where we will spend the next few days. The Confederation Bridge links PEI with the rest of Canada. Originally, the only way to link the island with the mainland is by ferry. But with the construction of the bridge it’s now a fixed link. It also has the distinction of being the longest bridge crossing ice-covered water in the world. Being a fan of logistics and transportation, I eagerly anticipated this crossing. Being able to drive across an iconic bridge is always pretty sweet! From the PEI side, there’s a point where you can stop at the “base” of the bridge to take some photos of it. We did this for a few minutes and then eventually make the crossing.

To be perfectly honest, I think I built this up to be more than it is. The crossing itself is pretty uneventful. What makes it less interesting is that due to the high winds most of the walls on the side are fairly high, so you don’t actually get a good view of the whole bridge as you cross. We also ended up behind a bus so we didn’t get to see the road ahead that much either. All in all, I think for what the bridge represents its cool to say you’ve crossed it. However, the excitement factor of the actual crossing is probably pretty low.

Magnetic Hill

After crossing the bridge we enter into New Brunswick and head towards Moncton. We don’t have much else planned for this travel day, except along the way I did want to visit Magnetic Hill. Magnetic Hill is a tourist attraction that has this “mythical” ability to “pull” your car “uphill”. It’s been something I’ve seen in my research and wanted to try it out myself. So after driving an hour or two, we head straight for the hill. Again, since it’s off season, there is pretty much nobody at the hill. In fact, most of the attractions around the hill are closed so its a little bit of a ghost town. This gives us the opportunity to try it (for free) and do it multiple times.

The idea is you drive to the “bottom” of the hill, put your car into neutral and take your foot off the brake.  The hills “magnetic properties” will then “pull” your car up the hill and back to where it started. The first time I did this, I actually thought something crazy was going on and was in a bit of disbelief. My logical mind was trying to analyze it. Eventually though, it started to come together. And after reading the signage everything made sense. I’m not going to ruin the illusion here, but if you’re into this, its worth a visit!

Moncton

After Magnetic Hill, we head straight for our Hotel. We check in and settle down a little. Our hotel is right by the water and so we end up walking along the boardwalk for a bit. Unfortunately, New Brunswick is going through a “circuit breaker” and thus most of the city has some restrictions in place to help combat COVID and is pretty quiet.

Since we don’t want to add to any COVID issues, we quickly find a place for dinner. Walking around town it gets a bit chilly so we again go back to our default of Asian comfort food in the form of Saigon Thai. We order a few dishes and chow down. While its not the best meal we’ve ever eaten, all three of us are surprised at how tasty each dish is. We really enjoyed the flavours and have nothing but good things to say about it. If you’re in a pinch for good Asian food, It’s not a bad spot to try!

After dinner, we stop off at a super market to pick up a few supplies for the next few days. We will be heading into the Bay of Fundy area and restaurants will be a bit scarce, so we want to have food on hand if we need it. Past that we walk back to our hotel and turn in for the night. Tomorrow we will drive along the coast of the Bay of Fundy.