After driving across Canada in celebration of our country's 150th birthday, it was very exciting to finally arrive in Prince Edward Island where the Canadian Confederation was born in 1867. While PEI was part of the discussions that led to the Canadian Confederation it did not in fact join at this time. PEI and all it has to offer did not become part of Canada until 1873. It was great for the kids to sit in the room where it all began and pretend to discuss agriculture, trade routes and the future path of the railways. An integral part of our journey, Prince Edward Island did not disappoint.
We arrived on the ferry from Nova Scotia and were greeted by a beautiful lighthouse and red sandy beaches. Soon everything we owned would take on that reddish sand glow. Our first camping site was in Nothumberland Provincial Park, a short hop from the ferry terminal at the far SE corner of the province . The beach was fantastic and warm and a beach day was in order. Fresh fish and lobster were on the menu for the next five nights!
Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest province by area and population, it took us only 2.5 hours to drive to the far NW coast for 3 glorious days at Jaques Cartier Provincial Park. Our campsite was right on the beach and it felt like we had the entire place all to ourselves. It was a wonderful way to experience the beauty, wonder and true culture of PEI, far from the tourist buses of Charlottetown and Anne of Green Gables. Even Midas got to run free along the beach and jump through the waves with the kids.
Of course we did have to visit the inspirational spot for Anne of Green Gables. After listening to the audio book in the car and watching the movie, we fell in love with Anne and had to see for ourselves where it all began. To be honest, I was disappointed in the venue and was even more so when I found out the movie was actually filmed in ONTARIO! After fighting the tour buses to get out of the parking lot, we quickly crossed that tourist spot of our list and chose to remember Green Gables as we had imagined it .
With windblown hair and sun tanned faces we said goodbye to PEI and our new favourite campsite. An hour later as we approached the Confederation bridge Riley piped up, "I think we forgot our Canada 150 flag!". A mistake that cost us 2 hours round trip but on the bright side it allowed us to see our favourite spot one last time...
