The Gentle Island (lots of pics)

We spent last week on Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest province.  It's a beautiful, beautiful place and I wanted to share some of it with you.

We flew into Halifax and drove up through Nova Scotia and across a small piece of New Brunswick to the Confederation Bridge, which is about 8 miles long and is PEI's only physical connection to the mainland.  On the New Brunswick side (I caught the sign in French mode):

And looking back from PEI:

PEI is a small island, so we decided to stay in Charlottetown, the provincial capital, and make daily excursions for sightseeing.  It was off-season, so a good many places were closed, including a lot of the restaurants and shops.  We didn't have to deal with crowds of (other) tourists, but I would like to go back in the summer when more is open and some of the warm-weather events are going on. 

We chose to stay at a bed & breakfast and our home for the week was The Dawson House.  If you ever go to Charlottetown and want a fantastic B&B, The Dawson House is for you.  Stacey and Randy are friendly, gracious hosts and the B&B is wonderful.  The room was immaculate and beautifully furnished, there was a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and the attention to detail was perfect, from the fluffy bath mat to the box of real tissues on the dressing table.

And the food.  Oh my goodness, the food!  Good smells floated upstairs every morning -- fresh-baked croissants, banana bread, pancakes, just yummy!  There was fresh fruit and yogurt and cereal if we wanted it, all served in this beautiful Victorian dining room (that's Randy, one of our hosts):

I highly recommend The Dawson House; we'd stay there again without a second thought!

PEI has over 50 lighthouses.  We went to a few of them; although most of them were closed, we were still able to get out and take some pictures.

Point Prim, PEI's only round lighthouse:

Cape Bear:

East Point:

I loved the sign at East Point light:

West Point; it's an operating light with an inn attached behind it:

PEI's big crop is potatoes.  The soil is red and sandy and is great for potatoes.  The only thing I wanted a picture of that I didn't get was a potato truck filled with 'taters.  There are also a number of wind farms on the island.  This picture combines the two, a wind farm in a potato field!

We explored Charlottetown and had some wonderful dinners in some of the local pubs.  It's a very walkable city and we were fortunate that the weather was (mostly) good.  It was beautiful on our last day.  This is the war memorial at Province House:

In 1864, representatives from the provinces met in Charlottetown and there they decided to form Canada.  John A. MacDonald was one of the "Fathers of Confederation" and became Canada's first prime minister.  I tried to chat with him, but he wasn't very talkative.

Leaving PEI, going back across the Confederation Bridge.  Coming to the island is free but leaving there is a toll on the bridge -- an astonishing $43.25 CAD (no, that's not a typo, it's forty-three dollars and 25 cents).

We loved PEI.  It's a beautiful, friendly place where the pace of life is slower than what we're used to.  I definitely want to go back someday.