Experience PEI

Must-have experiences:

Studio at 6 -- visit Elizabeth Driscoll's creative studio. She paints, she designs, she sews, she created a dragon named Desdemona, just because she wanted to. Call ahead to visit her studio. You can only hope that she invites you into the house to see all of her creations in there.

Elizabeth and "Desdemona", May 7, 2016
 


 Cows ice cream -- You must try the ice cream and check out all the parody tshirts. You can even take a tour through the facility in North River where they print the tshirts and make ice cream and cheese. At Cows locations you can also buy Raspberry Cordial, the best and sweetest red drink ever! Some locations also sell Anne of Green Gables chocolates. Try some chocolate-covered potato chips; they're actually REALLY good!

Locations: Charlottetown, North River, Cavendish, Gateway Village (Borden-Carleton)
http://www.cows.ca/



Beaches -- ask around, everyone has their favourites. Some love to people-watch at busy National Park beaches, such as Cavendish and Brackley on the North Shore. Others love to walk in the bath-water-warm tide pools when the tide is out on the red sand beaches of the South Shore, (which can be rocky). Still others prefer quieter and less-frequented North Shore locales, such as Tracadie and Blooming Point, where there are no facilities, but the beaches are beautiful and seem to go on forever. The National Park and most Provincial Park beaches do have washroom and change room facilities, and some have canteens. There is a fee to access the National Park beaches, but Provincial Park beaches are free. Some beaches have surfguards on duty, but beaches that are not part of the National or Provincial systems, definitely do not have surfguards. Greenwich is a National Park beach not to be missed. It has an extensive dune system with a long boardwalk through it (you're not allowed on the sand dunes!!), wide sandy beach, hiking trails, and an interpretive centre. PLEASE carefully read signs about riptides. Every year visitors and some Islanders get into trouble with these at certain beaches. The secret is not to panic and to swim parallel to the shore until you're out of the strong current that is pulling you away from the shore. At some North Shore beaches you'll also need to respect the nesting areas of an endangered shore bird, the piping plover, and keep away from these designated areas.
Anything Anne -- Anne of Green Gables is undeniably a huge draw for Prince Edward Island, so she has to be included on this list. Please do something Anne-related so you can say you did and allow yourselves to be baptized into Island culture. There is:

Make it your goal to do one Anne thing during your visit!!


Confederation Bridge -- completed in 1997 and officially opened on May 31st of that year with a walk-the-bridge event which drew tens of thousands of people, the Bridge is considered to be an engineering marvel connecting Prince Edward Island to the mainland at New Brunswick. It is 12.9 km (8 miles) long and is the "longest [bridge] in the world crossing ice-covered water" (Confederation Bridge website). There is a Hogan connection to the Bridge in that, Tom Driscoll, M. P. Hogan's great-great grandson worked on it. Find Tom's name on a brick in a commemorative display area in Gateway Village, below part of a section of a span like the ones used in the Bridge. Passage over the Bridge is only allowed in or on motorized vehicles and for a fee (the fee is only charged when you're leaving the Island). A shuttle service is provided for anyone who wishes to cross the Bridge without a vehicle. Walkers, runners, and cyclists may only cross during special events that are held on occasion, during which time the Bridge is temporarily closed to traffic or reduced to one-lane. Stopping on the Bridge is prohibited.You can get some nice photos of the Bridge from Chelton Provincial Park, a South Shore day-use park.

Confederation Bridge from Marine Heritage Park, Borden-Carleton PEI
Part of a span from the Confederation Bridge project. Tom's brick is among those encircling the span.



The Arts -- Visual Arts and Entertainment -- There is so much to do on PEI in the summer, you'll have trouble fitting everything in. As soon as you arrive, find a copy of The Buzz or check it out online to plan your immersion into PEI culture. There are plays in Charlottetown, Georgetown, North Rustico, Victoria-by-the-Sea, and Summerside. There are ceilidhs (pronounced KAY-lees), which are high-energy musical concerts featuring traditional music with fiddles, guitars, accordions, keyboard, percussion and other assorted instruments and singers (consider checking out the concerts at the Stanley Bridge Hall, particularly the Ross Family ceilidhs on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Richard Wood and friends on Saturday evenings). There are classical music concerts as well. The concerts at the Indian River Festival are particularly popular. You'll find people playing jazz music and country music at venues throughout Charlottetown and across the Island. There's Island humour with storytellers, comedians (check out Island Summer Review 4 at Harmony House in Hunter River), and those poking fun at our Island icon, Anne of Green Gables (Annekenstein and Friends). Art studios and craft shops can be found in almost every community. One that is frequented by visitors and Islanders alike is The Dunes in Brackley. In Charlottetown, check out Details, Past and Present and the Lorimer Gallery. All three of these galleries carry the works of local artists as well as artisans "from away".

Drives through the countryside and along the shore -- take any opportunity you get to take the long way to go anywhere, especially if the route takes you out into the countryside. Be sure to take along your camera. Just like you're never far from water on our Island, you are also never far from the rural landscape. You'll find rolling hills, grazing cattle, potato fields and bright yellow canola fields. Look at our colourful soil. Yes, it is red all over the Island! The cliffs along the shoreline make beautiful photos themselves or provide interesting backdrops for photos. Try to catch a sunset or two at a beach -- you'll see some gorgeous colours out over the water. Travelling along the shore, you'll find picturesque fishing villages, harbours, and wharves, beaches, and lighthouses. Even abandoned, tumbled-down houses and barns can make for interesting photos. In your travels, please respect private property and no trespassing signs.


2016 Photo -- have your photo taken with our big red 2016 now on the wharf at the foot of Queen Street in Charlottetown. The original number was 2014, commissioned as part of the 150th anniversary of the meeting of the Fathers of Confederation in Charlottetown and erected in front of Founders' Hall near the corner of Water and Prince Streets (just down the street from M. P.'s house). The numbers were expensive (1864 is beside Province House) and the cost caused a bit of a stir. However, they have proven to be very popular for photographs (they have featured in wedding and graduation photos) and for climbing on. This year, they moved to their new location on the waterfront. Be sure to have your photo taken with the numbers...you won't forget which year you visited PEI! 




Paderno Sale -- PEI has its own brand of stainless steel cookware made right here on the Island. In fact, Paderno is the only cookware manufacturer in Canada. It is of very fine quality and they report that their pots and pans are in the kitchen at the Prime Minister's residence and on US Air Force One. How 'bout that! Every summer Paderno has a Blowout Sale featuring their cookware at substantially reduced  prices and a whole rink full of cutlery, dishes, bowls, bakeware, gadgets, and small appliances. Even if you think there's nothing else you need for your kitchen, go to the sale,  you may be convinced otherwise. It's just fun to look around, so do check it out. You'll find it at Simmons Arena, 170 North River Road in Charlottetown.

Golf -- If golf is your thing, you've come to the right place. Despite its small size, PEI has at least 16 golf courses, maybe more! Most are 18-hole courses, some are 9, and one (Clyde River) is apparently a 27-hole course. Some are privately owned; many are run by the Province. Green fee prices range from $21 - $24 for 9-hole courses and $35 - $100 for the 18-hole ones. Clyde River's 27-hole course is only $35 (not sure if that's for all 27 holes or just some of them!). The courses are spread out across the Island, so you may need to plan a little travel time into your schedule. However, most would be no more than 30 - 60 minutes from Charlottetown. Two high-end and challenging courses are The Links at Crowbush and Dundarave. If you'd like to have cows for spectators, head to Glen Afton.
Glen Afton Golf Course, Nine Mile Creek

Coffee -- You can't go far on PEI without running into a Tim Hortons coffee shop. They're everywhere! Some people love Tim's coffee, some people's taste buds have other preferences. If Starbucks coffee is more to your liking, there are two Starbucks locations in Charlottetown. If you'd like to try some independent coffee houses, we have those too. There's The Kettle Black on Queen Street, Beanz, and Timothy's, both located on Elm Avenue (formerly, University Avenue), and Michael Coyle's favourite, Receiver Coffee Company, on Victoria Row on Richmond Street. Michael says their coffee is the best on the Island! All of these coffee shops have food items as well. Beanz has very tasty soup and sandwich combos and irresistible desserts.


Lobster Suppers and Potatoes (and Butterflies too!) -- believe it or not, not all Islanders enjoy seafood, including lobster, and some of us are not that wild about potatoes either! However, lobster and potatoes are important to our economy, almost as important as Anne. Just kidding! Agriculture and the fishery are the top two industries on the Island. Lobster suppers are popular with tourists and locals alike in the summer. Two popular lobster supper restaurants are North Rustico's Fishermans' Wharf Lobster Suppers and New Glasgow Lobster Suppers, PEI's first lobster supper restaurant which opened in 1958. Seafood in some form can be had at pretty well every restaurant, potatoes too, of course. Head to the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company in New Glasgow and try their "Preserve Company Potato Pie," it's not a dessert, but a meal, and even if you aren't wild about potatoes, bet you'll love this! The Preserve Company also has lots of gluten-free and lactose-free items on their menu. Visit the Butterfly House while you're there. It's very peaceful, almost magical to be with the butterflies.

 
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)