Road Trip, Day 18: Another ferry, another province, and a change in plans

DAY 18: AT A GLANCE
Starting Point: Pictou, Nova Scotia
End Point: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Starting mileage: 190, 561
Ending mileage: 190,616
Daily total (miles): 55
Trip total (miles): 2324

As our trip winds down (ugh. don’t get me started), we’re spending two nights in Prince Edward Island, the island that made us fall in love with the Maritimes in the first place when we visited last summer. This time around, we knew we had to include PEI on this year’s trip, even if for only a few days.

Our initial plan was to camp the first night at Stanhope, one of the PEI National Park campgrounds and then stay in a grand old hotel, Dalvay By The Sea, the second night. Well, the weather was back to being drizzly and cold with rain forecasted throughout the night, so we bagged the first night’s plan to camp. Instead, G used his Marriott points to book a room in Charlottetown at Delta Hotels Prince Edward Island. The room was quite nice and convenient to downtown (though everything in Charlottetown is super convenient, given how compact the town is).

I’m not going to lie: I was bummed that we changed our plans regarding camping. Super bummed. I thought it would be so cool to have camped in each of the three province’s national parks. G, I knew, was leaning toward a hotel. Practically and pragmatically speaking, I knew he was right—it’s just not as fun to camp when it’s cold and rainy. And why sit in the van when we could sit in a warm hotel? But still, I was bummed, and, in the spirit of transparency, I was a bit of a baby about it (sorry, G!).

To start our journey from Nova Scotia to PEI, we boarded the ferry in Caribou, Nova Scotia, just minutes from where we stayed the night at Pictou Lodge in Pictou, NS. Vehicle ferries are so cool; it’s amazing how they’re able to create such an efficient process of loading and unloading vehicles and passengers. We had booked our one-way reservation in advance ($79CAD total for the two of us and the van), as we’ll be returning via The Confederation Bridge.

Once we arrived in PEI, our first stop was to Point Prim Lighthouse, one of the lights I didn’t get around to visiting last summer. Point Prim is the first and oldest (1845) lighthouse on PEI and one of only a few round brick lighthouses in Canada; I hadn’t thought much about that last point at first glance, but now that I think about it, most of the lighthouses we’ve visited in the Maritimes are white, wooden ones, while white, brick lighthouses are common in New England. Interesting! The lighthouse was open and for $5CADpp, G and I were able to climb to the top. Prior to the keeper’s house being built, the keeper lived on the third “floor” of the light—pretty tight quarters!

Following our visit to the lighthouse, we visited the Point Prim Chowder House for a light lunch of seafood chowder (G) and clam and bacon chowder (T). So good—and DEFINITELY worth the stop.

Then, we were off to Charlottetown, which is PEI’s largest city and its capital. Charlottetown is super cute and reminds me a lot of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with its boutique shops and many restaurants. We checked into the hotel, and I promptly took a nap. I’m not sure if it was my mood (still cranky about not camping) or the Dramamine, but I was exhausted and cold, and a mid-afternoon nap was the perfect cure for both. After I woke up, we decided to walk around the town a bit, bopping in and out of shops , enjoying a coffee at Receiver Coffee, and then grabbing a bite to eat. I wasn’t really hungry; all I really wanted were some PEI fries, which I got at Taters, a fry shack on the waterfront. G ordered a lobster roll from Dave’s Lobster, another one of the little food shacks on the wharf. After dinner, we had to make a stop at COWS, quite possibly the best ice cream in the world (*note: G believes it IS the best ice cream in the world)! G ordered a hot fudge sundae (seriously, I don’t know he does it), and I had a small scoop of the strawberry sorbet, as it’s dairy free.

Charlottetown wasn’t originally on the itinerary, but our change in plans made for a great excuse to return to the city that we enjoyed so much last summer. The afternoon/evening hours we spent there, however, weren’t long enough to enjoy all that the city has to offer. Unfortunately, Anne of Green Gables: The Musical wasn’t playing the night we were in town, and I so regret not seeing it last summer. Oh well…I’ll be adding that to the “next time” list, which keeps on growing!