PEI...Totally Enchanting!

I am smitten. Simply smitten. This island was so beautiful and peaceful and magical. We arrived at the end of June and the lupine were plentiful; although nearing the end of their season. The grass was lush and beyond GREEN (capital letters used for emphasis). Karl could not get over the amount and quality of the grass here. Most of the houses have big lawns that lead down to the road and you couldn't drive around without seeing someone out on their riding mower, regardless of the time of day. And that's because everyone has big crazy thick green lawns! The campgrounds had to mow the lawns on a daily basis - and they weren't doing it to look efficient, but for pure necessity! When driving down the roads of PEI during the first few days I was giggling at the beauty of the breathtaking contrast of the bright green grass, the beautiful red dirt of the just planted fields with their green accents of blooming produce (most of which were potatoes), the red dirt secondary roads, and sightings of the ocean, bays, inlets, ponds etc...Water is everywhere because...it's an island!

Prince Edward Island is one of the 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. One of the locals told us that there are more roads per capita here than any other province in Canada...but, unfortunately, no money to fix them! So that makes for some slow travel because you don't want to destroy your vehicle on the dirt roads. But the dirt roads add to the quality of the landscape because of the rich red color of the dirt. And the roads are level for the most part, so as long as you aren't speeding, it's actually ok in the vehicle safety department.

I made a brief reference to potatoes. Well may I add that potato fields are EVERYWHERE! And when I say everywhere I mean: in the fields along some of the campgrounds; the fields along the main roads; the fields along the little side roads; the fields that go as far as the eye can see...(you get my drift?!)... And when you're not seeing the amazingly straight and unending rows of potatoes, or the amazing lupine still in bloom - you're seeing magical fields of yellow flowers blowing in the wind that make you (well, ok...ME) want to pull your vehicle over to the side of the road and run gleefully through the fields with your arms stretched outward and your face raised up towards the sun! Initially, we were told by someone that the happy little yellow fields were canola fields, but upon further investigation we learned that they are mustard crops. Apparently they have found that the specially bred mustard (called caliente rojo), when mulched and plowed into their soil as a green manure can kill off crop threatening pests. Without getting too scientific here, I will also point out that they have added small amounts of arugula to those fields to attract nematodes to help in fighting the good-fight in making healthy soil to protect and nurture their crops. Given that PEI produces 25% of ALL of Canada's potato production...think about that folks - maybe even take out a map of Canada and check out the size of the little island of PEI when compared to ALL the other provinces and territories and then try to comprehend the fact that PEI grows 1/4 of all of Canada's potatoes!! So I am pretty damn impressed with their ingenuity and perseverance and dedication to their crops. AND it also makes more sense to me now that I had already heard of "PEI potatoes" before stepping foot on the island!

Oh, before I go any further I should probably tell you how we GOT to the island in the first place. Most people assume you have to take a ferry. Although that is usually an option, we got onto the island via the pretty damn impressive Confederation Bridge. The Confederation Bridge Is is an amazing 12.9 kilometer (aka 8 mile) long bridge that links PEI with the mainland province of New Brunswick. It opened in May of 1997 and is Canada's longest bridge and the world's longest bridge over ice covered waters. It takes about 12 minutes to cross over it and it doesn't feel at all like you're on a bridge - it feels like a small highway that happens to have water views on both sides!! It was pretty cool...

We spent 2 & 1/2 wks on the island, so luckily had the time to explore the beauty. I had never read the famous book Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery but made a point of doing so once we hit New Brunswick on our way to PEI - since it is where the story takes place. I am soooooo glad that I did! It was such a beautiful and fun story and it made driving around the island even more special. Not to mention how many "Anne of GG" based things that they have on the island. We went to the Green Gables Heritage Place which houses the museum as well as the house and grounds that the story is based upon. I had to keep telling myself when I was touring the house that this wasn't actually the kitchen or bedroom where Anne or Marilla or Matthew stayed...but simply the inspiration for and re-creation of the story. But it was magical nonetheless and a definite highlight and I truly felt like a kid in a candy store! Sadly, the widely renown "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical" was not playing this year, but "Anne & Gilbert The Musical" was, so we got ourselves tickets for a Thursday evening and thoroughly enjoyed the story based on the second and third books of the Anne of Green Gables series (i.e., Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island). I hadn't read those books so I loved learning more of their story. The show was fun and funny and touching and was a truly quality production!

Many days on the island were spent taking scenic drives. People have asked me how big the island is and I found that question very hard to answer. If you travel across the island in the most direct route (which we never did) "they" say you could do it in 3-4hrs. We instead took the scenic drives that they recommend to break up the island into 3 sections - the Points East Coastal Drive, The Central Coastal Drive, and The North Cape Coastal Drive. The East and North Coastal Drives each took us about 7hours each to do; stopping for lunch and seeing some of the many lighthouses or other sights along the way were included in that timeframe. So it's NOT as small as one would think.

One of the days we stopped at the "Bottle Houses & Gardens" which had been recommended to us by a friend back home. In 1980 Edouard Arsenault built a six-gabled house out of 12,000 glass bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors. He then followed up this feat by building a chapel and a tavern from glass bottles as well! These structures were quite ingenious and the grounds and gardens surrounding them were beautiful. We also took drives on both coasts to various lighthouses - some of which we climbed and some of which we just looked at and appreciated.

I also have to mention that we had some pretty yummy seafood in PEI, and we tried some of the local fare as well. One day on a scenic drive we stopped for lunch at a cute little place in Murray Harbour and Karl had some "fries with the works"; which in PEI-speak is fries covered with ground beef, fried onions, stuffing, peas, mozzarella cheese and brown gravy. Check our the pic below - it sounds sort of/kind of nasty but was actually very yummy. Oh, and I quite bravely tried "potato fudge". Yep, you read that correctly folks - fudge from a potato base...and aside from the texture being a little bit lacking, the flavor was actually good and it was not a sacrifice at all to eat the whole container of fudge! One night, at the persistent urging of one of our campground neighbors, we went to the Glasgow Lobster Suppers Restaurant. This was a dinner that included all-you-can-eat appetizers and desserts. The appetizers included soup, salad and (most importantly) fresh mussels! The muscles came in either a half bucket or a bucket; Karl and I of course opted to to share a full bucket of steamed mussels (again - check our the pic below for the size of the bucket!). And, let me tell you... they were the sweetest, most delicious mussels we've ever had. Oh, and did I mention they were all-you-can-eat? So, um, yep - we shared another full bucket before our entrees (a 1 lb lobster for me and broiled scallops for Karl) were served! When you add on the 2 pieces of lemon meringue pie to top off the evening - we TOTALLY understood why our buddy at the campground was being so forceful about us going here. It was a hoot - we were total gluttons, but #*&^ it was good!

Oh, and speaking of yummy things, one place that had a few different locations on PEI that saw many a return visit from the Helbergs was Cows Ice Cream. This was some of the most amazingly delicious ice cream I have ever encountered! The creamy-ness from the high butterfat content is, quite literally, beyond compare in all my years of ice cream eating! My two favorite mouthwatering flavors were Cownadian Maple: maple ice cream, with real maple swirl and maple cookie chunks. Oh, and the Gooey Mooey; burnt sugar ice cream (vanilla ice cream mixed with English toffee), English toffee marble, caramel cups and chocolate flakes. Yeah, I know you probably could care less about my choices, but I am documenting those ice cream perfections here so I can reflect on them for years to come!

One of the "difficult" things about PEI was being able to adhere to their recycling guidelines. Unlike some states in the USA where Karl and I feel like mass murders because we are unable to recycle even our seltzer cans or water bottles and, instead, have to dump everything into the trash - PEI was the complete opposite! Not only are they part of Canada, so there are different guidelines, but they are an island that has to pay big bucks for their trash removal so they take their recycling very seriously. A couple of the campgrounds gave us clear plastic trash bags to use during our stay and would fine you if you didn't' use them. They also had an in-depth recycling area where you have to pay attention to what went into which bin. I have included a pic of the signage from one of the KOA's which had 6 different trash cans to choose from and my brain literally hurt each day when I walked over to the trash to dispose of things. It's kind of humorous after the fact but during our stay I couldn't do my trash/recycling job without making whining noises (which sometimes included feet stamping) as my head imploded with my trash vs recycling decisions!

During our 2 & 1/2wks on the island we stayed at 4 different campgrounds and one Harvest Host. The staff were all really nice and helpful. One of the KOA's (which, by the way, are much nicer than the KOA's in the States) was located in Cavendish and had the sweetest gent who made our stay special. His name was "GG" (his grandkids gave him that nickname) and he had a hoot of a dog named Cooper who rode around with him on his golf cart. He always went out of his way to engage in interesting conversations with us and before we left he stopped by our trailer and gave us each a parting gift of a beautiful pen for me and mechanical pencil for Karl that he had made himself with a wooden lathe. Not that we needed anything to remember him by - but it sure is a special keepsake! And damn, it sure is a special island!

(Editor's Note: I was actually able to put the pictures for this post in pretty much the order of which I discussed them...I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labour because I can't promise that THAT technological miracle will happen again in the near future!)