The Food of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia

I saved the tastiest post about our vacation to the Canadian Maritimes for last: the food of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

As we do on every trip, Paul and I tried to make a special effort to sample the local cuisine. On this vacation, that meant lots of seafood, although I ate a fair number of hamburgers and french fries, as well. But even that wasn't totally out of line: in addition to its mussels and lobster, Prince Edward Island is known for its potato crops and beef.

One of the most memorable meals was at a lobster supper in Prince Edward Island. Lobster suppers seem to be fairly common -- I saw plenty of brochures for them, even though their roots seem humble. They're often fundraisers for a church, and the one we went to was in a church basement.

Paul ordered the traditional lobster supper, which included a salad, seafood chowder, mussels, a lobster with a side of vegetables and a dessert. I got all of the above minus the lobster and vegetables, opting to pick at Paul's instead. There was so much food, he didn't even mind.

Even though I live above a restaurant specializing in mussels, this is the first time I can ever remember trying them. Now I understand why the aforementioned restaurant is so popular.

Paul's first whole lobster

My first mussels

I have to admit, some of the best meals we had were the breakfasts served at our Prince Edward Island bed and breakfast, The Graham Inn. Breakfast started with either coffee or tea and some kind of baked good. I'm still dreaming about the cinnamon rolls.

It was followed by a fruit and yogurt parfait topped with granola, and then the main dish -- it was different each morning. One morning, for example, we had stuffed french toast, while the next morning a delectable breakfast BLT with Canadian bacon and melted cheddar cheese, with potatoes and fruit on the side. We always left for our day's outings pleasantly full.

Cows Ice Cream is based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. We each got a cone when we were there, but I'm guessing it's popular all over the Maritimes -- there were long lines at the shop we passed in Halifax, too.

Back in Nova Scotia, we had one of our simplest and most satisfying meals in Peggy's Cove: cornish pasties, a puff pastry filled with different ingredients. Paul opted for the traditional, with steak, carrots and turnips. I was happier with my bacon and cheddar. They were hot, flaky, delicious and filling.

Besides plenty of ice cream, I didn't try too many desserts. One exception was in a cafe in Chester, Nova Scotia, during our road trip along the South Shore. I tried a Breton -- a round, shortbread-type cookie with a thumbprint of raspberry jam. We were already seemingly surrounded by the French language; we not try a French dessert?

And, of course, we couldn't go to Canada without ordering some poutine, so in Halifax we ate one lunch at a chain poutinerie. Paul's eyes were big, so he got a large Montreal-style (fries topped with corned beef, mustard, gravy and cheese curds, with a pickle), and I got a small traditional order with gravy and curds. I'm normally a fan, but not this time. Luckily, the restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel, so mine went into our fridge, and Paul downed it as a midnight snack.

Last but not least: Prince Edward Island's version of the Buckeye. I almost wish I would have tried one.

Here & There in PEI: Charlottetown, Greenwich, East Point

Charlottetown

Prince Edward Island is small -- in fact, it's the smallest Canadian province at just about 140 miles long and anywhere between 4 and 40 miles wide. Fewer than 150,000 people call it home. And it's a true island: the only ways to get there via the mainland are by ferry or an 8-mile bridge. (We chose the latter.)

Its size makes Prince Edward Island easy to get around. The roads are well-marked, and with a good map in hand, we were able to put away the GPS the entire three days we were there. And we saw a good bit of the central and eastern parts of the island, as well.

Charlottetown

On our first full day in PEI, we went to Charlottetown. We had tickets to see the "Anne of Green Gables" musical that night, but I also wanted to walk around the town that was *the* big city in the "Anne" books. It's still PEI's biggest city, with 64,000 people.

The city attracts cruise ships and seemingly plenty of tourists (for PEI, that is). There wasn't much to do, and only a little more to see, but the visit made for a pleasant afternoon. We browsed the shops along Peake's Wharf at the waterfront and marina and finally ordered cones from one of the island's well-regarded Cows ice cream shops and meandered along Confederation Landing.

Of course, we visited the Anne of Green Gables shop and the short pedestrian-only block of Richmond Street called Victoria Row. We also walked to the edge of Victoria Park and sat on a waterfront bench before heading back to the center of the city for supper and the show.

Sign at Victoria Row

View from edge of Victoria Park

Greenwich

Paul wanted to walk some trails while we were at Prince Edward Island, and our bed and breakfast had an immediate suggestion: visit Greenwich Provincial Park.

The 90-minute Greenwich Dunes trail takes you over a floating boardwalk and sand dunes to a  beach with only a handful of others who had made the hike. No one was swimming, but it was quiet and peaceful. And Paul got to show off his stone-skipping skills once more.

The floating boardwalk

East Point

From Greenwich, we drove to East Point, the northeastern-most tip of the island. We ate lunch at the small cafe there, but mostly we just took in the views. It felt like we were at the end of the world.

Prince Edward Island Beaches

At Basin Head Beach

Our visits to a few of the beaches of Prince Edward Island were hit-or-miss.

Almost the first thing we did on our first full day on the island was visit Dalvay by the Sea (known as the White Sands Hotel in the "Anne of Green Gables" movie, and for Prince William and Kate's stay there after their marriage).

Dalvay by the Sea

At Dalvay by the Sea

We drove through part of Prince Edward Island National Park on the way there and parked our car to walk along a couple of beaches. Truth be told, however, I was pretty miserable. It was cold and extremely windy, and I had a slight earache by the time we returned to our vehicle. Luckily no other beaches were on our itinerary the rest of the day; we had only to try our luck during the remainder of the vacation.

And luck was on our side. The next day, after visiting the "Anne" sites, we stopped to get our feet wet at Cavendish Beach. It was a much better day for flitting about the sand. The sun was warm -- hot even - and wading in the cool, salty water felt nice. Paul enjoyed skipping stones -- there were plenty of flat ones about, and the multitude of waves made the actual skipping nearly inevitable.

Paul at Cavendish Beach

Cavendish Beach

The next and last day on Prince Edward Island was our true beach day. We made a couple of stops that day in Greenwich and East Point (more about those places in a future post), but our major destination was Basin Head Beach, also known as Singing Sands. However, the sand doesn't so much sing as squeak when you walk on it just right.

We stayed about two-and-a-half hours. Although I had my swimsuit on, I'm not sure much above my knees got wet. Although currents supposedly make Prince Edward Island beaches the warmest north of the Carolinas, it still felt pretty cold to me. Paul did take a dip or two, but I made myself comfy in the sand with a paperback.

With our visit to Basin Head, we ended up saving the best and most scenic of the beaches we visited for last:

Beach vacations aren't really my cup of tea. I don't like cold water, and I'm not a big fan of heat or getting tan (even at Basin Head I enjoyed myself more when we set up camp in a shady spot). I must admit, however, that our last day at the beach made for a relaxing end of the vacation. And there's nothing like an endless expanse of water before you to remind you of how small you really are.

Living "Anne of Green Gables" in Prince Edward Island

Visiting Prince Edward Island has been a dream of mine since I first read the "Anne of Green Gables" books some 20 years ago.

Maybe "dream" is too strong of a word. I've long known it was possible -- after all, it's only a two hour flight away; it's not like going to the moon. In any case, it's always been in the back of my mind as one of those trips I'd take someday when the time was right.

And this year was the time when we needed a peaceful, scenic destination instead of one that was a headache to plan and resulted in miles of walking. Don't get me wrong. I love those two-week trips that take me hours to plan. But that just wasn't happening this year.

And so Anne country it was.

If you're not familiar with "Anne of Green Gables," it's the story of a red-headed orphan girl who was sent to live with a spinster woman and her bachelor brother after they had originally sent away for a boy to help with the farm. They decide to keep her, and she promptly wins a place in their hearts (aww!) and in those of the members of the small, fictional community of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island.

Author L.M. Montgomery based Avonlea on settings in and around Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, where she grew up. "Green Gables" proved to be popular in the U.S. and abroad, and it was followed by seven sequels. The third in the series, "Anne of the Island" remains one of my favorite books to this day.

Prince Edward Island is a popular vacation destination, and I'd be interested to know if the beaches or the Anne spots are more of an attraction. We didn't visit all of the Anne locales (a re-creation of Avonlea, for example, just seemed like an expensive version of any of your re-created old-timey towns or, to my fellow northwest Ohioans, Sauder Village), but we went to quite a few.

First on the list was Green Gables itself. Yes, it was fictional, but the home was based on a relative's house that is now open to the public. It is furnished inside as it was described in the books, with three special bedrooms set aside and decorated as they would have been for Anne, as well as the siblings who adopted her, Marilla Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert.

"Anne's room"

Green Gables Heritage Site

The grounds included walks that inspired the book's Lovers Lane and the Haunted Wood -- both shady and pleasant. The latter led to what is left of the L.M. Montgomery home, where she spent most of her life with her grandparents. Not much is left -- literally just a foundation, with a small bookstore a short walk away.

Green Gables had a tiny cafe, where we finally tried a bottle of Raspberry Cordial, sold pretty much anywhere on PEI where tourists gather. If you don't know what Raspberry Cordial has to do with Anne, then I demand that you read the book!

We also drove to the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush. We didn't actually go into the museum, but we did see the pond that supposedly inspired the Lake of Shining Waters.

Lake of Shining Waters

The night before our day of Anne, we went to the popular "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical." It was cute, it was fun, but it wasn't the book. Why the needless changes, such as setting the musical some three decades after the book actually takes place? But it obviously wasn't meant to be a historical piece (hah!), and it was rather endearing.

All in all, I'm glad Anne lured me to Prince Edward Island, but not for the reasons I anticipated. I enjoyed the beaches, the scenery, the food of Atlantic Canada (more on that in the future), but I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in the Anne sites.

This is completely and utterly my own fault, and I even suspected that it would be the case. When you read a book, of course you create certain images in your mind, and those can't be lived up to. That's especially true when it comes to a book set in the latter half of the 1800s. As I told Paul when we were driving to the island's biggest city, Charlottetown, it's difficult to reconcile the Anne in my head as visiting any town that now has a KFC.

When Paul responded by saying that Anne would probably have brought Matthew Cuthbert home a bucket of chicken, I kind of wanted to cry.

A Day Trip to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg

One of my favorite days of our entire vacation to Halifax and Prince Edward Island was the one we spent driving the Lighthouse Route of Nova Scotia, along the South Shore from Halifax to Lunenburg.

This drive takes about 3 or 4 hours following the scenic coastline, and maybe twice as long if you want to stop at a few of the little villages or viewpoints. The drive via highway from Lunenburg back to Halifax was about an hour. All in all, it was a full-day trip: we were gone about 9 hours.

The first (and in my view, the best) stop was 40 minutes from Halifax, at Peggy's Cove. It's a popular destination for buses and tourists, but there were only a few dozen people on the rocks around the lighthouse when we got there. By the time we left, however, the parking lot was full.

The lighthouse with the waves crashing white against the rocky shore made for lovely views, accentuated by the blue sky and even bluer water.

Peggy's Cove from a scenic viewpoint -- the lighthouse is directly above the rock sculpture.

Besides the stop at Peggy's Cove, most of the day was spent in the car. But we did stop at:

• a small beach so Paul could get his feet wet
• the village of Chester for a short walk and snack
• the tiny town of Mahone Bay to sit in a gazebo and take in the waterfront views
• Lunenburg, where we ended the trip with ice cream cones, a walk along the water and a quick visit into a quaint store or two

Paul jokes that all fishing villages are interchangeable -- brightly colored buildings against a shore. That was true here too, but it didn't make the views any less picturesque.

It was a long day, but pleasant. Especially since Paul was the one driving and maneuvering through the up-and-down roadway curves instead of me.

Lunenburg

Lunenburg

Halifax Odds & Ends

One of the most well-known sites in Halifax -- and the one that may be hardest to miss -- is the Citadel. It sits high above the city, and it's a steep trip down from the Citadel to the waterfront. That, of course, makes for some pretty good city views.

But it's also just an interesting place to visit. The Citadel is a star-shaped fortress that was constructed from 1828 to 1856. We meandered along the upper ramparts and opted for a free 45-minute tour that took us into some of the nooks and crannies -- all of which visitors are able to explore by themselves, but which would be pretty easy to miss without someone who knows where they're going.

Another site you'll find in the Halifax tour books is the City Hall. We didn't go in, but the clocks are what to look for anyway. One of them is set for the exact time of the 1917 Halifax Explosion in the harbour that injured some 9,000 people and ravaged much of the city.

One of the prettiest parts of the city is the Halifax Public Gardens. It's fairly small -- you could easily see the entire park in an hour or so -- but there are beautiful flowers, a lovely pond and lots of well-placed benches. Plus there's a summer Sunday concert series in the gazebo, which we were able to enjoy.

Halifax doesn't have an Eiffel Tower or Brandenburg Gate -- no must-see, world-renowned attraction that's on every to-see list. Instead, it has a handful of excellent ways to wile away an afternoon, and that's just what we wanted on this vacation.