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