Prince Edward Island - the home of Anne of Green Gables

We travelled a very round about way from Moncton to Halifax via P.E.I. Yes, not exactly the most direct route, but we probably won't be back here in a very long time, if ever, and this was our chance to drive over the Confederation Bridge, which connects P.E.I to mainland New Brunswick. This 13km bridge costing $1.3 billion to construct and most of the span sits 40 metres above the Northumberland Strait. There is a section that sits 60 metres above the strait to allow for sea traffic to pass. The bridge is a two lane bridge and currently costs $46.50 to cross, but you only get charged when you leave P.E.I. So we originally decided we'd drive over the bridge and turn around and come back over again and make our way to Halifax so we could say we'd driven over the bridge and been to P.E.I. I secretly though had wanted to drive across the island to Cavendish to visit Green Gables and the inspiration behind Anne of Green Gables. Z didn't know much about the books/series so there was not a lot of interest on his part, so I left the idea alone before we got here. Once we were here and planning our day trip, I brought up the idea again and convinced Z that it would be a quick side trip. Little did we know we'd end up spending most of the day on the island. 

You can't stop on the bridge so we weren't entirely sure how we'd get any pictures of it. Thankfully right before the bridge is a rest stop area where you can park and get some awesome photos of the bridge. During this time of the year, you have to take your photos very quickly thigh because e bugs are off in full force to eat you. I got bit twice. At the rest stop is a gift shop as well where you can find all sorts of souvenirs and snack items. Here we found Covered Bridge potatoe chips, something we'd been looking for the entire time we were inNew Brunswick. These are locally made potato chips made of the finest local potatoes. The BBQ flavoured chips are very tasty!! 

Driving across the bridge was a cool experience. While reading the website to determine the toll cost, I saw that there are some other charges that you probably want to avoid, such as the apprehensive driver cost of $40. We didn't have to worry about that, but I wonder how they determine whether that fine applies and how it is charged. The posted speed limit is 80km per hour, however may be reduced  if it's extremely windy. 

As we entered P.E.I and made our way across the island to the other side, we drove through some of the most scenic rural countryside in Eastern Canada. The landscape was filled with rolling green pastures and lush farmlands and was just so calming and peaceful. Farming, fishing and tourism would be its main economic drivers. With a population of 142,900, P.E.I is the smallest province both in population and in size. 

We started off at what I thought was the Green Gables site, but turned out to be a museum of the childhood home of Lucy Maud Montgomery and where she wrote the internationally-renowned Anne of Green Gables. It was quite interesting walking around the house where she grew up and eventually also married. Seeing the sheer beauty of the island it's no wonder Ms. Montgomery was inspired to write her most famous book and other literary works. After we figured out this wasn't the home that was the inspired setting for the book, we managed to get the address of where I had originally wanted to go and set off for Green Gables Heritage Place. This site is run by Parks Canada and with it being Canada's 150 birthday, with our Parks Canada pass access here was free. Going here added extra time to our day and is part of the reason we ended up on P.E.I for the day. For me it was worth the side trip here as we got to see the house set up and filled with memoriablia from the TV movie series. It brought back childhood memories of watching the series and also introduced Z to Anne of Green Gables. But the time we were done here we were both pretty hungry and our plan was to drive to Charlottetown, a roughly half hour drive. 

As we got into Charlottetown's downtown core, we noticed that there was a tall ship festival going on which meant there was a lot more vehicle traffic than we had anticipated. After driving around for a bit, we finally scored some pretty sweet free street parking and we were off to fill out ur very hungry tummies. We researched where to eat and found a place called Water Prince Corner Shop. The name at first glance seems unusual for a restaurant, but when you get there and see what the street names are at that intersection it all makes a lot of sense. The place was packed with a line up out the door when we first drove by, but by the time we parked and walked over, it had cleared up enough for us to get a table right away. The service was efficient and very friendly; the food was amazing. Z ordered a whole lobster and while I don't like seafood, I said I would try some lobster here if there was a lot of butter. Well there was a lot of butter and so I stayed true to my word and tried a lot of butter with a small piece of lobster and thankfully it tasted like butter! My actual lunch was a very tasty chicken burger. 

After our late lunch we walked around the waterfront for a bit, but didn't have much time because we still had a 4+ hour drive to Halifax and it was getting late in the afternoon. Wish we could had had more time here, but at least we can say we've been to Charlottetown, where it all started, the birthplace of Canada.