JULY 7&8 Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island ( PEI) is the smallest province in Canada. It measures just 139 miles long and between 4 and 40 miles wide. Unlike the landscape of the past several days PEI is quite flat. There are hills and valleys but nothing as dramatic as NS and NB. MUSSEL SOCKS

PEI in summer is like Florida in winter in that every 3rd or 4th vehicle is from somewhere else and the people who live here wants your $$$. PEI is about tourism, potatoes and mussels.

We stayed at a nice canpground in Cavendish, home of Anne of Green Gables, the area is one big tourist trap, overhyped and overpriced. Tee shirts in the stores here were $24.95 and the the cities the same shirt was selling for $10.We did enjoy $5 ice cream cone. (ouch).

First day we toured the east side of the island, going along the north shore which is on Norththumberland strait, there are many pretty rivers and bays along the way. We stopped at one to take a picture and left the key in the Roadtrek and locked the door. That gave us a extended stay at that spot however we did get to meet all those who stop for the view as well and also we got some benefit from our CAA membership. In that bay we saw hunrdeds of small bouys in the water and learned that they marked mussel socks. The small mussels are picked off the rocks at low tide and put into long cloth bags called socks about two inches in diameter and hung in the bay for two years while they grow and mature before they are harvested for food. Apparently they taste better than the wild ones.

After we were rescued by a very nice CAA door opener guy we went to a provincial park that had sand dunes. We walked about 5 kms to the dunes and the water and back and except for a sunburn and sore feet for Diane it was a interesting walk.

We crossed the province to a nice beach on the ocean to go for a swim, a lot of people were in the water but it was too cool for us old folks. We drove back to our campsite along the south shore and stopped for some great fish and chips along the way.

On Thursday we headed to the west side of the island, this is more of a farming area with potato field, potato sorting and potato storage everywhere. We visited a potato museum and learned the history of potatoes and found the museum very interesting. The town of Summerside has a very nice boardwalk along the waterfront with lots of shops and things to do including a history of the area.

We left PEI by way of the 13km (8mi) long confederation bridge and spent the night in Truro NS.