Epilogue

It has been a fantastic vacation spending time with family. Here are a few snippets that did not get put through into the blog.  

Ever since we decided to go on this family vacation, we have been talking about playing board games, particularly Risk. We played Risk during our first cottage experience long time ago and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and possibilities. However, we still have not been able to recreate that magic moment. Once again this time, because PEI and the farmhouse are so new to us, we spent most of the time exploring rather than staying to play games. If we were to come again, we will certainly have a different mind set and Risk will definitely be on the menu. There are tons of games at the farmhouse and we also brought a few favourites but the only one we really played was Wizard. We played Chutes and Ladders and a pretend Monopoly game with Zoe; too young to deal with the financial aspect of the game.  

There are also a lot of tapes and DVDs at the farmhouse, we managed to sneak in a couple of movies but not much time for TV.

It is interesting but seems a bit unfair that the beaches in the middle part of PEI are all part of the National Parks system. I truly understand the need to have income to maintain the beaches but there should be some stretches that people can enjoy without paying.  As it is, other beaches in the provincial parks are free, but not in the middle of the island.

You really feel it when you are deprived of something that you take for granted, like a full hot shower after Spike Ball or the beach. Thanks to everyone to be conscious of the constraint and hopefully we have not depleted too much of the water .

I already mentioned that we had a lot of seafood. Interestingly enough, we did not have too much meat. No beef or pork. We did have chicken at Swiss Chalet and for pasta. We did not use the barbecue or the oven to cook meat. Why waste a meal on meat when you can have seafood, right?

We visited 4 beaches with our 5 days on the island, not bad. Well, we did not visit Cavendish Beach other than Dustin and Sarah but we all visited North Rustico, Greenwich and Brackly Beaches. 

Everyone says PEI is small. It is really small compared to Ontario or Quebec but we had to drive an hour to get to Greenwich which is still in the middle of PEI. We have not figured out how long it would take to circumnavigate the island but it would be a long drive.

We fit in quite a few things but far from everything that we wanted to do. One of the highlights this time is the Canada Day Firework. On the list if we were to come again: Anne of Green Gables, Confederation Trails, Old Triangle Irish Alehouse, perhaps one or both ends of the island.

Until next time, PEI.

Day 8 - Brackley Beach and PEI Preserve

Oh no, we have not been to the 'Beamish Beach' yet. We went today but it really is not a beach day being overcast and drizzly. We went to the designated Beamish stretch first and found that it is connected and part of Brackley Beach. Nice stretch of beach understandably quiet today. We have now made the claim of the 'Ho Beach'.

We were told that GPS may lead us to unexpected places and it happened to us today. It is supposed to be a short drive from Brackley Beach to that PEI Preserve but we were led onto a scenic drive. Had not realized before but the Preserve is a tourist attraction. Soon after us, we saw a couple of tour buses arriving.  The preserves are indeed quite good and we got a few as gifts.

We had lunch at the Preserve. Some items like lobster chowder and lobster croissant are very good but others like the Bubbly Bake is disappointingly small. Should have stuck with lobster. Some of us went on to the butterfly house. All in all, a very good outing.

A laid back afternoon with the kids off to the PEI Brewing Co. Watched a couple of movies, simple dinner and played games with Zoe.

This is the last day. We are going to miss it so much!

Day 7 - Greenwich

Today we decided to have a little day trip to the National Parks at Greenwich, an hour away. It seems that all the advertisement for the National Parks uses the floating boardwalk as a drawing point. If that is what they think is the best then it should be worth seeing. We were also planning possibly to have a hike on part of the Confederation Trail and perhaps visit Brackley Beach. It turned out to be way too optimistic.

Greenwich does not disappoint. It has a couple of longer trails, one of them ends at the beach. And of course, the floating boardwalk which supplements the boardwalk over the land section.  So we ended up doing all three, boardwalk, trail and beach all in the same place. By 3pm, we are all burnt out, in more ways than one, and decided to scrap the other parts of the plan. This is a vacation after all, we can do whatever we want.

Jo-Anne and Henry are leaving tomorrow so we move our final lobster dinner up a day. Once again, we decided to do it at home rather than going out. It is more fun this way and also saving a few bucks.

Day 6 - Charlottetown Farmers Market

A slow day. We went to this farmers market having missed the one in downtown that is only open on Sundays. We found it underwhelming mainly because it is small. It does have a large variety of foods and goods.  Dustin arranged with his friends to pick him up at the market but we left him killing time because we are done so quickly.

Lunch is lobster rolls by re-visiting the the Chip Shack at the harbourfront. So far, it is lobster every day but one. We love it. Dennis went on an arts and antique trail run. We played Chutes and Ladders and Zoe won! We spent the rest of the afternoon napping.

Day 5 - COWS and Victoria Row

My colleague reminded me about COWS before my trip. Its factory is on Milky Way plus other stores including Paderno, Anne of Green Gables Chocolate, Rockport Outlet and a couple of other smaller stores. The self-guided tour at COWS is simple but it is free so no problem. Everything is hand made but it looks a bit monotonous for the workers and there is a case to be made for automation.  Of course, we all had some ice cream and it was indeed very good.

Paderno have some deeply-discounted items but I guess we are not in the mood for kitchen stuff. Winnie did get a knife set for herself.

Instead of Boomburger, we bought our lunch at Moo Moo Grilled Cheesery and went over next door to have some beers at the PEI Brewing Co. Beer Station. Not a bad arrangement.

After lunch and walking through some of the other stores, we drove over to Victoria Row in downtown Charlottetown. That came highly recommended and include a row of tourist/novelty stores. Very typical. Walked down to the harbour area and found more souvenir stores with t-shirts and stuff. Charlottetown is the provincial capital but definitely has a small town feel.

Dinner for 10 is definitely not easy without a stocked pantry so back to the grocery store. Can't stay away from seafood despite doing simple pasta. Simple but good.

Brought lots of games but have not had a chance to play them other than Spikeball that Dustin brought.  Gathered up enough players to play Wizard. Had to re-learn it after so long.

Day 4 - Beach and Lobster

Ah, the first full day in PEI. First order of business, groceries. Having gathered local information regarding grocery store opening hours from our friendly waitress at Swiss Chalet, we had a successful trip to get our supplies.

After lunch, we decided to visit one of the beaches. So many to choose from, we settled on the one that we can get in without a national park pass and more importantly, the same one that has the seafood store close by.

Temperatures in PEI can spring a few surprises, at least to us Ontarians. It was downright chilly in the morning, then very hot in the sun mid-afternoon and with the wind got cold again in late afternoon. It is chilly again in the evening.

So we left North Rustico Beach late afternoon and stopped to get lobster, clam, mussel and fish cakes at Doiron's. It turned out that this do-it-yourself seafood feast is much more economical than dinner at Swiss Chalet. I would take seafood like this any day.

Fantastic dinner and quality time with family, what more can you ask for?

North Rustico Beach