Canada: Prince Edward Island

We left Bouctouche in the pouring rain and took the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. The bridge takes 12 minutes to drive over and there is a toll of $45 when we leave PEI – which is very expensive for a toll. Once we got on the island it took us 2 ½ hours to drive to our hotel on the eastern part. The drive was nice since we took back roads. I don’t care for signage in Canada as they don’t tell you where to exactly where to turn or what to do.

We stayed at the Northport Pier Inn in Northport (right next to Alberton.) The Inn claims to be a “4 star hotel with a 5 star view” but I would call it a 2 star hotel. The rooms didn’t have a microwave/mini-fridge (as every other hotel, motel we stayed at did.) There was no pool or restaurant, the continental breakfast was small and not very good and they locked the main part from 9 pm – 7:30 am (all the rooms were accessible from the outside.) The beds also had wheels on them so they would move around the room all the time - which was pretty annoying. The only good thing about it was that it was right on the water and had a good view. We had lunch at a nearby Boat Restaurant. Their food was good especially their pierogies. After we ate I asked a woman at the hotel where we could buy post cards – as I hadn’t sent any yet – and she had no idea. She sent me to the only grocery store in Alberton (the “big” town close-by) where I then went to a nearby pharmacy who sent me to a hardware store (where we bought a cooler since our other one broke and they didn’t have a micro fridge in our room) and they sent us to a gas station. We came back to the room empty-handed. I have never had so much trouble getting post cards in any of the towns or countries I have been to – I did in Alberton though. That night we ate at one of two places open past 5 pm – a pub on Main Street. It was pretty quiet (even though there was a group of many woman near us) and the food was really good.

The next day we ate the continental breakfast at the hotel – our first and only time as it was pretty bad – and then drove along the northern scenic route. PEI has 4 scenic routes. At first the trip was nice although I wish they had the road by the water so you could see it. Instead you passed through little towns and saw nothing by trees. Every house had several Canadian flags on it (one would have be enough) and everything on the island was neatly mowed – it must have been a law there. We stopped at a lighthouse on the northern tip of the route and then drove down to the southern tip. We stopped at the only restaurant (called Sandals.) This was where we had the worst experience of our whole trip. First I ordered a 7-up which the waitress never brought. Then we both ordered the pork tenderloin as most items were seafood only to be told they were out of the tenderloin. We then both ordered a roasted vegetable flatbread (flatbread must be a stable in the Maritimes as it was everywhere.) When the flatbread came it had mushrooms – which I don’t eat. I told the waitress that the menu didn’t say a thing about mushrooms – only about roasted vegetables and that mushrooms were not a vegetable but a fungi. She could have cared less and said she was getting the chef. She came back without him and said that he couldn’t take them off. We asked for the check (which they call “bill” in Canada) and I gave her my credit card. She made some very rude remarks and that’s when I really let her have it. There was a guy standing right next to me (it turned out he was the chef/owner) and he said nothing as she was rude and unprofessional to me. He even denied that she was  - to which even my mom jumped in to discussion and let them have it. I told the chef/owner what had happened and he didn’t care at all. As I was telling him my side the waitress kept interrupting me and so I told her to shut up as I was talking and the owner only cared about me saying that – I think he was sleeping with her because he was making excuse after excuse for her stupidity. He finally said that when he was told by the waitress about our poor experience he told her to give us the meal – that neither of us ate – for free. I told him that the waitress had said nothing about that to us and even took my credit card and made us pay. I told him we weren’t mind readers and so had no way to know he had told her that and that was just another item to add to the waitress’ stupidity check-list. He was also defending that mushrooms were indeed a vegetable – which the dictionary told me later I was right  - they are a fungi not a vegetable. There were other customers (some had decided to leave than see the argument – and so the owner/chef threw me some cash and we left. I later filed a complaint with the PEI Tourism Office (which seems to be a big deal on the island.) We left the scenic route and ate lunch at a place called Cousins (we had heard about them at the hotel.) The food and service there was great.

The next day we had breakfast at Cousins and then went to the Canadian Potato Museum. It was very small and pretty boring, but I got some good pictures standing outside by the giant potato. I also bought my post cards there and some potato fudge – which was different. We then made a reservation at the marina to take a private whale watch tour. That night we got food at a small take-out place near the hotel. The girl there was friendly and a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the food – to bring it back to the hotel. A guy walked in and asked us if we were from the States – he had seen our license plate – and he asked me how I liked the island, etc.  When he was leaving he told me to have a good vacation. A woman had come in and heard that last part and so asked where I was from and how I liked the island. As she left she told me to have a good vacation. The girl making the food heard that last part and asked where I was from and how I liked the island. I eventually got the food and left.

Our third day on the island we had breakfast at a little dinner and then took the 2^nd scenic route around the Cavendish area (Anne of Green Gables country.) It was a nice drive and you could see a little more of the ocean. We had lunch at a German café. The food was decent, but not really German. We continued on our way to the third scenic route and then ended up in Summerside. Two months ago I had ordered tickets to see “Highland Storm” a Scottish music, dancing and singing show at the College of Piping. I picked up our tickets and then we went to a restaurant nearby called Gentleman Jim’s. It was a steakhouse that was made to look like the Wild West. The food was good, but we were there early (around 4 pm) and so we were the youngest people in the place. After dinner we went to a Wendys nearby for dessert. I used their Wi-Fi (which didn’t work in the restaurant, but only in my car in the parking lot.) I called and made reservations to take the ferry from PEI to NS – rather than take the bridge again.

We then went to the show. We had VIP seats and sat in the first row directly in the center. The show was really good. It had a very funny comical scene. The bagpipers and drums were also really good. The singing was decent. All-in-all it was a good night. Afterwards we drove the 2 1/3 hours in the rain back to our hotel.

The fourth day we went on the whale watch tour. It was big boat with just us and the crew on it. We didn’t see any whales, but it was still a nice time (it was sunny.) Last year when we were in Alaska we saw whales on a boat tour so we had seen them before. We went back to Cousins for lunch and then back to the Boat Restaurant for dinner and the take-out place for ice cream (since there wasn’t many places to eat we had to keep going back to the same places, but most were good so it was fine.)