Number of days on the island: 15 (8 for Gillian)
Number of digital photos taken: 844
Number of kilometres driven: 2136
Most kilometres driven in one day: 374
Price of most expensive gas: $1.132
Price of cheapest gas: $1.029
Price of gasoline for trip: $ 225.57
Number of lighthouses visited: 17
Number of beaches visited: 9
Number of lobsters consumed (family): 14
Taking the girls to PEI to beachcomb for sea glass, eating lobster and visiting lighthouses in every corner of the island: Priceless
While it wasn’t planned, the theme of our trip to PEI turned into lighthouse visits. I started mapping the locations of the lighthouses and it became clear that we needed to visit the south east part of the island to fill in the gaps. Below is the map of all of the lighthouses we visited. In total we visited 17 lighthouses.
The 
were ones that were open and we were able to climb to the top. The
were the other lighthouses visited.
A map of the beaches we visited.
We fly home today, our check-out time at the cottage was 10:00 am. We were up, packed and ready to go, it is a lot easier when you have to fit everything in five suitcases, rather than packing a car up. Another possibility for our blog photo.
The Wild Rose cottage.
Because our flight was not until late this afternoon, we had some time to kill. Gillian wanted to go back to the stores at the Confederation Bridge. It also meant we could visit one last lighthouse.
The Port Borden Back Range Light. It was built in 1917 and decommissioned in 1997 and moved to the Marine Rail Park when the Bridge opened.
Gillian taking a photo of Claudia holding the bridge supports.
The lighthouse is located in the Borden-Carelton Marine Rail Park.
The Confederation Bridge.
The girls on the ferry.
We drove into Charlottetown to walk around. While driving into town we saw this stop sign down near Victoria Park.
A rest at our first Starbucks stop.
Most of the tourist traffic has left, this is looking up Queen Street at noon on a Saturday afternoon.
Across the street you can see the Water Street Pub, our lunch stop the past two Saturday’s. We picked a new place this week.
Lunch was at the Merchant Man restaurant.
The Charlottetown harbour.
It was the PEI Busker Festival this weekend in Charlottetown. This was Katay Santos from Venezuela. He’s a professional.
This statue commemorates the fact that two of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference delegates had the same name. There were two John Hamilton Grays.
St Dunstan’s Basilica.
The girls with Sir John A Macdonald.
The last photo of Charlottetown.
Our flight is delayed by 40 minutes, we are just hanging out in the Charlottetown airport, unfortunately there is no Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge.
An update: Our flight was delayed by 65 minutes and it was smooth all the way back to Toronto. We were at the back of the bus.
Everyone was happy to be going home, but not happy to leave PEI.
It was a great trip, the weather was good for the most part, we experienced everything, and if we waited 15 minutes the weather would change.
On our penultimate day on Prince Edward Island, we wanted to see two more lighthouses to fill in our map. I’ll post that later. We stopped at The General Store in Murray River, the lady at the store told us about a beach and lighthouse close to where we were headed.
We arrived at Cape Bear, it is in the southeast part of the island. This lighthouse was built in 1881. It went electric and was de-staffed in 1960. It was decommissioned in 2011.
Cape Bear is open to the public. Unfortunately the Marconi museum wasn’t open. The first distress signal from the Titanic was received at Cape Bear.
The girls in the glow of the light.
A view from the top, the clouds look a little ominous here, but it turned out to be a great day.
Coming back down the hatch.
Even though all the lighthouses could use a coat of paint, the weathered look gives them character.
At the end of the cape.
Avoiding the edge of cliffs with our car.
This the Beach Point beach.
Sisters on a stump.
The Beach Point Front Range Light. It was built in 1878.
Claudia holding the lighthouse in Gillian’s photo.
The next stop on our list was Panmure Head Lighthouse.
This one was open to the public as well.
The light a top the lighthouse.
Everytime we went up a lighthouse, we said afterwards that I should have run down and taken a picture of them at the top. Finally on our last lighthouse I remembered.
I took few pictures of this to get the horses in the foreground, in the end the best photo was this one with the wider view.
We headed into Georgetown for some Lupper or Linner.
We finally stopped at the big cow at Cows. We waited for Gillian to come before taking a photo.
The last sunset,
The heron.
This was taken with the telephoto zoom lens, it looks like a painting.
We had one last fire. The night sky was the clearest in two weeks. There were lots of stars out. If you look closely you can see the Big Dipper.
Low tide was at 8:55 AM this morning, some of us were up early to go beach combing for sea glass. Here is some of my find before the girls came down.
Most of the day was spent playing cards and bananagrams. In the afternoon, Susan, Gillian and I went in to Victoria to buy some lobster. We also visited another lighthouse.
This is the Leard’s Front Range Light, it was built in 1879.
After the disappointment of Sunday, there were lots of lobsters today. We bought 5 lobsters that total about 8.5 pounds.
The lady at the seafood store told us to take the rubber bands off before cooking them.
Claudia and Angela having their lobsters.
There isn’t a giant pot so it is one at a time in two pots.
Gillian digging into her lobster.
There were few clouds tonight, so we were able to watch the sun set.
If you look really close you can see a heron in the water (at right) and on the horizon you can see the confederation bridge.
Today we were up early to get on the road to the west side of the Island. We drove part of the North Cape Coastal drive. We headed for West Point to see the black and white lighthouse. It was built in 1875 and went electric and de-staffed in 1963. In 88 years of being staffed, it only had two light keepers.
The girls found a crab that was still alive.
The West Point Lighthouse has a Lighthouse Museum inside and there is an inn attached to the lighthouse. This is the tallest lighthouse on the island.
This is the Keeper’s Room, it is one of the rooms available to rent for $175/night.
Claudia up to the third floor.
Claudia heading back down from the top of the lighthouse.
The light.
This was a good lighthouse to visit. It gives a lot of history of the lighthouses and definitely worth the drive.
From West Point we continued up the coast along Route 14 and made our way to North Cape at the very tip of the northwest part of the Island. Along with the North Point Lighthouse, there is the Wind Energy Interpretive Centre.
The North Cape Wind Energy Interpretive Centre.
The North Point Lighthouse was built in 1865, it went electric in 1962 but wasn’t de-staffed until 1967.
The Wind Energy Institute of Canada is located at North Cape where they test all kinds of wind turbines.
A common theme throughout the interpretive centre.
Angela creating some pedal power energy.
A life size replica of the nacelle and blades.
We did the North Cape Trail and it brings you to the base of some of the wind turbines.
Gillian with the dangerous cliffs warning sign.
A lobster trap washed up on shore.
An actual nacelle that holds the gearbox and generator. It is huge up close.
A blade from the turbine.
On our way back home we stopped in O’Leary which is home to the Canadian Potato Museum.
A display on all of the diseases that the potato can catch, note the little coffin like displays.
Different type of potatoes.
The museum had information on the history of the potato in PEI, as well as machinery , and all things potato.
Angela doing her Atlas impersonation holding the giant potato on her back.
After dinner we went down to the beach for low tide. We didn’t have very long, as it would get dark before the tide was right out.
Susan found a starfish.
I found another one.
And a crab that was barely alive.
We ended the night with another fire, there was no wind tonight.
Today was another relaxing day, it started out cold and cloudy, the high today was only 14 °C. The sun came out around 2:00 pm. We were going into Cornwall for dinner so we made a side trip to see a few lighthouses. The first one is the Blockhouse Point Lighthouse built in 1876.
Angela and Susan peering in the window to see the rooms and wallpaper. It was automated in 1962 and de-staffed in 1963.
We visited this lighthouse back in 2012 when we came to PEI.
Looking for a new family photo for the blog.
The tide was going out.
Next stop was the Port-la-Joye-Fort Amherst National Historic Site. For some reason we didn’t stop here in 2012, which was odd as we had to drive right past it to get to the Blockhouse lighthouse.
We found the Parks Canada red chairs.
Another contender for blog family photo. It would be fitting as our current photo is from our Newfoundland 2013 trip of us sitting on the Parks Canada red chairs in Gros Morne.
This was the Acadian Odyssey Monument that explains the Franco-British conflict in the 18th century and the deportation of the French and Acadian population.
It was a little windy, can you tell?
This the Warren Cove Front Range Light. It was built in 1907. Claudia was photobombing my shot.
Another view from the trail down to the water.
This the Warren Cove Back Range light.
The remains of the Fort Amherst earthworks.
We headed up to the north shore today to visit the PEI National Park beaches. We had a lazy morning before heading out, here is Claudia relaxing on the deck.
We started at Stanhope Beach.
It was pretty empty.
The girls playing monkey in the middle.
Claudia mermaid.
It was windy and the fine sand on the beach was blowing around. We packed up after a couple of hours and headed to another beach. We stopped at the Covehead Harbour Lighthouse. It was built in 1975 and was never manned. It is also one of the smallest lighthouses on the island.
Not drifting snow, but drifting sand.
After the lighthouse we headed to Brackley Beach, however it was even windier there and we didn’t last very long with the blowing sand.
Tonight’s dinner was at the Fisherman’s Wharf in North Rustico. It is an all you can eat salad bar, which includes seafood chowder and steamed mussels.
We all ordered the lobster add-on to the meal. The seafood chowder was very good and I ate probably a few pounds of mussels.
We needed to walk around a bit after dinner so we went out to the North Rustico Harbour lighthouse.
It was built in 1876 and was electrified in 1960. It is one of the few lighthouses that didn’t have the dwelling removed when it was de-staffed.
Some of the sights around the harbour.
We started back for the cottage via Cavendish. We stopped at Orby Head. There were lots of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) in trees and flying around.
I was able to get some close up shots with my telephoto lens.
This is close up of Orby Head, a trade off when using a telephoto lens. There were a few idiots hitting golf balls into the ocean from the top of the cliff. Have they not seen Seinfeld?
It started to rain as we left Cavendish, it was quite the lightening show as we drove back, just after we got into the cottage, it poured down rain. Most of the rain has occurred in the evening, overnight or early morning.
Today we ventured out to Chelton Beach Provincial Park. It is located out past the Confederation Bridge on the south side of the island.
Our first stop was the Seacow Head Lighthouse out near Fernwood.
Our first family photo.
The Seacow Head lighthouse, named for the walrus that use to frequent the waters, was built in 1864. It is one of the oldest lighthouses on the island. It is octagonal shape and was automated in 1959.
A different perspective of the lighthouse.
Next it was on to Chelton Beach Provincial Park, we arrived just after high tide, so the girls played on the playground for awhile. Here they are enjoying the “recommended for 5-12 years old” play structure.
Can you spot Angela’s foot?
We visited this beach when we were here in 2012, but we came at low tide, by the time we left, it had gone down quite a bit.
The girls finally, kinda of going in the water.
On the way back to the cottage we stopped in Victoria at the seafood store to buy some lobsters for dinner, it was around 3:30pm and they were sold out?? We only came out with a 2lb bag of mussels. Instead we ordered take-out Chinese food in Cornwall.
After dinner we went to a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) in nearby Afton at the Community Centre.
The place was already busy when we got there and the majority of the audience had grey or white hair.
The performers were Alan Betts, Clive Currie, Darlene Bradley, and Wade Murray. The special guests were the step dancing Dalziel sisters who were suppose to be accompanied by a fiddler, but he couldn’t make it. Clive Currie played the fiddle for a couple of songs.
Here is a video of his fiddle playing.
They sang some traditional maritime music, some covers, and some original songs. Here they are singing Heave Away.
We headed out to the Charlottetown (YYG) Airport at noon to meet Gillian’s plane. Gillian came in on the same flight number we did a week ago, she had better weather when she landed. It was a beautiful day, low 20’s and no humidity like last week. This is what you get when you leave your camera with Thing 2 while you go to the washroom, a goofy picture of Thing 3.
Visiting the sights inside the Charlottetown Airport while waiting for Gillian.
We had a sign for Gillian.
Here are the greeting party waiting for Gilian to come through the doors.
Gillian finished her summer job on Friday. She had a good experience working for Enersource.
Thanks to the Pinder’s, all of them drove Gillian to the airport bright and early. Mark even went in with Gillian to print her baggage tag, drop her bag off and get her to security.
We drove into downtown Charlottetown to walk around and have lunch.
This is like the big 1812 they had in Halifax. 1864 is the year of the Charlottetown Conference.
There are nine mice hidden around Charlottetown, we came across 3 of 9 today.
There was a lot happening downtown, it was the Art in the Open PEI event Saturday night and the TD Blues and Jazz Festival.
Mouse number two. He was missing an ear.
Outside one of the stores down by the wharf.
Angela and Claudia with William Henry Pope (1825–1879), he was one of the Fathers of Confederation. During the 1864 Charlottetown Conference, there was a circus going on in town, so Pope had to row out to the steamer to greet the other representatives.
Claudia relaxing.
Streets were a little busier when we were leaving, this is the same street with the picnic tables above.
The last mouse we found on the way to our car.
We hit the beach for low tide when we got back.
So far of all the beaches we have visited in PEI, our beach is the best for sea glass.
We had a fire to end the night. It was a Sturgeon Moon tonight, it is a Supermoon, it occurs when the full moon is at its closest point to earth. If you missed this one you can catch the next one on September 28th, it is suppose to be even closer.
It was a cloudy night and eventually the cloud came over and blocked it out.
Our fire.
Angela came up with the idea to get Gillian to take a picture of her writing her name with her fire stick. I tried to take some photos as well.
Claudia writing PEI.
Angela mastered writing her name backwards for the camera.
This was Claudia’s second attempt at her name.
Angela writing Tanabe.
Angela and Claudia making a heart, Claudia’s stick needed a recharge.
The two of them going crazy.
