Prince Edward Island

The day after sightseeing in Halifax, we embarked for our next destination, Prince Edward Island, but only after eating a delicious breakfast at a Canadian fast-food chain, Tim Horton, and touring an old cemetery where most of the Titanic wreck victims were buried. I have to make a quick plug for Tim Horton's before I go on---unlike any US fast-food chains, this one not only had delicious food with healthy choices, but served food in real dishware and with real silverware.

To get to PEI, we took a lovely ferry ride across the Northumberland Strait and saw other lighthouses on the way. On our way to Charlottetown, the capital city of PEI, we stopped at one of the farm stands by the road and bought some delicious apples, for which I had been having a huge craving. In Charlottetown we went to a few museums that finally clarified the history of Canada to me and my fellow travelers. First, we visited the mansion where a first important agreement to form Canada was signed by the representatives from Nova Scotia, PEI, Upper Canada (Toronto), and Lower Canada (Quebec). The history museum we visited next had the best interactive display on Canadian history---it was interesting to note the difference in the approaches to their colonies by the British in the US and Canada, especially after the US independence. Frightened by the internal in-fighting in the days after the US independence, the Canadians decided that they were better-off under the British rule and never really pursued their independence in the way that the US colonies did.

That night we were supposed to stay in a cottage in Cavendish near the House of Green Gables (as in "Anne of Green Gables") so after a quick dinner in Charlottetown, we drove through the fields and meadows of PEI until we arrived at "Kindred Spirits Cottages." Upon arrival, we were told that there would be tea and cookies in about an hour, so after checking into our cottage, we were barely able to wait until cookie time, which proved to be a cozy gathering of the inhabitants of other cottages and the adjacent Inn. Canadians seemed to be really lovely people!