A Hop and a Skip to Prince Edward Island, Canada

 I always have the best of intentions to finish my blogs because I love going back and reading them, but I've very bad at actually following through. So let's pretend I'll finish Scotland one day and skip forward in time to Canada! 

I LOVED Prince Edward Island. I knew I'd at least like it--I've wanted to go for a long time, and the works of L.M. Montgomery as well as Montgomery herself are deeply meaningful to me. But it really blew me away in every regard and I think is my favorite vacation yet, even compared to castles and Michelin stars. 

Prince Edward Island is quite small, so of course there were no direct flights to Dallas--we had to connect in Montreal and then fly to PEI the next day. I was pretty shocked Montreal was only a three-hour flight and asking myself why we haven't been before! We didn't see much of the city, as we got there late, but it was very hot so I made my peace with not sightseeing. 

 

 Riding on her pretend train in the airport lounge

 

 

Instead, we ate at the amazing L'Original, one of Montreal's best restaurants. You go down a set of steps into a cozy basement room that somehow smells like Santa is having a Christmas party in a pine forest, and we were lucky enough to get a cozy corner table by the fireplace. The food was fantastic--Elowen had meatballs and a bolognese, while I had a truffle poutine that was the perfect mix of crispy fries, squeaky white cheddar cheese curds, truffle, and savory gravy. Taylor had a pork schnitzel with a mustard grain cream sauce, but the absolute best part was the mushroom toastie. Omg. It had a white wine cream sauce over perfectly roasted mushrooms, with parmesan and red wine jus and arugula. It was just savory and rich and probably the best thing I ate on the trip (and I ate a LOT of good food).

 

 

 

The next morning we had our early flight to PEI, and it was a delight--Taylor met the nicest woman whose sister owned the bison farm that supplies L'Original with meat, and I cackled when she shared her pet bison's name was "Boefy" (beefy). As we started to descend, I saw the vibrant green fields and the red shores of the island and got emotional--I couldn't believe I would finally see a place I'd wondered about for so long!

 

Can't contain our excitement!!!

Our AirBnB was lovely, right across from a park with a playground and about a four-minute walk from downtown Charlotte. 

 



It was Canada Day, so Victoria Park (a bit further of a walk was having a celebration)--we meandered down there and I started to get a sunburn I'd regret over the next few days. Not much was set up, and when we noticed they were readying a cannon to kick off the parade, we scurried away (Elowen doesn't love loud noises). It started shooting across the water and every "pow" made me jump--it's hard to be an American with our complete lack of gun control and not feel panic at loud noises in crowded places. 

 

But we'd killed enough time to eat lunch, so we headed to the Chip Shack, famous for its different types of poutine. It's also located with several other small restaurants out on the water, which made it extra fun--I had a pulled pork poutine and Taylor had oysters and a lobster roll. 

  


 

Then we headed to the renowned ice cream shop Cows, oft-voted the best ice cream in Canada! They're also known for their quirky, punny T-shirts (I got one that said "Dunder Mooflin" with a Dwight cow on it) and their fun flavors. The Gooey Mooey (a burnt sugar ice cream with English toffee, caramel cups and chocolate flakes) was a delight, as was the blueberry with PEI-grown blueberries. It tasted like Booberry cereal. 

This random man setting up to grill also made me laugh. Canadian anarchy!


If you love Anne of Green Gables, Charlottetown is definitely the place to be--I was so excited to visit the Anne of Green Gables store and pose with the red hat and satchel, and browse among every sort of Anne souvenir you could want, from tea to books to handpainted oyster shells. 

 

 

The Anne of Green Gables chocolate store also has different candies inspired by the books as well as chocolate-covered potato chips (freaking yum). 

 

 

For dinner (I gained seven pounds on this trip, most posts will be about food) we ate at Lobster on the Wharf, so that Taylor could enjoy a local lobster and the sunset. He enjoyed his meal, but for me the ambience was better than the food (since I don't like seafood, my choice was just chicken). 

 

Then we strolled back to Victoria Park for a concert, where Elowen was terrorized by another toddler who get getting right in her face and pressing against her to try to play. She gave him some side-eye and plopped herself right in between us--I get it Elowen. I don't need any new friends either. 

 

And that was the first day!

 

























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