Day 10 - PEI

We looked forward to exploring the island today. Our breakfast at the inn was really cool, a young student was quietly playing guitar for the hotel guests in the dining room. We enjoyed fruit kabobs, yogurt, and various muffins and breakfast breads. It is a nice inn that has a lot of amenities for guests, like multiple game rooms on each floor, kitchens where they leave treats for guests, books and board games. Michele and Rob had the attic room which looked brand new and was super quiet. It felt more like someone’s home than a hotel.

As we were prepping the bikes in the hotel parking lot, a black fox trotted towards us from the back yard. He stopped right in front of us and took a look. Wily fox! A nearby black bird wasn’t so happy with the appearance of it and repeatedly swooped down and buzzed the fox until he scampered away.

It was a short drive to the Prince Edward Island National Park. Interestingly, the park is contained along much of the shoreline and the other side of the street inland is privately owned residences and businesses. We found a pull-off and took a brief walk to a quiet area of the beach. There were tons of completely intact seashells, some quite large, others tiny. We got our first glimpse of the red rocks along the waterline.

Back on the bike, we rode over to the Red sands section of the park. Here the cliffs are noticeably eroded making for dramatic scenery. At a scenic overlook, we learned the history of the ship, the Marco Polo, which after a long and successful history of shipping (including to Australia!) wrecked just offshore nearby. We spent awhile watching the lobster boats pulling in traps and dropping new ones.

We headed out to lunch in the town of Summerside at Michael’s pizzeria.

After lunch we decided to cut the day ride short to allow time for laundry at our inn. With clean clothes folded, we walked to dinner at an Irish pub a few blocks away. On our way there, other tourists asked us for help finding restaurants in town. We felt like locals giving them recommendations! Our meals were hearty. Jerry ordered Sloppy Fries which was ground beef poutine, Rob ordered the seafood chowder and Michele had PEI potato bruschetta and a spinach salad. We enjoyed the restaurant patio and admired a gray Ural motorcycle parked in front.

After dinner we walked to the Beaconsfield Historic House. It was built in 1877 by wealthy locals and situated right on the cove in town.

Maybe next time we can make it in time for a tour inside. We continued walking along the boardwalk awhile to check out the cove and were entertained by a black lab and his owner playing in the water. 

Lucky for us we found an ice cream shop open for four more minutes.

Back at the hotel, we found and admired an illustration of the shipwrecks of PEI. 1851 was definitely a tough year for ships! Having been to several parts of the island today, we admired some of its history. Jerry thinks most were sunk by pirates.

Tomorrow we have to say goodbye to PEI and our pretty inn and head back to New Brunswick.