From the Peninsula to the Island

2026-08-03
Maritime Provinces, Canada

We repositioned today from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island. Today is Natal Day in Nova Scotia, celebrating the founding of Halifax. It's not a mandatory holiday, but one where most offices are closed; however, some stores work on reduced hours. In practice, this meant that traffic was light this morning. Woohoo!

We worked our way across the peninsula to Burncoat Head Provincial Park. This is a place where you can walk out on the Bay of Fundy (only at low tide, of course). We wandered out on the ocean floor which was mostly rock, sand, and muck so watch your step. We made it all the way to the ocean and worked our way back to the stairs. They have a nice foot washing station. I guess people were taking too much muck with them.

From here, we headed towards PEI. The bridge is roughly 13 km (8 miles) long. Nothing compared to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, but it's still a long time on a bridge. Once we got to the island we headed for Victoria to see the range light. Range lights are a bit different than lighthouses because there are at least two lights a distance apart. By lining them up so they are vertical you can tell you're heading on a safe path.

Unbeknownst to the planner of this trip, Victoria is now a quaint shopping and fishing village (perhaps emphasis on shopping), with about a dozen or more shops on main street and by the harbor.The first way that started to become obvious is that we had to park on a causeway on the way out of town along with dozens of other cars. Once parked we worked our way back to the lighthouse and stumbled on the rest of the town. We did a little shopping and then headed down the road to Charlottetown.

After checking into our inn, we started on a short walking tour that I put together. The first stop was Victoria Park, just a few blocks from the inn. The wind and rain picked up as we were walking to the point where it didn't make sense to continue. We had our raincoats on, but with the cameras nestled in backpacks we couldn't take any pictures. So back to the inn to drop off the camera packs and head down into the city for dinner while it blew over. We never did make it back for the cameras, so no pictures of Charlottetown.

After dinner, we found the boardwalk on the waterfront. It was only a block or so along the water but it went maybe three blocks back. Mostly just the time-honored t-shirts, Cows ice cream, souvenirs, and Beaver Tails. Just as we got there, a regatta was starting just off the boards so we had a chance to see a couple dozen sailboats milling around waiting for the start.

From the boardwalk, we went up Great George Street through the Historic District to Province House. The latter was fenced off for construction so we couldn't get a good view, but the Historic District was comprised of maybe a eight row houses, a customs house, and a large church. If you lived in those row houses, you'd best not be late for church!

We then circled back on Queen Street to see all the (closed) shops and such. On a corner was a theatre with "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical" playing through September (aka the end of tourist season). They know which side their bread is buttered.

We worked our way back to the inn a bit later than I had hoped, but it's vacation and schedules are mostly flexible. All told we did about 4 miles touring the city. It's not a big city, but it is definitely getting the hang of the tourist industry.

Driving Distance:
Hiking Distance: 8 km (5 miles)