Anne, with an E

2026-08-04
Prince Edward Island, Canada

Prince Edward Island's most famous resident is fictional. The story Anne of Green Gables is set at a PEI farm owned by a relative of the author's. Tourists have been visiting the farm in Cavendish for almost as long as the book has been published.

In 1937 the Province acquired the farm because of all the unwanted tourist traffic. They added shutters and painted the gables green to match the book. Today they have a nice visitors center, a tour of the house, a cafe, and the barn is set up to allow young girls (and not-so-young ones) to try on period outfits. They have also set up two trails that are named after fictional paths in the book. The whole thing is inside PEI National Park.

There is also at least one museum not affiliated with the house, a store downtown, a chocolate shop that bears her name, and just about anywhere that sells soda also sells Raspberry Cordial. The latter is mentioned in the book, and in reality is just vaguely-raspberry-flavored pop. At any rate, you get the idea. If you're on PEI, Anne is either why you came or the reason your life is so good.

A quick shout out to Val, who acquired and read the book a month ago. Neither of us had ever read it, but by waiting all these years it was certainly fresh in her mind. Vacations shouldn't have homework, but she stepped up.

As you can surmise, we visited the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place. We walked through the house, which is darling. They have had almost 100 years to acquire the perfect antiques.

A sewing room that starts with the sheep

Then we hiked both Lovers Land and the Haunted Wood Trail, and poked out to see where the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, actually lived.

Lover's Lane. Or at least a trail in some woods.

While it hasn't affected the day thus far, I should mention that it was a windy day on the island. The wind was probably 30 MPH with gusts up to 40 or a little higher. Surprisingly we went on vacation without our anemometer. Just an oversight I'm sure.

After the Anne Experience, we stayed in the National Park and hiked the Cavendish Dunelands trail. The dunes were amazing, and you even got to walk on a pontoon bridge over a lake. However, we did have to literally hold onto our hats at times.

Macneill's Pond behind the dunes. Also referred to as the Lake of Shining Waters for that Green Gables tie-in.

The cliff at the end was a great place to look out over the ocean. We took a few peaceful minutes to stare into the blue, and to look at Cavendish Beach just down the coast from us.

When we came back, we were planning to head down to the beach. We walked to the end of the boardwalk but decided not to descend to the beach because of all the blowing sand. There were people there, but for the most part the parents didn't seem to be enjoying themselves very much.

Next on the agenda was Thunder Beach. Here there is a nice beach used by families, but if you climb over the rocks at the end you can see some cool rock formations. However, the wind was even stronger here and after a short distance of being sandblasted we decided that we weren't going to take out our cameras in this so it was time to head back to the car. Somedays the weather wins.

PEI is known for its potatoes. There were fields of them in bloom, and several roadside stands selling bags of new potatoes. I really wanted to stop, but I knew they would take them if we tried to bring them across the border. We couldn't figure out a way to cook and eat a kilogram of potatoes in our hotel room without getting sick or making the hallway smell to the point we got fined.

Potatoes blooming above a colorful village. It pretty much sums up PEI.

Seacow Head Lighthouse was near the bridge to the mainland so we stopped there for a picture and a chance to start reducing our supply of Canadian cash. Val scored $200 before we left, and at this point we have maybe $135 left. A couple bucks for a drink didn't really put a dent in it. Luckily there's a $20 toll to leave the island, and they have real live toll takers! We handed her a bag with 9 coins (8 ones and 1 two dollar coin) and a $10 bill. She wasn't thrilled, but we were allowed to leave. Encouraged even.

The Lighthouse, the car, and us are all getting coated with sea spray by 40 MPH winds

We drove to St. John (not to be confused with St. Johns!) for the night. Like the first night, it's just a sleeping location. We drove into the city and ate on the waterfront. And paid cash. Yay!

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