Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104070218
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D/5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAVENDISH, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND LENGTH: Long
We were excited the first time we opened the curtains to find them a few hundred yards in front of us, and I grabbed for my camera.
The brightly colored boats with their distinctive pilot houses and upswept prows flitted back and forth from one marker buoy to another like a swarm of bees in a field of flowers. We watched their crews haul in the lobster pots and dump fat green lobsters into plastic boxes on board.
Between us and the icy Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the lobstermen plied the sea, was a broad stretch of lush green grass running right to the edge of a cliff-like bank. It dropped sharply to a beach covered with well-worn rocks in shades of gray, white, black, red and brown.
In some places the bluffs along the shore approached 100 feet in height and provided excellent scenery but also a sheer drop to the rocks and water below. The stormy sea undermined the red sandstone and soil, leaving dangerous overhangs that meant we had to keep a prudent distance from the drop-off.
Behind our cottage that first morning the dairy cows of a neighboring farmer munched through their morning meal. And out front a Maple Leaf flag snapped sharply in a strong warm breeze.
This was Canada or, more specifically, Prince Edward Island or P.E.I. as its inhabitants call it. We were there, in the main, because of a fascination some in our family had for an outspoken, red-haired girl by the name of Anne Shirley. Anne is the fictional creation of author Lucy Maude Montgomery.
Prince Edward Island was Montgomery's home. Cavendish is the village on the island's north-central coast where she grew up and where she is buried. It is also the location of the house known as Green Gables, the setting of Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" books.
Because of the Montgomery connection and the fact that a Canadian national park is located along the Cavendish beach, the village is a favorite vacation destination for Canadians and foreigners. One fear among some locals is that Japanese tourists, who read Montgomery's books in their schools, are going to bid up the price of island land beyond their reach.
Still the tourist trappings around Cavendish are modest and unobtrusive by most standards. And the prices are well within the reach of most any traveler's pocketbook.
In early June, the month before the island's two-month vacation season gets under way, the cost of lodging is half of the seasonal rate. It cost the equivalent of about $45 U.S. a night for a small, two-bedroom cottage with a dining room-kitchen combination. The only drawback is that Virginia tourists should pack at least a sweater because the weather can be changeable.
For Montgomery fans, Cavendish offers a walking tour. Maps can be found at the national park's visitor center in town. The tour begins at the site of the home of Montgomery's grandparents, who reared her. She lived with them until she left in 1911 to be married. A small bookstore at the site is stocked with Montgomery books and operated by a Montgomery cousin who is more than willing to reminisce with strangers about her.
The tour continues down a lane toward the location of the schoolhouse the author attended. It passes through a woodlot, which Montgomery called the "haunted wood" in her books. The path winds until you reach the farmhouse, Green Gables, that was owned by Montgomery's grandfather's cousins, David and Margaret McNeill. The house, which is stocked with period furniture - some original - and operated by the national park, is open to the public. A gift shop is nearby.
After a stop at Green Gables, the walk continues with a stroll down the magical country path called "lovers' lane" in Montgomery's books. It was to this path that the author came when she wanted to get away from the pressures of the world. The path from the lane takes kindred spirits back through the "haunted wood" to the cemetery where Montgomery and her husband are buried.
Besides its own attractions, Cavendish - because of its central location, is a good base from which to tour the rest of Prince Edward Island. The island is only 170 miles from tip to tip by highway and any location is within an easy drive. Two short, rewarding trips from Cavendish are to the small fishing port of North Rustico, only a few miles to the east, and to Park Corner, about 30 minutes to the west.
In North Rustico we talked with the lobstermen and watched as they unloaded their boats. We followed the day's catch into a dockside warehouse where workers were banding the lobsters' claws and tossing them into large holding tanks. Seafood is available near the docks or party boat trips for fishermen. You can buy fresh lobster at the dock for $3 a pound.
If you're cooking your own meals, you might want to shop in North Rustico at one of its larger markets. Or if you feel like pampering yourself, try one of the lobster suppers around Cavendish. These suppers are commercially run or sponsored by churches and civic groups and give adults all they can eat with drink and dessert for about $20.
At Park Corner, only a short drive east of Cavendish, we found the largest collection of Montgomery memorabilia in the home she called Silverbush in her stories. The home sits by a pond she called the Lake of Shining Waters. It belonged to the author's aunt and Montgomery was married there to the Rev. Ewan MacDonald. Admission to the museum is $2.50 for adults and $1.50 for children. A restaurant is in an adjacent building.
If you would prefer to wander the island rather than stay in one place, the provincial government has provided three marked highway tours through each of the island's three counties.
During the off season you wouldn't have any problem touring the island even without reservations. You might find yourself spending the night in an old lighthouse that's been converted to a museum and bed-and-breakfast. We found it at the village of West Point on the island's southwestern coast.
The main businesses on Prince Edward Island are farming, tourism and fishing. Potatoes are the big cash crop, but an unusual crop is Irish moss, which is pulled from the sea with the help of draft horses. The moss is used in cosmetics and as an ingredient in ice cream.
The lobster harvest accounts for roughly two-thirds of the island's $78 million annual seafood catch. Lobsters are so plentiful that in the past farmers used them as fertilizer for their fields. Before the crusty creatures were discovered by gourmets, the poorer island children packed lobster sandwiches in their school lunches. The wealthier children, on the other hand, were distinguished by the bologna sandwiches they carried, said Edith Nicholson, our hostess at the Cavendish Beach Cottages.
The island has a rich British heritage but the influence of the French, who were the first European settlers on the island, is strong, too. Those two influences are most apparent in the island's churches, which are generally handsome both inside and out.
At the church of St. Simon and St. Jude in the northwestern town of Tingish, we were lucky enough to catch the organist as she was finishing a wedding rehearsal. This woman was kind enough to play for us for a few minutes. She asked for our requests as she played hymns on the church's 1882 pipe organ, the largest of four of its type still in Canada.
The Micmac Indians lived on the island before Jacques Cartier discovered it in 1534. French immigrants and Acadians from Nova Scotia began settlement in 1713. The island passed into British hands during the French and Indian War in 1763, was divided and the land granted to British landlords. They, in turn, rented their land to Loyalists, who fled New England during the American Revolution and to immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland. It's a little unsettling to an American visitor to Canada to see highway signs advertising the "Loyalist" this or that. It must be the same feeling a Yankee gets when he first confronts a rebel flag on a trip South.
Charlottetown, the island's capital and largest city, is about a 40-minute drive from Cavendish.
The points of interest in the capital include Province House, where the provincial legislature meets and where the conference was held that led to the formation of Canada.
The Confederation Centre for the Arts is next door to Province House and contains two theatres and two art galleries. The musical "Anne of Green Gables," which is in its 25th year, begins its run in late June on an arts-center stage.
\ Getting there
\ Prince Edward Island is one of Canada's Atlantic provinces and getting there takes a bit of effort. I know one person who took the train. The island has one commercial airport at Charlottetown.
We made the 22-hour drive from Roanoke, spreading it over three days. We followed Interstate 81 to Scranton, Pa., where we caught Interstate 84 east. I-84 passes through Hartford, Conn., where we spent half the day touring the homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, making the vacation a real authors' tour.
The Twain home is a particular treat with its ornate architecture and furnishings, reflecting the eccentricities of the man who wrote Huckleberry Finn and other books on its upper floors. Not far east of Hartford we caught I-90 near Worcester, Mass., which we followed to I-495, a beltway around Boston. The beltway took us to I-95 north of Boston and on to the Maine-New Brunswick border. We spent the night in Houlton, Maine, before crossing into Canada on the third morning of our trip.
It takes about four hours to cross New Brunswick. You'll catch the ferry to Prince Edward Island at Cape Tormentine. The ferry ride takes about an hour and cost $7.25 Canadian for a car, $2.75 each for adults, and $1.40 for children, ages 5 to 12. During the summer the ferry leaves every hour on the half-hour during daylight hours. It's a big boat with a restaurant on board.
To drive your own vehicle in Canada, you will need a copy of your vehicle registration and a Canadian Non-resident Inter-provincial Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card. You should obtain this card from your own agent before you leave. You can exchange U.S. dollars for Canadian dollars or travelers checks at a bank in the states or exchange them at the border after you cross.
You might consider varying your route on the way home. We followed the southeastern coasts of New Brunswick and Maine, keeping off the interstate. We stayed overnight in Ellsworth, Maine, and took a side trip to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, which must be the most beautiful spot on the East Coast of the United States.
by CNB