My mother grew up spending her summers in Nova Scotia, and I’ve been hearing about the beauty of Prince Edward Island throughout my life.  When we decided that my nephews were old enough to enjoy the trip, we set out on a family road trip to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.  The beauty and rural nature of this area means that a lot of time is just spent taking in the rocky coastline, verdant grasslands, and dark ocean. 

The drive to Prince Edward Island across the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge is a dramatic entrance to the island.  The bridge holds the title of the longest bridge in the world over ice-covered waters, and at its peak stands 60 meters above the water.

As I was driving across the bridge, I saw a beach area to the left, so I made my way over to the Gordon Cove Beach to take off my shoes and walk across the flat red clay of the beach to put my feet in the frigid water below as I marveled at the bridge from the island. 

The Cavendish Dunelands trail within Prince Edward Island National Park is a perfect way to enjoy the beauty of the landscape.  The trail starts with a boardwalk through the marshlands where flowers and grasses color the edges of a freshwater pond, aptly nicknamed “The Lake of Shining Waters”.

The trail brings you over the dunes to a cliffside overlook where the red sandstone shoreline stands out against the dark blue waters below . From here the more adventurous can scramble along the rocks to the sandy Cavendish beach.

While I’m not a huge seafood fan, I do love mussels, and Prince Edward Island is renowned for their sweet and tender mussels.  So I made sure that our lunch spot of the day allowed me to enjoy a bowl of local mussels; the large mussels served in a light broth with a chuck of grilled bread from The Lost Anchor did not disappoint. 

Prince Edward Island was made famous in the childhood story of Anne of Green Gables. Written by PEI native L.M. Montgomery, the 1908 novel follows the life of a 11 year old orphan who charms her new community through her imagination and appreciation for life. The book has been loved generation after generation and has been the inspiration for several TV and film adaptations.  While the story is fictional, PEI has embraced its legacy by creating the fictional village of Avonlea Village.  Local artisans, food vendors, and heritage goods are sold from the buildings, so it makes for a nice shopping afternoon.

While Anne of Green Gables was a staple of my childhood, my nephews had read about the Bottle House in one of their books so were excited to see it for themselves. Edouard T. Arsenault constructed three bottle houses from over 25,000 recycled glass bottles between 1980 and 1984. He was inspired by a glass house his daughter had visited on Vancouver Island. Arsenault used the colors of the bottles to create designs within the walls, so the filtered light changes from room to room.  The third building, the chapel, even has an altar created from bottles.  Besides the houses, the grounds offer lovely gardenscapes with a small pond, fairy houses, art installations, and a small lighthouse.

On our way back from the Bottle House, we couldn’t help but stop at the picturesque site of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and graveyard. While the church was closed, the late afternoon sun played off the red brick facade of the church and the historic white gravestones of the cemetery on the cliff’s edge.