Tab 10: Charlottetown

"It's been a long time since someone's tied a bib on me. Probably too long, given the way I eat."

Adie, at the Water Prince Corner Shop

Marco and I got an early start in Pictou in order to visit Grohmann knives. Many sharp and pointy implements available at factory discount = knife shop fun.

Marco then got back at me for the lobster trap picture.

Then it was off to the PEI ferry. We had made reservations for the ferry to take us from Caribou, NS to Wood Island, PEI on what is probably the worst internet website in history. It’s impossible to use and extremely confusing – we were grateful that through some miracle of interwebbiness, they actually had our reservation and we were able to get on the 11:15 am ferry…

…with at least 2 buses full of tourists from Asia.

Apparently Anne of Green Gables is really big over there and so PEI draws a huge numbers of tourists from Japan.

Driving on and off the ferry was a bit stressful... lots of cars, tight spaces, steep and narrow ramps. We were glad we drove, though… driving is only slightly more expensive than paying to drive across the bridge and we were sick of the car from yesterday. The views from the ferry are also awesome.

After de-ferrying, we drove about an hour to Charlottetown and checked into the nicest hotel we’ve stayed in so far, the Great George.

The Great George is actually a collection of striking buildings on or near historic Great George Street. We are in the main building, the Pavilion hotel, and our room is lovely.

After checking in and having a bit of a rest, we had lunch at PEI’s only microbrewery, the Gahan House.


The beer was great – of note was the special summer maple beer. However, too much beer makes for sleepy tourists and as a result, we didn’t get as to tour as much as we wanted to after lunch.

We walked around downtown Charlottetown, which didn’t take long given its very small size. A major disappointment was when I discovered that Great Northern Knitters had closed. All that was left was this sign:

Again, no yarn. Only sign re: yarn. This put a significant crimp in the Interprovincial Yarn Crawl. Now I have to locate another yarn shop in PEI for island yarn. Suggestions welcome.

After a brief period of mourning for me (and celebration for Marco), we stopped in on Province House, the current provincial legislature. It is also the place where the details of Confederation were hammered out in 1864. Lots of historicality and probably the most Canadian short film ever, depicting hockey, a moose (looking stunned), the Father of Confederation, maple syrup, mounties, and the Canadian Flag.

Tonight was also special because we finally did a lobster dinner!

The place we ate at, the Water Prince Corner Shop, looks like a newsstand or a convenience store from the outside . However, inside it’s one of the city’s best mom-and-pop-type seafood restaurants. The lobsters were delicious, Marco only dropped a piece of his lobster once. I especially enjoyed when the nice lady tied the bibs right onto us. I could use her on a daily basis.

See you tomorrow, for the BEST DAY EVER* in Anne land!

* according to Adie. According to Marco, it may be the worst day ever.