July 23
When we woke up this morning it was very cloudy, but, the weather forecast looked good. We were anxious to start touring the Island but we didn’t have an idea of where to start. We stopped at the campground office to see if we could at least get an island map. We were surprised to find so much tourist information at a KOA; maps, tour guides, places to eat, etc. Prince Edward Island is just 139 miles long and 40 miles wide but there seems to be plenty of things to do in PEI.
After staring at all of the collected literature, we decided to explore part of the Central Coastal Drive. We discovered real quick that GPS, road maps, terrible road signage, and a bad navigator did not work well together. We finally, got straightened out and began our drive towards the city of Summerside.
We were expecting to see fishing villages along the way, but, instead we found mostly farmland. Along the way, we could see an enormous church. in the distance. I asked Ken to to stop because it looked like something “special”. Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel Église was one extravagant church, for such a small community. It was a brick Gothic Style church with two bell towers at the front, and a large cemetery on the side filled with white crosses. This church was located by the sea and was built in 1898, It was beautiful!
Our next stop, the Bottle Houses in Cap-Egmont. Édouard Arsenault began construction of the bottle houses in 1980 and by 1984 he had cemented together over 25,000 recycled bottles of various shapes, sizes and colors to construct three buildings – a six gabled house, a tavern and a chapel. He was 66 when he began his construction. There was no recycling system at this time for bottles. He was a recycler before his time.
We walked through a lovely garden that featured glass sculptures and a replica lighthouse. The lighthouse was significant because Edouard was the last resident keeper of the local lighthouse that was located two kilometers from this site.
Of course no tourist destination is complete without a gift shop. I purchased a glass cheese plate made from a glass bottle. I have been saving wine bottles in hopes that I will find a place to learn the art of “glass slumping”. I’m even more inspired now!
Our next stop was the city of Summerside, Prince Edward Island’s second largest city. We stopped at Spinnaker’s Landing, a recreated fishing village on the waterfront. We had a late lunch at the Deckhouse Pub and Eatery, and were seated on the upstairs patio. During lunch we saw several sailboats and one extremely large catamaran come into the dock. It was a great place for lunch!
After lunch it was time to return to the RV park. As we drove along enjoying the flat plains and rolling hills we also had a view of The Confederation Bridge. It looks better in the sunshine!
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