Prince Edward Island ~ Some Final Thoughts.....

 

Sad, but true. Our time on Prince Edward Island has come to a close ~ neither of us can believe that we have spent four weeks here ~ in some ways it seems as if we just arrived. 

Some final thoughts, in no particular order......

1. We definitely enjoyed a great exchange rate!  1 USD was about 1.40 CAD, so even with higher prices, we never really felt it. (We have been to Canada when the USD and CAD were on par, so we have experienced the other side as well.)

2. Our Airbnb worked out great. In fact, it was larger than we expected and we never even used the downstairs room except to store our luggage. That being said, the one thing that was a miss was that it is on a single road that has a dead-end on one end and a busy road on the other, and no sidewalks. We enjoy walking at night and really could not do that without driving somewhere. So next time we come to PEI (and yes, there will be a next time), we will be more cognizant of this.  We would like to try to stay downtown Charlottetown at some point and see what that is like.  (We were downtown when we were here four years ago, but did not take advantage of it at the time.)

3. We drove a ton and saw some amazing views....as well as lots of crops, especially potatoes...... 

....and lots of 5# potato bags for sale too!

 

 

4. Our cache of sea glass has expanded......(Brad has a great eye for spotting these!)

 What is sea glass exactly? From tourism PEI:

PEI sea glass is weathered, frost-coated pieces of discarded glass smoothed by decades of wave action along the shores of Prince Edward Island. Originating from old household waste, shipwrecks, and Prohibition-era bottles, these colorful frosted gems wash up heavily along the island's southern and eastern beaches.

(So yes, basically trash! 😂)

 

5. We really (REALLY!) like it here.  People are nice, the pace is slower, the weather is cool, it is just a relaxed place. As stated before, we will be back for an equally long stay, if not longer.

💖PEI💖

 

PS - We are still traveling, so stay tuned..... 

Prince Edward Island Day 26 ~ Back to Some Faves!

It was another cool and cloudy day here, so after a slow morning, we headed to Brackley Beach to walk the beach and ended up walking 4 - 5 miles.....

 

We then drove to The Rustico Cannery in North Rustico.....

 

.... to enjoy their rigatoni with lobster again - it is just too good!!! 😋

 

We walked the beach in North Rustico a bit.....

 

 As well as a little of their boardwalk which is along the harbor.....

 

 

We ended the day sharing a flurry (think DQ blizzard) from Crisker's Creamery - and it was great!

 

 

We keep getting weather updates from people in FL - high 90's a super humid, so a cool & cloudy day encompassing a beach walk, lobster, and ice cream is fabulous!!! 😎

Prince Edward Island Day 25 ~ Walking Part of the Confederation Trail

Today was another cooler and overcast skies day, so not a beach day, so we decided to walk a bit of the Confederation Trail from Morell to St. Peters. Brad read up on the walk and found that it would be near the water with some great views. Well, we walked about a mile-and-a-half before Brad realized that we were going the wrong way...oops!😉...but there were lovely views nonetheless....

 

 

So we turned around and went in the "correct" direction (walking about another mile or so before turning around).....

 

By now we were hungry and went to The Seafood Shack in Morell, just a minute down the road. We were here four years ago and were not impressed, but the reviews were great and we thought, "well, things can change in four years...." so we gave it another try. 

 

Brad ordered the lobster, scallop, and haddock chowder - it was very good, even though he is not a big scallop fan.......

Suzanne ordered their hot buttered lobster roll......which was very disappointing. While the (flavorless) lobster was plentiful, it was cold (she prefers warmed) and the roll was shorter than other (like at Richard's). In addition - and this is the deal-breaker - the "hot butter" on the side was not really butter at all, but a tasteless yellow-colored oil. 😡So while it looks great, it was quite disappointing. 

 This place is now dead to us. 😄

 The rest of the day was mellow as we enjoy the cooler weather on PEI. 

 

 

Prince Edward Island Day 24 ~ Fullerton Creek Conservation Park & Deep Roots Distillery

It was a bit of a cool day and cloudy, yet we still wanted to take a walk, so we headed over to Fullerton Creek Conservation Park in Stratford (just east of Charlottetown) and enjoyed some lovely, nature-filled walking.....

                                                                    Cattails 

                                                                    Yarrow

                                                                 

                                                                    Goldenrod

 

We were rained on a bit, but at least this time we had our rain jackets with us! 😀
 

A couple days ago we stopped by the Deep Roots Distillery and to sample some of their liquors. While there, we saw their sign advertising a distillery tour and infusion experience where we could create our own infusion ~ so we signed up for today's 3pm tour ~ yay!

 

The tour started with complimentary cocktails ~ a Chocolate Espresso Martini for Suzanne and a Moonshine Caipirinha for Brad. 😋

 

The group (21 of us) went out to the apple orchard and our tour guide Melissa explained the history of the founding family (who began the orchard in 1987 and after the husband retiring from teaching, he started the distillery in 2014 - eventually purchased by three of his five children this past year). She also explained that they had an apple orchard at first to sell apples, but then eventually went into the liquor business using the apples to create apple brandy. It was quite interesting and she did a great job of enthusiastically explaining everything.

We made our way into the distillery where Melissa explained the distilling process and how most of their liquors are created, as well as their history and how each liquor is connected to PEI.  Again, interesting and she did a great job of answering questions.

 

Finally it was time for all of us to create our own infusion, and we could select a base of either gin or vodka ~ we both chose vodka as gin already has a bit of flavoring. 

A long table was set-up...... 

.......with some fresh ingredients.......

and some dry ingredients........

 

.....as well as recipe ideas (ironically it was Brad who pretty much followed a suggested recipe, which he never does; Suzanne free-styled it, and she is a "follow the recipe exactly as written" girl.) 

Everyone gathered around the long table and started creating! 😀

 

Our almost finished products....Suzanne's is on the left, Brad's on the right.......

 

We then made labels..... (Now Brad's is on the left; Suzanne's on the right.)

 The bottles were sealed and placed in cute brown bags.....

 

Our recipes, each for 375ml vodka.....

Brad's:

• 4 - 5g fresh strawberry
• 0.5g dried basil
• 0.5g dried hibiscus flower (he added as an after-thought after being mocked for having only two ingredients 😏)

Suzanne's: 

• 2g cassia bark
• 0.5g cloves
• 0.5g nutmeg
• 1g fresh orange peel (she added since the dry ingredients alone looked sad)
• 0.5g butterfly pea powder (after seeing some one else put some in theirs as it makes the color blue and then it will change color if/when we add a mixer 😁)

 This is what they looked like when we got home.....

Yum!! 😋

(Well, hopefully yum! 😉 ) 

 

So a super fun day and when we are back on PEI, we will definitely do again!  Cheers! 🍹