Accommodation: Rodd Charlottetown
I forgot to mention yesterday – our guide told us that Adam Sandler once played golf on the Cabot Cliffs greens where we were yesterday on Cabots Trail. After his round, he greeted golfers and when he went back to the clubhouse, he arranged for everyone playing golf that day, to have their rounds compliments of him. Cabot Cliffs green fees during peak season run about $390 per player. And, another interesting bit of Hollywood gossip, Ben Affleck apparently comes to Cabots Trail and goes to a retreat there periodically. It is a beautiful area.
After breakfast (we wish we could have stayed longer in our chalet), we embarked on a journey – first to the town of Pictou, and then to Prince Edward Island (PEI). PEI, amazingly, is part of the Appalachian region, which is one of seven physio-graphic regions in Canada. Who knew??
On our bus ride to Pictou, our first stop before the ferry over to PEI, our guide Greg told us that the medical system in Canada is much to be desired. If you need elective surgery, the wait could be over a year. And if you want to sign up with a primary care doctor, you’d better get on a waiting list sooner than later as the wait is seven years!!! Our guide has been waiting for five!
Some facts about PEI: PEI is the smallest of all Canadian provinces, both in population and land size. The main island is spread across 2,170 square miles and has a little over 146,000 residents. Tourism is its biggest industry and lobster season is, fortunately for us, May to June and August to October. 15% of the electricity used on the island is generated by wind power. Fishing is important to the PEI economy, and agriculturally, the little province produces most of Canada’s potatoes, hence its nicknane “Spud Island.
We had lunch at Pictou and then walked around the town. In 1773 a ship named Hector landed in Pictou with 189 settlers mostly from Loch Bloom, Scotland. A man named Pagan along with another man named Witherspoon, offered settlers willing to immigrate to Pictou, free passage, a year of provisions, and a farm. The journey was an arduous one and the boat was not very sea worthy to begin with. It took 11 weeks to make the journey, with dysentery and small pox claiming some of the 189 lives. Unfortunately, the promised “year of free provisions” never materialized and upon arriving in Pictou, the settlers had to hurry and build housing as well as begin to find a way to get food so they didn’t starve.
During the late 1980s into the 1990s, folks in the area decided to commemorate the Hector‘s contribution to Nova Scotia’s Scottish history, and raised money to begin building a replica of the ship. The ship building took place along the pier so the locals could watch its progress as it was being built. The builders found blueprints of the original ship as well as pictures to aid in building the replica. We were able to see the replica of the ship on our walk around the town.
Unfortunately, since it was the end of the summer season, most of the stores and shops in Pictou were closed, which was very disappointing.
After our visit in Pictou, we boarded the ferry that took us over to PEI, arriving late afternoon in Charlottetown, the provincial capital of PEI.
We checked into the Rodd Hotel, entering into a beautiful lobby with marble floors. The hotel was built in 1931 and has been refurbished over the years, but has maintained its old world charm.
Allan and I had dinner at a local restaurant and then it was back to the hotel for a nightcap, sitting on the rooftop terrace watching the afterglow of the setting sun.
Replica of the Hester
Up on the rooftop
Setting sun