We thoroughly enjoyed “Mama’s” breakfast before leaving the farm. We ate breakfast with two other couples, and of course our travel and luggage situation became a major topic of conversation. “Mama” prepared a delicious dish which she called “baked oatmeal”, and it was wonderful. Her sons farm organically, and the oats and other ingredients were from the farm.
After breakfast we drove back to Charlottetown and located a room at the Holiday Inn Express, which is extremely nice. We ran several other errands in town (including a stop at the airport with no success) and then left to drive to the northeastern part of the island.
Prince Edward Island has an extensive system of bicycle and walking trails called the Confederation Trail. It is a part of the rails-to-trails program, so the paths are level and fairly easy to navigate. As we were driving down the highway, we noticed several bikers and walkers just over the hill near the waters of St. Peters’ Bay. The day was bright and sunny with deep blue sky, so we decided that a bike ride would be a lovely addition to our day. We stopped at the little village of St. Peters, located a bike shop and inquired about renting bicycles. Obviously, we were not the only people who thought this was a lovely day for a bike ride! She had only one adult bicycle left, but she had a “kid’s bike” that fit me perfectly…except the seat was too high and had to be lowered to I could ride it! This is the only time in my life I found it an advantage to have short legs!
So, we rented the bikes and headed out to the next little village, Morell, which was 11 km (I think that is about 7 miles away.) Of course, once we reached Morell, we stopped at a local marked, bought fruit and water, rested a little while and headed back to St. Peters, making the total trip about 14 miles long. The ride was simply wonderful. We rode beside wheat fields as picturesque as those shown in National Geographic; we rode over bridges spanning the waters of St. Peter’s Bay, and passed lovely farmlands. The “Welcome Center” in Morell referred to this section of the Confederation Trail as the “most picturesque on PEI”, and we can‘t argue with that.
To answer your next question, yes, we were tired after the bike ride, but it was an experience we thoroughly enjoyed. We would highly recommend it to anyone coming to the area. Since it is daylight here until after 9 PM, we decided to continue on with our sightseeing, and drive on to Greenwich National Park where it was reported that there were spectacular sand dunes.
The detail we did not have until we arrived at Greenwich is that the dunes are only accessible by a 3-mile walking trail. Now, remember, we had just ridden bicycles for 14 miles, but we were there, so, off we went! The walk was nice, and the dunes reached by walking over floating wooden walkways over the marshy areas. By the time we had seen the dunes and returned to the truck, we were pretty much done in for the day, so we drove back to our motel in Charlottetown, and were extremely glad to see the shower and the bed!
PEI is a wonderful place to visit, and we would do it all again, even considering our lack of suitcases and the rather shop-worn truck we are using for sightseeing. We are having a great time. Everyone should have as much fun on vacation as we have! Don’t sweat the little things today! We aren’t!
Photos of the day include two taken the previous night at the ceilidh (one of the singing with rhythm instruments, and another of the group outside trying to learn a folk dance…hilarious!). Three photos were taken on the bike ride on the Confederation Trail (one is an example of the lovely views, and two to prove we actually rode the bikes). The other photo shows the wooden walkways at Greenwich National Park. As the old saying goes, “having a great time, wish you were here!”
No comments:
Post a Comment