8/2/14 – Woke up to the sounds of surf on the rocks, slightly overcast in our little private corner of paradise, and got ready for our ferry ride, Nancy making sandwiches and snacks, and turning the fridge to max. We then inched our way up the rocky path to the lighthouse road and then cruised back to the TCH, and on into Port aux Basques. We stopped at a liquor store to stock up on Screech before motoring into the line for the ferry. The daytime ferry ride was uneventful except sighting a few pods of porpoises surfing ahead and beside the ship’s bow.

With departure delays and some issues getting down to the vehicle deck on arrival in North Sydney, we had a late start on the road, heading south on the 105 back to Port Hawkesbury. We repeated our previous trip there – stopping at Sobey’s for a grocery restock, Miller’s for dinner (lobster rolls, pretty good!), and overnight at Chez Walmart.

8/3/14 – We awoke to rain and this part of our trip is uncertain anyway. We  decided to NOT travel the southern peninsula of Nova Scotia this trip, as we would run too short of time, so we continued west on the 104 towards New Brunswick. The rain slackened and mostly stopped, but it was dreary and overcast, so we skipped stopping at the beaches of the north coast east of New Glascow, a popular summer destination due to the warm waters and sandy coves. Instead, we visited the Museum of Industry in Stellarton, which had been highly recommended. This we thoroughly enjoyed, and situated in a major center for coal mining, this was a principal theme. The exhibits are informative and entertaining for kids of all ages, so we can add our recommendation, too.

Since we missed the beaches here, we decided to continue on to the bridge to PEI, since that is a truly major attraction of this island.

Our goal was Prince Edward Island National Park in Cavendish, THE prime destination on the island, and curiously, there is no direct route there from the bridge. The advantage of getting lost is that traffic is very light the whole way, but the weather had cleared, the sun was out in a clear blue sky, and when we arrived in Cavendish, the traffic and people everywhere was a bit like cruising PCH thru the beach towns on a Sunday! When we finally arrived at the park campground, it was full. You don’t have a chance there unless you reserved months in advance. We drove on eastward on the 6, since it was reported a few sites were still available at the Stanhope campground in another section of the park. It was a long, suspenseful drive to this other campground, and not in the area we were hoping to visit, but it was just across the park road from a beach, and they had ONE hookup site available for the night. I drove in, and it was level. We also found out there was an evening musical performance at the stage there of local PEI musicians playing traditional music! Just enough time to fix dinner and don mosquito-resistant clothes and stroll over to the venue. GREAT music, the fiddler a fourth-generation master, and his accompanist playing the bouzouki and Scottish small pipes. After several ballads, jigs, and reels, they had the audience assemble, paired off, in a large circle in the field, while the piper played, and he led us in some hilarious attempts at folk dancing – fun for all (including the skeeters)!

8/4/14 – A quiet, restful, easy-breathing night, since this series of campsites did not have fire rings, and those that did were apparently upwind. We showered in the rig, dumped, filled the water tank, then left our site and parked near check-in to go for a nice stroll along the beach. The fine, reddish, sandy beach stretched way off in both directions, the ocean with a nearly flat surface as far out as you could see. Nancy walked barefoot in the surf, and reported the temperature warmer than the Pacific.

Dying jellyfish were rolling in the gently lapping wavelets, and some small kids were snorkeling with little nets and bringing back small fish, sand crabs, and lobsters from a few yards out.

After about an hour, we headed back to the rig, and drove back west to Cavendish, to visit the interpretive center at the Green Gables house. Cavendish is where young Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up, and penned Anne of Green Gables in 1908, followed by many other highly successful works. Actually, the national park itself, along with the interpretive center at the farm which inspired her stories, are results of her contributions to the popularity of PEI.

Leaving PEI via the same bridge, we continued on the 15 up the Acadian coast to Parlee Beach Provincial Park in Shediac for the night.