Prince Edward Island Trip: Green Gables
The second of the four PEI scenic tours is the Green Gables Shore, which covers the northern half of the center of the island. As you'd expect from the name, it encompasses most of the major Anne of Green Gables related tourist sites. When we woke up in Dalvay on Friday, September 20, we were on the edge of the route.
On a side note, when we confirmed that were going to PEI, I figured I had better read the books to better appreciate the trip. I knocked off both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea before I was derailed when I learned that despite her avowed love for Anne of Green Gables, M has never actually read the books. Her love is based primarily on the 1985 film. At that point, I stopped reading. I'm pleased to report that a knowledge of the first two books will be more than sufficient for any of the tourist sites you choose to visit.
We stopped briefly at the Covehead Lighthouse on the way out of Dalvay, but it was closed. After we had breakfast, it was time to hit the tourism sites. Our first stop was Green Gables itself, which like Dalvay is a unit of PEI National Park. This includes the titular house, which originally belonged to the aunt and uncle of Lucy Maud Montgomery.
The park starts with a very nice visitor center with a small museum about LM Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables. There is a very large parking lot and support for many, many languages. Stereotypically, they gets lots of Japanese tourists, and we saw several groups of them throughout the day.
After the visitor center there is a remodeled barn with a video about the area. From there you go into the house itself. Unsurprisingly for a house built 150 years ago and more, it's comparatively small. It has era appropriate furnishings, but it'll only take a few minutes to go through it.
From there, there are two possible walks. You can go down the path that supposedly inspired Lover's Lane, or at least you can if a hurricane hasn't closed it by knocking down all the trees. We instead opted for the Haunted Forest path, which had already been cleared of downed trees and takes you to the some more Anne-related tourism outside the park.
First it wanders through Montgomery Park, which is a small park in Cavendish with statues of Montgomery and her cats. From there the path leads to the farm that Montgomery crew up on (she lived with her maternal grandparents from a young age). There's a small walk through the gardens that were outside the now defunct house. It's pretty bland for the price, but the garden is nice.
On the way back to the car, we went through Cavendish cemetery and observed the final resting place of LM Montgomery. In classic form for the era, it doesn't mention her many beset selling novels or her famous literary creation. Instead, it just says "Wife of Ewan McDonald."
From there we drove to the Anne of Green Gables Museum. This house belonged to another of Montgomery's relatives and she spent a lot of time there as a girl. For all that, it's just another house turned into a museum. More interestingly, the inspiration for the Lake of Shining Waters is across the road, and you can pay for a horse and carriage ride along the shorts. We were happy to do so.
That was enough Anne of Green Gables tourism for one day, although we did also drive past the LM Montgomery birthplace. Instead we headed to another beach for a walk on the ocean. Thunder Cove Beach is home to Teacup Rock, a oddly balanced sandstone pillar that is on the edge of the ocean. M took a lot of pictures.
From here, we had dinner on the water and then returned to Dalvay, where we had some drinks and another half dozen oysters before turning in.
Beaches: 1 on the day, 4 on the trip (again, not counting ones we drove past)
Lighthouses: 1 on the day, 5 on the trip (again, not counting ones we drove past)
Oysters: 18 in three batches.
On a side note, when we confirmed that were going to PEI, I figured I had better read the books to better appreciate the trip. I knocked off both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea before I was derailed when I learned that despite her avowed love for Anne of Green Gables, M has never actually read the books. Her love is based primarily on the 1985 film. At that point, I stopped reading. I'm pleased to report that a knowledge of the first two books will be more than sufficient for any of the tourist sites you choose to visit.
We stopped briefly at the Covehead Lighthouse on the way out of Dalvay, but it was closed. After we had breakfast, it was time to hit the tourism sites. Our first stop was Green Gables itself, which like Dalvay is a unit of PEI National Park. This includes the titular house, which originally belonged to the aunt and uncle of Lucy Maud Montgomery.
The park starts with a very nice visitor center with a small museum about LM Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables. There is a very large parking lot and support for many, many languages. Stereotypically, they gets lots of Japanese tourists, and we saw several groups of them throughout the day.
After the visitor center there is a remodeled barn with a video about the area. From there you go into the house itself. Unsurprisingly for a house built 150 years ago and more, it's comparatively small. It has era appropriate furnishings, but it'll only take a few minutes to go through it.
From there, there are two possible walks. You can go down the path that supposedly inspired Lover's Lane, or at least you can if a hurricane hasn't closed it by knocking down all the trees. We instead opted for the Haunted Forest path, which had already been cleared of downed trees and takes you to the some more Anne-related tourism outside the park.
First it wanders through Montgomery Park, which is a small park in Cavendish with statues of Montgomery and her cats. From there the path leads to the farm that Montgomery crew up on (she lived with her maternal grandparents from a young age). There's a small walk through the gardens that were outside the now defunct house. It's pretty bland for the price, but the garden is nice.
On the way back to the car, we went through Cavendish cemetery and observed the final resting place of LM Montgomery. In classic form for the era, it doesn't mention her many beset selling novels or her famous literary creation. Instead, it just says "Wife of Ewan McDonald."
From there we drove to the Anne of Green Gables Museum. This house belonged to another of Montgomery's relatives and she spent a lot of time there as a girl. For all that, it's just another house turned into a museum. More interestingly, the inspiration for the Lake of Shining Waters is across the road, and you can pay for a horse and carriage ride along the shorts. We were happy to do so.
That was enough Anne of Green Gables tourism for one day, although we did also drive past the LM Montgomery birthplace. Instead we headed to another beach for a walk on the ocean. Thunder Cove Beach is home to Teacup Rock, a oddly balanced sandstone pillar that is on the edge of the ocean. M took a lot of pictures.
From here, we had dinner on the water and then returned to Dalvay, where we had some drinks and another half dozen oysters before turning in.
Beaches: 1 on the day, 4 on the trip (again, not counting ones we drove past)
Lighthouses: 1 on the day, 5 on the trip (again, not counting ones we drove past)
Oysters: 18 in three batches.