– Charlottetown, PEI to Moncton, New Brunswick –

Today we spent the morning in PEI, and the afternoon at the Hopewell Rocks. It’s been a really nice day. We started the morning in Charlottetown with a run down one of my favorite traveling trails- the Confederation Trail.

The trail technically covers a large portion of the island, but my favorite runs down into downtown Charlottetown. It’s a very nice run. It was very warm this morning on our run, and from that, we were already guessing that it was going to be a hot day, and we were right.

We showered, had a decent breakfast at our hotel, stopped for gas and ice, and hit the road, as usual. Our major destination on PEI today was East Point, where there’s a cute lighthouse. On the drive, we got to see more of the coast, which was fun, too.

It was incredibly warm even by the time we reached the lighthouse. We all hopped out, dogs included, to look around. Do you know that in all of the lighthouses we’ve visited, we haven’t been able to climb to the top of a single one of them? This one was no exception, despite having a gift shop and visitor information center inside. I think it had a cafe or ice cream shop, too. Why can’t we climb some stairs?

When we finished at the lighthouse, we turned down the southern shore of the eastern side of the island to visit a white sand beach for Mark at Basin Head Provincial Park. From the parking area, it was a short walk down to the beach. It, too, had a cafe and gift shop. It even had lifeguards.

The park was on the coast where a river reached the ocean, and the river portion had a wharf on either side right as it reached the water. The sandy beach was on either side. The lifeguards all sat on the wharf, while little boys jumped off into the wharf right next to a sign that said jumping was prohibited. I guess the lifeguards didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

In addition, the sign said to watch for jellyfish today, and we saw some int he stretch of water between the sides of the wharf. Mom even got a picture of one. It’s a little blurry, but it is clearly a dark purple jellyfish. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten into the water. I wouldn’t have as a kid, either. Boys, right?

With the beach completed, we drove back toward Charlottetown and the bridge across to New Brunswick. It was already nearing noon by the time we arrived, and everyone was getting pretty hungry.

We stopped at Cows Creamery, which doesn’t sound like a good lunch, right? Or maybe it does, depending on how you feel about dessert meals. I don’t think I mentioned it yesterday, but the Cows Creamery area also has a burger shop, a chocolate shop, a pizza place, and a grilled cheese restaurant, to name a few. Any of those things that contain dairy use Cows Creamery dairy products. Cool, right?

Yesterday we noticed the grilled cheese place, and thought it sounded like fun, so today, that’s what we had lunch. Mom, Mark, and I had plain (original) grilled cheeses, and Dad had one with pulled pork. They all came with chips. The plain grilled cheese group all ate our sandwiches, then went into Cows Creamery for ice cream, planning to eat our chips later. Dad had eaten too much to be interested in ice cream.

Stuffed with dairy, we drove on down the road from Charlottetown back to the welcome village, then across the water on the Confederation bridge, stopping to pay our $47 CAD toll. It’s expensive to leave PEI. It is a nice bridge, though. I bet they are still paying for it, since it was built in the 90s.

It’s about a 2.5 hour drive between Charlottetown and the Hopewell Rocks, down on the Bay of Fundy. It was our coolest stop on our last trip up to PEI, and It might be the coolest stop on this trip, too. We’ll take a poll for everyone’s favorite stop on the last day of the trip.

It was 4:00pm when we arrived, which happened to be about the peak of the low tide. The visitor center for the Hopewell Rocks is open from 8am to 8pm, and you can only visit the beach during high tide. During low tide you can look down at the rocks from the viewing platforms, or take kayaks out around the rocks.

The tickets were $10 per person, and dogs were free. We parked and payed our dues, then took the 15-minute walk through the woods to the stairs that led down to the beach. It was a pretty long walk for Mom and Dad, probably the longest of the trip. It has a lot of stairs, too.

The Hopewell Rocks are basically rock formations caused by the strong, high tides in the Bay of Fundy. During low tide, the rocks are entirely visible and you can walk around the bases, and during high tide, they are partially covered in water. It’s really cool. We’ve decided that tomorrow morning, on our way down to Fundy National Park, we will visit again to see the park at high tide from the viewing platforms. Mark and I didn’t get to do that last time, and the tickets are good for 2 consecutive days. Awesome, right?

We spent at least an hour down on the beach, wandering around. The rocky portion of the beach is huge, especially at low tide. Ripley had such a good time. Sabre didn’t get to do too much walking around, as Mom had carried her down in a sling over her shoulder, but I still think she must’ve enjoyed looking around. There were some really muddy kids down there.

The walk back up was of course uphill, so it was a little harder and little hotter, given the already warm temperatures. We took turns sucking up AC and visiting the gift shop and bathrooms, since someone had to stay out with the dogs.

It was less than an hour back to Moncton, where we found our hotel for the night. Mom, Mark, and Dad had Harvey’s, but I couldn’t stomach another veggie burger, and had an egg salad sandwich from the gas station next door and some hummus and tzatziki from the cooler.

Back at the hotel, everyone had to have a shower. We were all hot and dusty, and Ripley had dirty, red-stained feet, and it was time for her bath anyway. Now she smells like tropical flowers. My little angel.

Tomorrow we will spend our day checking out the tides on the Bay of Fundy. It’s our last full day in Canada. We will get to run on the same trail we did the last time we were here, too. It’s a nice trail that runs along the river, where we can see the tides. No breakfast at our hotel, but there’s a gas station and a Timmie’s right across the street. All of our needs in one place. Yay!

– Trip Total : 6,620 miles –