New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island|Maritimes, Day 3

9/6/19 - Friday
Grappling with the news of Hurricane Dorian heading straight towards us, we had some serious thinking to do over breakfast.

We ultimately decided that we would have to combine today's New Brunswick plans with tomorrow's plans to explore Prince Edward Island (PEI). We were supposed to have one dedicated day each to explore both of these provinces, but the hurricane would be hitting the day we were planning to explore PEI.

Our first stop of the morning was Cape Enrage along the Bay of Fundy, one of the Marine Wonders of the World with tides riding 53 feet over a 12-hour period twice a day.

It was a clear, bright, sunny day. Who would've believed a hurricane was hitting within 24 hours?!

Cape Enrage offers views of this tidal phenomenon from its cliffs.

We headed down to the view the lower area that is only accessible at certain times.

 There were plenty of little tide pools with snails and other small sea life.

 You could see the seaweed on the rocks where the water would eventually cover.

Hopewell Rocks, also known as the Flowerpot Rocks, may have been the attraction I was most excited for out of the entire trip.  These are rock formations caused by tidal erosion that stand 40-70 feet tall.  Located along the coast of the Bay of Fundy, which is home to the world's highest tides, you can walk on the ocean floor during low tide.

It was really quite remarkable to look down at this section of beach that would eventually be completely under water in a few hours.

If we had had our full day to explore New Brunswick as originally planned, we would have been able to observe high tide as well as low tide and really experience the difference. As it stood, we had to drive to another province, and we were short on time. To get to Prince Edward Island, you can drive across the Confederation Bridge. It takes about 10 minutes to drive across and comes with a hefty toll, but you don't pay this until you're leaving.

Driving into the province, I immediately caught sight of Cow's Ice Cream, which was definitely on our list. As luck would have it, it was definitely on the list of the tour bus in front of us, too, so we had a solid half hour wait to get our ice cream.

The Marine Rail Park provides a good vantage point of the Confederation Bridge, so of course I had to get some pics here before venturing onwards.

It seems like everywhere you went around PEI, there was mention of Anne of Green Gables. Green Gables is the name of a 19th-century farm in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, and is one of the most notable literary landmarks in Canada. The Green Gables farm and its surroundings are the setting for the popular Anne of Green Gables novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Even though we aren't too familiar with the Green Gables backstory, it didn't seem possible to visit PEI without seeing this house. We arrived with about 20 minutes to spare, which seemed like enough time to tour through the old house. Then I walked past this sign and absolutely had to have a BeaverTail.

Cue ensuing panic as BeaverTails are made to order, and precious minutes were ticking by.

Finally, armed with a fresh BeaverTail, we had about 5 minutes remaining to tour the house.

The Green Gables farm was owned by the MacNeill family, who were cousins of author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The farm's name is derived from the rich dark green paint of the gables on the farmhouse. Montgomery visited the farm as a young girl and based the location of her best-selling Anne series of books on the Green Gables farm. The international acclaim of Montgomery's novels made Cavendish into a popular tourist destination in the province beginning in the early 20th century.

After we finished our tour, we were finally able to chow down on our pastry. BeaverTails is a Canadian-based chain of pastry stands. Its namesake products are fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble beaver's tails. 

It was a short drive down the road to Thunder Cove Beach, which was probably my favorite beach that we visited on this trip.

Bordered by sandstone cliffs, we walked over to view Teacup Rock.

We drove back to Charlottetown and went to grab dinner at Sugar Skull Cantina. I was really looking forward to the 7 Layer Mason Jar Dip and the Pineapple Tres Leches, but sadly they were out of the dessert and we ended up finding the dip disappointing. The mason jar it comes served in is quite small, and they'd forgotten to give us silverware. Novel idea but lacks in execution.

Since our dinner turned out to be on the small side, we also snagged a Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich and a Cookie Dough Brownie from Tim Horton's before checking into the Holiday Inn. We actually redeemed our Holiday Inn free night reward for this place because it had the highest valuation. Upon viewing it in person, it was clear that it was valued so highly because of its location on the Island, not because it was an exceptionally nice hotel. 🤷

And so ended our frenzied day of calm weather.