We headed out at 9:00AM this morning to tour the west end of PEI known as the North Cape area.
Just north of Summerside is the Cape Egmont area, part of the heavily Acadian west side of the Cape. At Cap-Egmont are the Maisons de Bouteilles (Bottle Houses). A hobby of resident Edouard Arsenault the three houses are constructed using over 25,000 bottles of every color and description. Another truly Acadian touch to the tour.
Just up the Cape from Cap-Egmont is the very Irish community of Oleary which was in the middle of the Potato Blossom Festival. Jeff's upbringing on a potato farm in northern Maine was all the reason we needed to visit the Oleary Potato Museum and spend an hour or so learning of the potato's migration from South America to the western world. PEI has developed several virus resistant varieties of potatoes and is one of the world's leaders in potato exporting.
A great part of the museum is the display of vintage potato farming equipment that leads to the displays of PEI's potato products.
Our next stop was the Cedar Dunes Lighthouse that is now a museum and Inn. The several floors of the lighthouse tower offer rooms as well as the restaurant and gift shop built in what was the lighthouse keeper's quarters. As we continued north the red clay cliffs of the Cape appeared and we enjoyed a 30 minute drive to the northern tip of the Island at North Cape.
Miminegash was our next stop to learn about seaweed harvesting on PEI. Irish Rose is a local variety that grows on the shallow reefs around the island and are commercially viable because of their 60% by weight content of carrageenin, a thickening agent used in foods and other products like shampoo. The Seaweed cafe offers Seaweed Pie made with carrageenin and cream over angel food cake and topped with fruit filling.
We had a lunch of lobster omelets while enjoying the view of the North Cape at the Wind and Surf Restaurant, recommended by RVing friends Jerry and Ardra Fitzgerald who were here a few years ago. We walked off lunch along the cliffs and around the Canada Wind Energy Research Center located at the Cape.
Our trip back south was along the Gulf of St Lawrence side of the Island that seems to be predominately English in flavor and is peppered with farms that reach down to the waters edge.
Our next stop was Green Park to visit the Wooden Ship Museum and Yeo House.
PEI was a shipbuilding center beginning in the 1700's. Sailing ships required large amounts of timber in construction and PEI was blessed with vast timber tracts. Sailing ships from PEI sailed to the world's ports and the shipbuilding industry provided PEI with important jobs and exports. The demise of wooden ships after the American Civil was finally ended with construction of the last ships on the island just after WWI.
The shipbuilding industry created great wealth on PEI and the George Yeo family was but one example. His shipyard at Green Park as well as the large finishing yards in England were one of the Island's largest.
The home he built for his large family just behind the yards is a beautiful museum of the life in 19th century PEI.
Dinner was back in Summerside at wharf side and for a change did not include lobster, fresh local oysters and halibut for Jeff and salmon for Sue.
