PEI

PEI

It is day 5 for us in PEI, hard to believe, and maybe I am wrong. The guidebook suggests that PEI is a good place to just kick back and relax. Just as well.

For whatever reasons, my asthma fired a warning shot across my bow the other night, so I am quite sure it is time to kick back lest asthma kick (my) butt. MDT thinks we are breathing in lots of pollens. There is the wheat field next door, and they mow the grass here daily. Of course, the wind blows even on a calm sunny day, and we have been pushing it a bit with our whirlwind tour of Cape Breton and a day of waiting to get on the ferry-in the rain, followed by 50 mph winds at the campsite. So, I have been laying low for most of the days, and I even got in a nap yesterday.

Nevertheless, we have managed a few adventures. Yesterday, we got in to Charlottetown for a lovely lunch at the Selkirk Restaurant in the Prince Edward Hotel. I got this little appetizer of salmon rubbed with curry spices, and a 3 potato salad made with dijonaise that made me insist MDT taste it so she could make a vat of it for a future second Saturday. She had a lovely lobster quesadilla, and Caesar salad.

A word about PEI potatoes. They are fabulous. We probably eat them all the time and don’t know it. I am almost certain that McDonalds serves them. This whole island is covered in them. (They are also blossoming and pollinating) I am ordering French fries a lot, because they are so good. The best was at a little diner where we ended up for Sunday dinner. We headed out for an Acadian restaurant that has ceased to exist, but who knew at the time. Our fallback plan was to go to Summerside, a fairly booming tourist town on the western side of the island (opposite side from Charlottetown). Judging from what is open on Sundays, it is clear that those Calvinists are still having there way around these parts. Just as we were about to turn around for Burger Monarch, this little diner appears. The interior décor was 50’s from the poodle skirts and pony tales of the (ageing) waitpersons to the coke machines and shake makers. http://www.starlitediner.pe.ca/main.htm We ordered burgers and fries. Out came a plate full of freshly cut and fried to crispy perfection French fries. The burger was passable. The fries were irresistible. Lucky we didn’t order a shake. We haven’t yet tried the local potato chips, but they are on our grocery list. I’m just not sure about the lobster flavored ones.

Today we treated the car to a nice wash. It had something like a red crust all over it. I think that at least the base crust came from these enormous dirt carrying trucks that were parked beside us on the ferry. However, a trip through a couple of road construction areas probably topped it off. While it got washed, we took a walk around Peake’s Warf and had lunch at the Quay. The view of the harbor was lovely and the lunch was good. Since the asthma warning, I have had to forego dairy and alcohol. This made the potato skins out of the question-cheese and sour cream. However, the crispy battered scallops and French fries were quite fine, and the garden salad was surprisingly vibrant. MDT liked her chicken wrap and Caesar salad. I do believe I could eat seafood daily, but that really won’t work for Marcia.

We did the tourist shuffle around the Warf, and particularly enjoyed the Cow’s ice cream shop. No ice cream for us, but the postcards and T-shirts were quite fun. On our ride home, we stopped by the organic produce farm and B&B. The view of the river winding all around the farm was magnificent. I got to see it when I followed Caleb out back so he could pick us some peas and cut a head of broccoli. We had to take the salad greens from the refer. He sounded almost apologetic that they had been picked at 3pm, about two hours earlier. We felt that we could make do with them. Dinner too was quite vibrant.