PEI or BUST, it was a BUST...

Having never been to PEI, I had visions dancing in my head of ocean coves speckled with colourful boats, pastel water sheds and lobster traps (with bright floats attached), art studios in abundance, along with amazing artists!

Ohhhh the photo opps, the wonderful artwork I would create, this was the province I was most looking forward to visiting on our tour. I was certain PEI would be my favourite province of them all.

Surprisingly,  it was my least favourite and I lost count after the 250th door stated "closed for the season".

Except for the central hub of Charlottetown, where you can feast on big boxed stores till your heart is content, the province was shut down for the season.

Suspect PEI is home to those capitalizing on the tourist season (early May- early October), after the bus loads of visitors cease, the part time residents take down all their brightly coloured tourist traps, store their left over red haired Anne of Green Gables dolls (that didn't sell during the season) in the attic, board up their homes and bundle up their cash, hightailing it down to Florida for six months.

Ohhh and do not get me started on tourist traps, not sure what to make of the whole Cavendish commercial hub, while it was "closed for the season" we managed to sneak through, it was like poor old Lucy Maud Montgomery's characters did a few drugs too many with the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland...an absolute eyesore, thank God it was "closed for the Season" me thinks they should seriously consider closing it down for good.

I will take the year round charm and genuine hospitality of Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers (is that even a word? well I like it even if it isn't) any day over the six month "fake and bake it" in the towns and villages of PEI.

Trying to make my PEI "raspberry cordial"  (only available during tourist season) glass half full versus half empty, JDog and I did walk (or should I say climb) over a no trespassing fence and walked a dirt path for over three miles, cutting through a series of boarded up for the season  "fake and bake homes" with no trespassing signs plastered all over them, down to a secluded beach with the PEI squeaking sands at our feet. I got some priceless shots of rock cliffs for all our efforts, good thing JDog  perseveres when he is hunting down a photo opp. This four hour "no trespassing" adventure made the trip to PEI worthwhile (along with the COWS ice cream).

Sorry to say to those part time PEIers, we will not be back anytime soon. Wanted to hightail it back to the real life, non-staged towns and villages in Nova Scotia, where doors do open all season long.  Alas the wind and rains came full throddle, closing down all bridge and ferry access off and onto the island.

We made the most of being trapped for another day and decided to give PEI a second chance in the rains and winds.  We got some typical rainy day shots,  after romping around all day in the rains, we gave in to the lure of the big boxed stores and restaurants In Charlottetown. We arrived in the central hub town of PEI only to find out the big boxed outlets and restaurants were closed due to the storms.

Thankfully, the next day the storm winds and rains died down allowing us to travel off the island. The island "treat of a place" that did remain open through it all was good ole' tried, tested and true COWS ice cream!  Got my fix of glorious ice cream before we hightailed it off the island.

To see who is reading this blog post to the bitter end (and did not drop off after my PEI bash), the first person to comment on their all time fav flavour of COWS ice cream gets a COWS postcard I picked up during my daily ice cream pig outs.

And to be fair to PEI, the beaches we trespassed onto truly were spectacular, just as amazing as my favourite PEI based COWS ice cream...

Peace Out, from the glorious unspoiled beauty of New Brunswick (full of open doors)

xo