We arrived into Charlottetown a bit after 8 am and were among some of the first to disembark from deck 3. We were to meet our tour guide from Duncan's Island Tours at 8:30 so we stopped off in the terminal building to take advantage of the wifi for a few minutes. I had received a few phone calls and had a couple of voicemails – someone from Topor Boston tours had called to ask if I was still interested in the Chinatown market tour – they had another couple that were interested, and if we still wanted to go, they would open the tour up for Saturday. I called them back and left a voicemail that we were still interested.
We walked to the far end of the terminal building and easily found our tour guide, Terry, who walked us across the parking lot to his very nice mercedes benz SUV. He showed us a map of PEI – about 150 miles from tip to tip of the island. We were at the southern part of the middle of the island and would be going north up to see the Anne of Green Gables house then around towards the east and back down south to Charlottetown.
Now, neither Amina nor I have read the Anne of Green Gables series of books and really didn't know a thing about her or the author. I had booked this private tour but after speaking with Terry for a bit on our drive, we let him know that we were probably more interested in doing a culinary tour of PEI
moreso than about Anne of Green Gables or Lucy Montgomery.
Our first stop was a beautiful lookout to a typical fishing village across one of the many small lakes in the area.
We did make a stop at Silver Bush where Lucy Maud Montgomery lived with her aunt and uncle and wrote her stories about Anne. We walked into the house and looked around briefly but there was a tour bus there and the house was crowded. We decided to forego the tour of the house, walked around a bit then got back in the car to get some ice cream – the “best ice cream in the world” per Terry.
Terry was full of great information and pointed out all sorts of things to us and answered my questions about PEI. He spent 4 months of the year at his house in Florida and grew up near Halifax before moving to PEI. He also managed a semi-pro football team in PEI.
We stopped at Cow's Ice Cream and had a scoop of their Gooey Mooey ice cream on sprinkle cones. The ice cream really was very good but I'm no expert. According to Reader's Digest, though, it was the best ice cream in Canada and according to Tauck World Discovery Tours, it was rated the world's best ice cream.
The Cavendish beach was nearby and Amina had mentioned to Terry that she really wanted to visit a beach so we headed over. We walked for a while on the beach - there were a lot of families there but nobody was in the water - it was too cold. We enjoyed a walk along the beach out to the rocky end and back then put our shoes back on and headed back to the car.
At this point, Terry gave us the option of going to a seafood place or to a preserve store. I had mentioned to him that HAL recommended Lobster on the Wharf for lunch but Terry told us there were definitely better places that he recommended which is what I had suspected. We elected to go for lunch at the seafood place that he recommended. Before we got to the beach, Terry had mentioned that the largest native animal on PEI was the fox and just after we left the beach parking lot, he spotted one by the side of the road and pulled over. As if on cue, the fox crossed in front of the car and came over to our side as we rolled our windows down. It seemed to check us out briefly and since we weren't offering it any food, it moved on.
Terry made one additional stop along the way to take a closer look at a lobster trap. I really knew nothing at all about lobster fishing. Terry had told us earlier that lobster used to be the "poor man's" food. If a child was sent to school with a lobster sandwich, they were considered to be poor and that lobsters were so abundant that they were oftentimes tossed into the garden to act as fertilizer. A typical native of PEI could go to a grocery store and buy a 1 pound lobster for around $7. He highly recommended the lobster dinners that were offered throughout PEI but we weren't staying overnight in Charlottetown this evening. For about $36, you got a 1 pound lobster and all-you-can-eat mussels, clams, etc. The lobster fishing season had just ended a couple of weeks ago
A typical lobster trap had 2 parts. On one side, there were holes that a lobster could "walk" into which means that they backed up into the hole to get food (usually some type of fish) and dropped down a few inches into what was called the "kitchen". The lobsters couldn't back out of the trap. On the other end of the trap was a net that allowed the lobster to "walk" again and drop again into another section called the "parlor" where the lobster could hang out (leaving room for more lobsters to enter the "kitchen") until the trap was pulled up. The design was simple and clever.
Our next stop was Richard's eatery - a definite local hangout. We placed our order: a lobster roll and chips (fries) for Amina, a scallop burger for me, and an order of steamed mussels for us to share. We got our pager and made our way upstairs to sit on the rooftop and watch the local kids jump off the bridge into the river. Amina decided there to add "jumping off bridge into river" to her bucket list.
Our food was absolutely amazing. Amina's lobster roll was delicious with HUGE chunks of lobster. My scallop burger was actually half a dozen medium sized scallops that were coated in a panko-like crust and then deep fried and placed on a hamburger bun. Even though the scallops had been deep fried and the coating was light and crispy, the inside of the scallops were PERFECT - not overcooked and stringy. The steamed mussels were just amazing - delicious and I think Seth (the shell-fish hater) would have even liked it. The day was perfect sitting on that rooftop with a nice breeze and enjoying the sun.
Terry drove us back to the ship terminal after pointing out a few more interesting historical sites and other places to eat. One thing that I wanted to try but we didn't have time to were "Malpeque oysters". Terry pointed out a couple of oyster bars not too far from the terminal where we could probably get those.
I went to the ship to get my laptop and went back to the terminal to use the wifi but it was VERY slow bogged down by a ton of other passengers getting their internet fixes too. We shopped briefly in the terminal and then re-boarded the ship. I had just enough time for a couple of miles on the treadmill before dinner.
Our reservation this evening was at Canaletto's. This restaurant was a bit interesting. When we boarded the ship, we were given 2 "invitations" in our stateroom - one for Pinnacle Grill and one for Evening at Le Cirque. We didn't get one for Canaletto which I thought was weird because we were paying the extra surcharge to eat there. We had walked by Canaletto a bunch of times but never realized it was there because it's tucked away in one corner of the lido deck right next to the buffet. You have to walk right by it to get to the buffet if you are coming from one side of the ship (aft or forward, can't remember which). When we got up to the lido buffet, we walked around a bit because I couldn't quite remember where I had seen it and finally asked for directions from a nice ship's officer who just happened to ask us if we needed help finding something. LOL.
We were seated promptly and examined the menu and placed our order.
We started with the antipasto service which was delicious - a choice of different meats, olives, roasted veggies, fresh mozzarella. Amina also noticed that the balsalmic vinegar on the table that we could use to dip our bread in was the thick, syrupy kind - it was also delicious and the kind of balsalmic that you would pour over ice cream - high grade.
None of the first courses on the menu had appealed to me so I opted for the Edigiana Maccioni special which was the Italian herb sausage and Canelloni beans with creamy polenta. This was VERY good. The sausage wasn't very strong or spicy and the polenta was creamy and delicious.
For the 2nd course, I wanted to try the veal osso bucco with potato gnocchi which is normally one of my favorites. The veal shank was HUGE and, unfortunately, pretty tough. Now, we'd had a very large lunch and I was getting really full anyways so I barely ate 1/2 of the osso bucco. I do have to compliment the wait staff on the Veendam - they are well trained to observe whether or not you cleaned your plate. If you left much food on your plate, they always asked to make sure that you were happy with your food.
That evening, we went to the 10 pm movie and saw Mud with Matthew McConaghey. I liked the movie even though it was a little slow paced. There was a towel lobster on the bed when we made it back to the cabin that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment