Prince Edward Island

Last weekend Prince William and his bride visited Prince Edward Island. I remember our vacation there many years ago. I’ve been to Europe many times, to China and Thailand, but all that travel came after I divorced Wallace and most of it after I married my second husband, John. But I went to Prince Edward Island with my first husband, Wally.

We were living in Drexel Hill, outside Philadelphia. For vacation Wally wanted to go to someplace remote. He chose Prince Edward Island.

Off we went, with the three kids, driving up through Maine, which was not at all scenic after we left the coast. Wally, of course, did all the driving. Crowded into the back seat were Karl, in high school, and Martha, in junior high, with David, just finishing first grade, wedged in the between them. I sat quietly and looked at the passing scenery. The kids were no bother. As soon as the car started, all three fell asleep.

So the kids missed New Brunswick, which was mountainous and beautiful. I wondered why we had to go further to find a beautiful vacation spot. Nova Scotia was also beautiful, but Wally drove at the legal limit to get to the ferry over to Prince Edward Island.

Wally made reservations for the cheapest cabins he could find. The fist week, at the western end of the island, we crowded in a cabin, advertised as three bedrooms, which consisted one 9x12 living room-kitchen, and two “rooms” with barely space in each for one double bed. Martha slept on a cot in the furnace closet.

The young couple who owned the place were lovely. The man was a lobster fisherman. He took Wally and Karl for a day on his boat, out on the Gulf of St. Lawrence to tend his lobster traps. That evening his wife came to our door, and said, in a soft Scottish accent, “Here’s something for your supper.” She handed me a dishpan full of boiled lobsters, each too small to sell commercially but large enough to make a great meal. One of the best dinners I’ve ever had.

Several days we put on swim suits and went to the nearby beach, where we alone, never seeing anyone else enjoying the long stretch of soft, brown sand. The kids built an enormous sand castle. They also buried Wally up to his neck in sand. (I wish we could have left him there.)

The kids and I waded into the ocean. Surprise! When we lived in Chicago, one July I took the children (only two of them then) to the beach on Lake Michigan. We walked in the water and came right out again. The water was like ice! But there in Canada, far up north, the water was delightfully warm. The residents told us the warmth came from the St. Lawrence River which flowed into the nearby gulf. I think maybe the Gulf Stream, which loops over the Atlantic and warms England, may also have something to do with it.

At the end of the week we left our quiet holiday spot and drove across the width of the island, stopping at Green Gables house where Martha was thrilled to see the setting for the “Ann of Green Gables” (she read all the books by that author). We discovered the central and eastern end of the island swarming with tourists. Canadians take their holidays on Prince Edward Island the way New Yorkers go to Florida.

Wally did not like to be around other tourists. He did not like the second cabin, which was old and shabby, and which he had booked for a week. It had a lovely view. The next morning I stepped out onto the grass and saw at the bottom of the hill a tall-masted sailing ship had slipped into an inlet of the sea. On the deep blue water, the white ship with its white sails against the green hills on the other side of the bay made a perfect picture – and Wally, still asleep in the cabin, had control of the camera.

The next day Wally decided we had car trouble. We needed to leave immediately before the car broke down so far from home. So we packed up and left.

Somehow Wally did not feel the need to have a mechanic look at the car in Charlottesville, the capitol and the one big town on the island. No problems with the car in Nova Scotia, where we made several stops, including a night we spent to watch the tidal river flow backwards from the Bay of Fundy. And no breakdowns or need for repair all the way back to Pennsylvania. As far as I know, no mechanic looked at that beautiful big Ford LTD for months after our trip to Prince Edward.

In their brief visit to the island, William and Kate had to deal with crowds and ceremonial events. On our vacation there, I had to deal with Wally. Somehow, in spite of Wally, I suspect my children and I had more fun than the royals on Prince Edward Island.