Green Gables Shore

It is a beautiful morning and we are off to Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Cavendish National Historic Site. The bike is dry because we have covered parking at Sunny Isles motel and we have enough dry riding gear to make this trip to the sites that pay tribute to Anne of Green Gables. We take a Hwy 107, a road we haven’t travelled that has a construction zone just like almost every other route on this island. We are first in line at the traffic control point and able to speak to the traffic control person who confirms that there is construction almost everywhere this year, far in excess to what she has seen in previous years. She reminds us that the road construction season is very short on PEI.
At the picturesque town of Stanley Bridge we turn onto Hwy 6 which takes us on to Cavendish. We ride through a very scenic landscape composed of red sandstone bluffs, white sand beaches and rolling farm fields. Parks Canada has preserved both Green Gables and Montgomery’s grandparents homestead where she live for half her life. The house and grounds depict a typical PEI farm of the late 1800’s although the fields have become a golf course. It is a very peaceful beautiful setting that inspired Montgomery throughout her writing career.
We drive back to Stanley Bridge to lunch on the outdoor patio of Carr’s Seafood Restaurant. The restaurant has a panoramic view of New London Bay, the farms at the edge of the town, the wharves, and the bridge where teenagers are jumping into the water. Anywhere in the world the combination of warm weather and water guarantees that the teenagers will find the highest point and jump off it. We enjoy a traditional PEI lunch of steamed mussels and raspberry cordial. We follow Route 20, a beautiful ride that takes us to French River, the Lake of Shining Waters and gorgeous Malpeque village, famous for its briny oysters.
It’s mid afternoon so we head back to our motel, as we have a bit of laundry to do and gear to dry, but not before picking up a huge cooked lobster for our dinner. Yum Yum! PEI is a great province for picnicking as there are many roadside markets for both vegetables and seafood.
With the laundry done and drying in the sun, Marlene heads to downtown Summerside to check out some of the heritage buildings and do some window shopping at Spinnakers Landing. She is particularly interested in the authentic island arts and crafts that can be found here.