On Sunday, August 6, the third day of our Canadian vacation, we rose early to see Hopewell Rocks at low tide. Ours was the third car in line at the park entrance at 8 a.m. We parked and hiked down to beach level at the stairway down to Flower Pot Rocks. From there we hiked along the temporary beach on the ocean floor to see five of the six coves before the rising tide cut off access to the coves one by one back to Flower Pot Rocks. It rained the entire time. We took many photos. By mid-afternoon, the same area where we walked would be visited by other tourists in kayaks.

Tide in at Hopewell Rocks

Tide out at Hopewell Rocks.

We were on the opposite side of the Bay of Fundy from Nova Scotia. The Bay of Fundy has the world’s most dramatic regular tidal changes. Every six to eight hours, the tide changes up to 16 meters (54 feet). The tides carved out the coastline, creating places of freestanding columns of rock as seen at Hopewell Rocks.

On our way to Prince Edward Island, we stopped for lunch in Truro at Boston Pizza. Our waiter asked where were from. We told him Central Florida. He told us he attended college in Tampa. Small world.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

We drove north on Highway 15 north to the coast along the Northumberland Strait, to Highway 16 North. Lovely seaside vistas along the way. Moose crossing signs reminded us we were in Canada. On the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, the signs are in English and French. The island is known as PEI and IPE for Ile-du-Prince-Eduard. All tourist guides, maps, and signs were in English and French. Roadway speed signs were in kilometers. The speedometer read 100. Kilometers per hour. At 100 kilometers per hour, we were traveling 62 mph.

We arrived at Dalvay-by-the-Sea, an historic home converted into a hotel, where we would spend two nights. In 2011, Prince William and his bride stayed here. A lovely lawn gently sloped down from the front of the building to a lake, facing the setting sun. When we arrived, guests relaxed in scattered Adirondack chairs facing west.

I read in the tourist literature that red Adirondack chairs had been placed at scenic overlooks throughout Canada. While I’m not wild about social media, I wanted to participate in the Canadian #sharethechair campaign. Perhaps Handsome and I could get our photo taken in red chairs this week. Canada is celebrating 150 years as a nation. #Canada150 signs abounded.

We checked in. The gentleman behind the desk lugged our bags up a wide central staircase to our room on the second floor. We unpacked, then wandered through the building to find the restaurant and the library. The library was more of a gathering room with games, a fireplace, and books consisting of traveler’s castoffs, a few reference books, and a Reader’s Digest condensed books. Egad. I was grateful to have my iPad with the Kindle app. I had hundreds of ebooks and a larger collection of unabridged classics than this historic hotel. No television. Weak internet.

Dalvay Beach on Prince Edward Island.

The hotel was a short walk to the beach. A storm front followed us from New Brunswick, so we didn’t spend long on the beach.

The restaurant recommended reservations, but they squeezed us in. During dinner, a light misting rain turned into a full rainbow over the lake.

We retired to our spacious room to review the next day’s agenda. As a writer, I was excited about seeing the Green Gables House, a place where Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote her books. Her stories inspired movies about life on Prince Edward Island beginning in 1908. We were set to explore three sections of the northern central coastline on Prince Edward Island.