Eric Stendal

Date: Monday, 14 September 2026

City / Region: Antigonish, NS –> Brackley Beach, PEI

Weather: Rain in the forecast for today tapering off at times. Probably going to be a wet one. It’s currently 19° feels like 21° and cloudy. 

Morning Summary

We woke up and got ready in the hotel. We then went down for their complimentary ‘Continental breakfast’. The North American Continental breakfast could be described as, “a mystical hotel ritual where stale carbohydrates and lukewarm brown water are masquerading as European elegance.” Nevertheless, I treated myself to a couple of their Danish pastries. Their coffee was very good, actually, it was processed in a machine which allowed for various strength levels. They even had a Norwegian setting – it was called “strong”, so I went with that one.

The drive on Highway 104 from Antigonish to the ferry at Caribou was wet but uneventful. We passed through the the New Glasgow area, then through Pictou, and Caribou, arriving finally at the ferry terminal.

We had our reservations for the 12:00 pm sailing, but it was 9:45 am and so the kind lady manning the booth bumped us forward to catch the incoming 10:00 am sailing! That provided us an extra two hours to our day.

The ferry coming in reminded me of being back in British Columbia; watching it slide into its berth and off-load the many cars, trucks, freight transports, and holiday motorhomes. We set sail and enjoyed the passage from Caribou to Wood Islands, PEI.

They had a designated ‘Pet Section’ onboard where we could stay with Maggie. Passengers are not permitted to wait in their vehicles, so everyone has to come up to the passenger decks during the voyage.

We made it to Wood Islands, and followed the ferry traffic along Highway 1 making a left-hand turn onto Point Prim Road at Mount Buchanan to go and see the ‘point’ – a jut of land that we had no idea of. I knew there was a light house there, but aside from that, no clue.

Arriving at Point Prim we were amazed to find out that we had stumbled accidentally upon PEI’s oldest light house! It looked really impressive in person, and the photos cannot do the view and experience of being there justice.

Afternoon Summary

Shelley was on the lookout for some fresh vegetable stands. We found one in Stratford off the side of the highway called “Mackenzie Produce”. We bought some red potatoes, green beans, corn, and some tomatoes to enjoy at our cottage.

We stopped downtown Charlottetown and ventured in to the Confederation Court Mall. Wow. That place is on life support. It reminded us of Hazeldean Mall back home, but bigger. The tenants in the mall are all individual owners with their various store fronts of merchandise: costume jewellery, knick-knacks, coffee/muffin stands, luggage and suitcases, etc.. There was an expansive seating area upstairs that in former times most likely supported a food court, but today just seating for the two places to buy food. No major retailers were in the mall. The two deli sandwiches and ‘raspberry cordial’ were consumed upstairs by us.

Cows Ice Cream was outside the mall on the corner of the block. We treated ourselves to some ice cream and sat outside watching the people come and go before getting back in the car to finish our trip and check in to the cottage.

Evening Summary

We arrived at what is going to be our new dwelling for the next three nights. It’s called H & R Cottages. Hilary and her husband have a 30-acre hobby farm with their home and 4 cottages located on it. They moved from Ontario to PEI in 2017 and built these four identical cottages on their property near the water for folks to come and enjoy.

Once the bags were unloaded from the car, Shelley put a shopping list together and then I set out to go get ’em. We were going to make supper here. We had M&M Meatshop’s Braised Short Beef Ribs with gravy, our local red potatoes boiled up with butter and salt, the green beans. I soaked up my gravy with some store bought multigrain bread and we had, of course, wine! What a fantastic tasting meal.

After this, we just sat and talked, enjoying the evening as it started to fade. We made it to bed relatively early and looked forward to the next morning.

Daily Highlights

• The best moment for us was wanting to find fresh, local produce and the fact that we actually found one so convenient! Also getting on the ferry early.
• We really didn’t have anything that sticks out as a ‘funniest moment’ for us today, so we’ll bookmark this for later.
• My biggest surprise was finding that the local liquor store here had a couple bottles of the Glen Breton Dark available for purchase and that they were cheaper in price than at the distillery!
• The old lighthouse bulb with whale oil could be seen for eighteen miles. We thought that the new bulbs could be seen for further but that wasn’t true. Same distance. The old technology was just as good as the new as far as efficacy in brilliance is concerned. Modern lights today are powered by three little bulbs.

Logistics

• We strolled through downtown Charlottetown, but aside from this not too much walking around today.
• We bought groceries and lunch downtown. I topped up our tank of gas putting in 20.542 L of gas @ $2.046/L for a total of $42.03.
• Looking forward to the sunrise and a little homemade simple breakfast with coffee!

Closing Thoughts

A really great day of short travel with a ferry ride and some exploration downtown. Getting settled in the little cottage and enjoying the ‘home prepared’ meal was a highlight.