West of Island

 

"Land ho!"

     Our first trip across the island was to the west region (Prince County) of the province. A couple of hours by car and you are at the other end of the province. We enjoyed travelling along the quiet roads. The days we were out there must have been lawn maintenance days. Almost every town we went through, people were on their lawn tractors. We saw no dandelions and the lawns were immaculate, manicured to green perfection.

     Here are some of the places that we saw in Prince County (west of the province).

     Potato Museum: Here is the description of the museum:

The Canadian Potato Museum is a living testament

 to the humble tuber and those who have tilled 

the soil in its evolution. 

We celebrate all things “potato”.

Highlights include the world's largest exhibits of

potato-related farm machinery, agricultural and 

Community artifacts and the world's largest potato sculpture.

Al on the left of photo walking to the museum.
The dog is from the community having fun with
all the people going to the museum.
And, of course, the world's largest potato.

     The museum had many displays showing the history of the humble potato, how it came to America, the products made with potatoes, the various types of potatoes and how the harvesting of the crop has changed over the years. The one display that fascinated me was the room that talked about the different diseases that affect the potato. Each condition was described along with a potato exhibiting the effects of that disease in a little coffin. Whoever thought of that display was very creative!

A row of mini coffins showing a potato with a disease

    As they said in the description above "We celebrate all things potato". They certainly did. The snack bar was everything potato and the gift shop was mostly potato items. Things to cook potatoes, pictures and posters with potato sayings, and even table cloths with potatoes. They even sold potato covered peanuts.

     The West Point Lighthouse: There are many lighthouses in P.E.I. They are all different in shape, size and markings (which helped sailors to determine where they were). The West Point Lighthouse stands at 69 feet tall being one of the tallest and unique lighthouses. It was built in 1875 and was manned until 1963 when the keeper, who lived in the attached dwelling, retired. Today it is operated electrically and automatically. In 1987, the inn was established and you can even stay in one of two rooms in the actual lighthouse. To see more about the lighthouse and inn click here.

Unique white and black stripes

Standing 69 feet tall making it one of the tallest in P.E.I.

View from the top

Looking across Northumberland Strait to New Brunswick

View from the other side. The beach and beyond the trees is the campground

The light

The view of the wind mills -- inland

     The North Cape Lighthouse:  North Cape is where the St Lawrence River and the

Northumberland Strait meet at the north extremity of the island. The lighthouse was automated in 1967. At present the tower is not open to the public but tourists are still drawn to North Cape, where they can walk out on the reef at low tide (we were not there at low tide) and view the various wind turbines at the Atlantic Wind Test Site and visit the North Cape Interpretive Centre which talks about the development of wind turbines. We spent a lot of time learning about the development of wind power. We had lunch at the well known restaurant and I had my first Lobster roll. I was not too impressed.

North Cape Lighthouse. Due to the adjacent radio tower, the lighthouse is
fenced in and closed to the public

A warning to the tourists

The coastline is rough and is constantly eroding

Al in front of North Cape Lighthouse

One of many wind turbines at the test site.

Here is one huge blade of a wind turbine. It looks a lot larger down on
the ground than way up in the air.

     The Bottle Houses: This tourist attraction was very interesting. Whole buildings were built with a variety of bottles of different colours, shapes and sizes. Edouard T. Arsenault started the construction of  three buildings as a hobby but really it was an obsession encouraged by his family and community.

     The promotional materials explain the history of these buildings:

Inspired by a single postcard, the late Edouard T. Arsenault started collecting

bottles in the summer of 1979 from his community, his family, his friends and relatives.

In the spring of 1980 at the age of 66, he began his construction, a mere hobby yet.

As his six-gabled structure was taking form, visitors started coming in.

Impressed by his work, they encouraged him to continue. Over the period

1980 to the time of his sudden death in the spring of 1984, Edouard cleverly cemented

over 25,000 bottles of various shapes, sizes and colours into three fantasy-like 

buildings, a fine example of recycling at its best. The proximity of the site to the sea and 

the setting provided by the wide variety of perennial and annual flowers 

on the grounds makes it a heaven for nature lovers and photographer, truly

 a "glassy" attraction!

The large bottle made of hundreds of bottles

 at the entrance of the Bottle Houses

The front counter in the gift shop

Entrance to the Chapel

Looking at the altar in the Chapel. Many people have had their wedding here.

Coloured bottles make a design on the walls.

People have left messages in bottles that hang from the ceiling in the Chapel

Bottles are used as the edging in the garden

Even the garden sculptures use bottles

Another sculpture

A second house. Contains an organ

Various shaped bottles are cemented to create the houses. 

A wall in the second house

The organ surrounded by bottle walls

Another wall design

Al looking at some information in the second house

Design with larger bottles

Flat bottles are used in a wall

Entrance to the third house -- the bar

Inside the bar -- liquor bottles of all shapes sit on the bar

More bottles sit in the bar

Support pillar in the bar

      We saw a number of interesting things in Prince County (west coast). The only thing that we missed was the Stompin' Tom Centre in Skinners Pond. During a motor home trip out to western Canada that we took with the family when the kids were young, we played the best of Stompin' Tom Connors many times. We had a great time singing along with him as we drove along the Trans-Canada Highway -- Tillsonburg, the Hockey Song and Bud the Spud. Unfortunately, we arrived in Skinners Pond a week too early and the centre was not due to open until July 1st. It looked like they still had a lot of work to do before the centre was ready for visitors. We have talked with people who have visited the centre after it opened and they were not too impressed. There was nothing in the gift shop because a bus load of tourists had been and bought up everything. Better planning is needed. I am not sure if we will get back to Skinners Pond.

     Wow, this is only one area of the province and there is so much to see and learn!