Day trip on the Sunrise Trail

We decided to go on a day trip along the Sunrise Trail from Pictou to Tatamagouche. The trail goes further in each direction but this is the section we drove a few days ago. I will post another section at a later date.

On the drive expect to see rolling farm lands and water views.

First we drove to Tatamagouche and checked all the quaint little shops and the brewery. The brewery was very popular and the streets were crowded with tourists. There are several restaurants along the street and on that day there was even a food truck.

This is a picture of the brewery from the inside of the little train. To the left you can see the back of the food truck that was parked outside.

Near the end of the street we came to Patterson Warf Park, 

and saw this beautiful lighthouse view, picnic tables and fireplace. 

We got on the trail from there and walked as far as the Train Station Inn. This trail follows the water behind Main Street Tatamagouch and from it you can access several business'.

You can even rent these bikes (That is a two person covered bike in the distance). I wouldn't recommend driving through the town on a busy day but they are perfect for this trail.

This is the Train Station Inn. Someday we want to spend the night on a rail car and eat in the dining car. 

We checked out the gift shop and small cafe there as well and were able to get on the “train” which tours the town. Unfortunately I somehow missed getting a picture of this train. I meant to take one when we got off and forgot.The actual stop is at the Foodland grocery store but they let us on there anyway. The fee is by donation and it doesn’t always take the same route. We did a circle around the town and got off again at the Train Station Inn. 

We decided to take the trail back to the Saturday Market and Creamery Museum. You can take the trail much further but it was really hot that day and we decided we would do it sometime in the fall instead.

The Market had two separate sections, one was in the building pictured above and had this outdoor eating area.

The second building was even more interesting,

And I couldn't resist getting this little treat, yum!

The Museum is interesting, there is a section on fossils, 

one on the creamery,

another part has antiques from the area 

another on the coal industry and another on the natives, but the most interesting to me was the Anna Swan portion. 

She is the giantess who was in the circus and even met the Queen. 

On the way back to Pictou we stopped at Rushtons Beach.

It's quite a long walk out to the beach but totally worth it.

The tide was out and it was absolutely beautiful. We walked up to the end and saw seals sunning themselves.

There are several other little stops along this route, this is Balmoral Grist Mill. We didn't spend a lot of time here on this trip but it is beautiful with a walking trail and a picnic area. You can tour the inside during the summer months as well.

We also stopped at Cape John, which has beautiful rocky outcroppings, 

interesting rocks, 

a pebble beach,

a picnic area,

and a warf.

The next stop for us was the Seafoam Lavender Farm

It not only smells wonderful here but it is also picturesque and there is a store where you can buy everything lavender you can imagine, including chocolate with lavender in it. You can do a self guided tour through the gardens, take a selfie and afterwards stop in the store.

There are so many other places to stop along the way, Lismore Sheep Farm (they make amazing slippers) and Sutherland Steam Mill, to name a couple. There are a couple of fishing villages, Toney River and River John, both beautiful. There are several locations to stop and kayak as well. You can definitely fill a whole day with this coastal drive.

One Day Itinerary for PEI

Going to the Island for vacation is a wonderful experience, if you take the ferry over it all starts with the salt air and the smell of the ocean, then you see the red cliffs and lighthouse come into view and you know you are in for something special. We often take the ferry boat to the island for a day trip when we don’t have time to stay longer. I also enjoy taking the bridge, and it is slightly cheaper but for a day trip the boat is a shorter drive for us and it is part of the PEI experience. I had pre-booked our times for the ferry so there was no chance of us having to wait.

Here are a few pictures of the ferry terminal area before we left:

We booked the first ferry of the morning, unfortunately it was the small boat, Holiday Island but it was still a beautiful morning. Here is a picture of us passing the larger boat, Confederation, which has a Cow's store on board.

We usually eat breakfast on the ferry so we don’t waste a moment of time. Once we were off the ferry we headed straight to Charlottetown, if you are at the back of the crowd of traffic stop at Point Prim Lighthouse, if you stop on the way back it might be closed. This is a lighthouse that you can tour, I’ve been there three times and always missed it being open. It is on my bucket list though.

In Charlottetown headed straight downtown and signed up for the Harbour Hippo. 

This is something I’ve never done before so I wanted to try it. There are other boat tours in that area as well but this is the one we wanted to do this time. The first one was full so we bought tickets for the second one at 11:30 and then headed to Peak’s Warf and the waterfront to look around. We got pictures by the 2017 sign, ate cows ice cream, did some shopping and checked out the small park there. 

Then it was time for our tour. Even though I had lived in Charlottetown as a student for many months, we saw some interesting buildings and business’ that we hadn’t seen before, including the mansion where Will and Kate stayed during their visit to the island. Here are a few of the things we saw:

From there we went into the water and saw the Charlottetown waterfront from an entirely different vantage point. Here is a picture of their skyline.

When we got off the Hippo we thought about eating at the Chip Shack as it is highly recommended but it was crowded and we weren’t that hungry after our cows ice cream so we headed towards North Rustico. (this picture was taken before it opened)

We like to drive through Rustico when we go to Cavendish because it is so picturesque. In fact all of PEI is picturesque, the red cliffs, rolling fields, blue sky and sea, all gorgeous. Around every turn there is another beautiful vista. 

We decided to eat at this place, unfortunately it was not very good (our fries were raw and the fish was iffy, also it was really expensive). 

This happens sometimes on the island (actually a lot). People say it is because they are feeding tourists so it doesn’t matter if the food is good or not because people are just passing through. We ate there because some years there aren’t a lot of choices in Cavendish for eating, this time however, we saw many places we could have eaten, in fact the whole area was booming. 

After lunch we headed to Grampa's Studio to have our picture taken. I did it years ago before I met my husband and it has been on my bucket list for us to do together. The service wasn’t so great there and the pictures are extremely expensive, but it was fun and not something you can do everywhere. My husband was grossed out because they don't clean the costumes between customers. I won't show you those pics.

Normally we would have spent the day doing things and then do the boardwalk in the evening before heading to the hotel for the night but because we were only there for the day we hit the boardwalk early.

We enjoy walking the boardwalk and doing a bit of shopping. We got smoothies and a beaver tail from the BeaverTails kiosk. YUM! As well as Raspberry Cordial - you can't go to the Island and not get it. Another thing to try is the chocolate covered potato chips. I didn't get any this time but they are very good.

Then we checked out Adventure Zone because it is relatively new and we hadn’t done it before. 

You can get a package deal which includes the haunted hotel, laser tag and mini golf but because we were on a tight schedule we just did the haunted hotel. You can’t take pictures inside but I will tell you that they did a really awesome job of this and I did give a little scream at one point. 

The are several other places you can go such as the Ripley’s Believe it or not and the Wax Museum, which has a Tim Hortons and there is also paint ball which is new. You can also do a half day at Burlington or the Anne of Green Gables Village. We have already done those but you can pick and choose which is best for your family - everything is very close together.

From there we drove back to Charlottetown and then on to the ferry, stopping at the Point Prim lighthouse as well as the Information Centre where there is a candy shop and a liquor store. You can also buy new potatoes and vegetables along the side of the road.

We got some fudge there and also some PEI moonshine to give as gifts before we left the island. Sometimes this area is closed when we take the last ferry home so we were lucky to catch it open. If you are leaving that stop for last to buy something specific you might be disappointed so make sure you get anything you really want before leaving Charlottetown.

Here are a few pics from the ferry terminal:

And the ferry ride back:

And this one is when you are pulling up to Caribou:

So that is a one day itinerary for PEI and it just scratches the surface of the things you can do. I’ve also done a two day Anne trip that was exclusively Anne of Green Gables related as well as a trip with children, one doing the East Point Coastal Drive as well as several other day trips. One of our favorite things to do on the Island is to go deep sea fishing and they also have many beautiful beaches. There are so many things to do and see here you are sure to be swept away by the ambiance no matter what you choose to do. I will post another itinerary soon.