One last post before we leave for Prince Edward Island. I meant to write a review of the museum but the Cityfolk Festival, conference planning, and gardening have interfered with blogging – I’m sure that’s a good sign.
North Rustico Harbour Fishery Museum
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So, for you visiting Prince Edward Island, my favorite place to go is a few miles up the coast from our cottage. (It’s a comfortable, old-shoe of a log house but they call this a cottage in Canada…) North Rustico is home to an active fisherman’s warf that now provides boat trips for tourists with local characters like Norman Peters. A few years ago, the folks in North Rustico got together and asked the government for some money to build a new little marina and the North Rustico Harbour Fishery Museum. The museum is a real gem and its small so that visitors can stop in as part of a day full of local activities. Peters is the star of one of the museum videos, “Out On the Boat” and when we walked out of the museum onto the pier, his boat churned past and he tipped his hat to us.
Canadian flag flying outside the museum
Cross the road and follow a path over the dunes onto a Parks Canada beach to swim or just stroll and enjoy the birds and the sweeping view out to sea. You can scramble along a long, worn and broken up stone and timber barrier for an even better view. And yes, you can see one of PEI’s many lighthouses there.
The museum is at one end of a boardwalk that stretches along the side of the bay from North Rustico to North Rustico Harbour. Heron fish in the shallow waters. Along the path, stone bas-relief images with brief informative plaques describe the history and culture. The boardwalk is wheelchair accessible, there are plenty of benches, and you may also find some wild berries.
Of course, no vacation on Prince Edward Island is complete without good food. The Blue Mussel Café is one of our favorite restaurants on PEI. (We are also fans of the deck at Carr’s Oyster Bar at Stanley Bridge–where you can watch local kids jumping off a bridge into the river–and breakfast at the PEI Preserve Company several miles inland from Rustico.) Sit on the deck, enjoy the food, and look across Rustico Bay. Sometimes a bald eagle will fly by.
Although its 1500 miles from home, we fly into Charlottetown’s modest (tiny) international airport on a direct flight from Detroit.
