Cavendish and Prince Edward Island National Park

Cavendish and Prince Edward Island National Park is on the agenda for today. Oh, by the way, we were originally going to move to Cavendish for the last couple of days in PEI, but the island is small enough to get almost anywhere in an hour and we're very happy where we are.

Cavendish and its surrounding environs are agog with Anne of Green Gables stuff...the home, a faux village, amusement parks, specialty stores! Great things for kids...we decide to pass, but since neither one of us has read it, Rick is now half way through it and giving me the Cliff Notes.

The Park is huge and divided into two distinct parcels separated by the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We've pegged the eastern portion as our first stop...but first head to a cafe and a fish market in North Rustico Harbor that I've read about.

The village is picture book perfect...fishing boats, lobster traps everywhere, a little boardwalk on the water and a few shops.

The Blue Mussel Cafe is everything we've been looking for! It's on the wharf, it's shabby chic and the mussels are perfection! Rick has a seafood chowder that he declares the best he's ever had and the smoked mackerel appetizer (which we ordered because we'd never had it) is scrumptous! We learn they buy their fish at the Doiron Fisheries that we had on our list already. After lunch we head straight there. For $34, we buy 2 lbs of mussels, 2 large PEI king crab clusters, a huge local halibut steak and 6 smoked mackerels.

The Park is beautiful...(But we check out the place in the park we were planning on moving to and we are so glad we decided not to move..very primitive and no view of the staggering landscapes.) The Park is dotted with beaches of various sizes, ammenities and crowds. The dunes are chisled and we stop many times to take a look.

We enter the western portion of the Park and just continue to drive and look out onto the Gulf. We will spend the remainder of the afternoon at another of the beaches. The Sullivan Beach is not as pretty as some of the others, but it is also not as crowded. We sit in the sun, read beach
books, walk the sands. Wonderful afternoon.

Since the crab we bought is already cooked, it's the perfect thing for dinner 'cuz we don't have to do much. Make a Louie sauce, drawn butter, a baguette, cole slaw and watermelon slices. Great ending to a great day.