Cavendish is billed as a charming beach town on the north coast of Prince Edward Island, the setting for the idyllic Anne of Green Gables. When planning this, I expected popular beach vibes and a boardwalk of shops. Traditional sandy beaches aren’t exactly how I relax but the kids love them and I love seeing new places. Prince Edward Island has a distinctly different feel from the previous providences we have visited. It actually does have a laid back island feel. The dense forests are gone, There are fewer trees, the air tastes salty, and there is an ever present breeze complimenting the absolutely perfect t weather we have been experiencing. Cavendish is a tourist town and we fit right in. The area feels like The Outer Banks and our pace slows down to accommodate. Bike trails take you everywhere here and I don’t know how we traveled without our bikes in years past. 

When we arrive on day one we decide to just lounge around the sand all day. The water is warm enough that Amy and the kids get in. The beach has some rocky sections and the kids use shovels to dig up big rocks and shells. The next day everyone was ready to go a little more my speed again. We have been looking forward to this town for a strange reason, it’s home to the author of Anne of Green Gables and this area inspired the setting for the story. I have previously had no connection to the story other than hearing of it and assuming it’s not for me, but when I saw this was a point of interest I decided to give it a try. For the past two weeks, Amy has been reading the story of Anne to us while we drive a little each day. We were pushing to finish as we rode into town and are now invested in this seemingly pointless tourist trap. I find that we can bike along the shore to the Green Gables homestead and museum. We get in line and fall into tourist mode, we toured the home, and walked through areas mentioned in the book such as Lovers Lane and The Haunted Woods. We walk to lunch nearby at the Lost Anchor before biking the afternoon away. We biked to the iron rich red cliffs and over to the boardwalk shops for ice cream before heading back to camp. By the time we returned it was too late for any significant beach time so we roast chicken over the fire and walk to the beach at night. There is sand in everything, I’ve given up. 

The mosquito swarms here are wild and you can see these periodic clouds of millions of the little suckers. If I swing my zapper through them I can have over thirty confirmed kills per swing. Usually the swarm leaves us alone, occasionally they just pick a person to follow around ad we hike you try to dip, dive, duck, dodge, and dip. They only come out right at dawn for about an hour, and honestly we welcome our new mosquito overlords compared to the black flies on the mainland.