Day 4 (August 18, 2020): From St. Andrews to St. Andrews

This was our day to transition from PEI to New Brunswick.  And we picked a good day for it, because the day started with misty rain through part of PEI and brought a heavy afternoon rainstorm between Sussex and Saint John.  So it was a good day to spend in the car doing an interprovincial move.

We started out with breakfast at a popular diner in Mount Stewart, took it easy for most of the morning, and left the resort at 11AM.  According to Google Maps, the drive should have taken 4.5 hours.  But it took us 6.5 hours.  Granted, we made a few quick stops.  But the real slow-down was an accident on the Trans-Canada Highway on the outskirts of Charlottetown, and the 40-minute wait at New Brunswick's Covid check-point as soon as we got off the Confederation Bridge.

We made stops in Victoria-by-the-Sea in PEI and at Lepreau Falls in NB.  We rolled into St. Andrews, NB at 5:30PM and were surprised to see a very busy and bustling Algonquin Hotel.  Due to Covid, we were expecting a practically-deserted resort, but not so.  

The skies cleared and the temperature hit 21 by the time we checked in, so we took a dip in the pool before dinner in the hotel's restaurant.

Tomorrow, we head to Grand Manan Island - a place we've always wanted to visit.

This is the reason behind the title of today's blog: our PEI resort was next to the tiny village of St. Andrews;  our NB resort is in the village of another St. Andrews!

We smiled at this Covid advice on a church-turned-community centre near New Haven, PEI.

Large red stone inukshuks between Clyde River and New Haven, PEI.

This is something that really made us shake our heads in disbelief:  all over the Island, we saw "help yourself" roadside stands selling produce, complete with an honour system cash box.  It says a lot about PEI.

This is Victoria-by-the-Sea, whose history dates back to 1867.  It's one of PEI's most quaint villages.  We stopped enroute to the Confederation Bridge.

The lighthouse in Victoria-by-the-Sea.

We visited Victoria-by-the-Sea mostly as a result of a recommendation from one of my staff members: to buy lobster rolls from Lobster Barn, which was named as having the best lobster roll on the Island in 2020.  We were so excited to pull up to the place, but after this exuberant photo, we noticed a "Closed" sign in the window.  The gift shop next door told us they are short-staffed during Covid and have had to close on Tuesdays.

The Victoria Playhouse was formed in 1981, using the community hall that was built in 1912-1915. It attracts a loyal following from Charlottetown to Summerside.

Every province has its bizarre names.  Crapaud is one of PEI's.  It translates as "toad".

Battle of the lighthouses:  Above is the last PEI lighthouse you see as you drive on to the Confederation Bridge.  Below is the first lighthouse you see as you're about to drive off the Confederation Bridge in New Brunswick.  Which one do you think is best?



The Confederation Bridge:  Completed in 1997, at 12.9km, it is the world's longest bridge over ice-covered waters.

Lepreau Falls, which is an impressive waterfall when the water is high, was down to a trickle today.

Snow?

And now for something quirky.  There were two moments on the journey today when we did a double-take and thought we were seeing snow.  

Above: enough seagulls on a home's lawn in PEI to give the effect of Fall's first snowfall.  

Below:  from a distance, these rows of vinyl-wrapped hay bales looked like a snow-covered hillside.

The Algonquin Resort - our home for the next two nights.  The hotel was built in 1889, but burned down in 1914.  It reopened again in 1915.

The weather cleared up for our arrival, sufficient to have a swim in the resort's pool.

The hotel was renovated between 2012-14 at a cost of $30 million.  It is now part of the Marriott Autograph Collection. We are quite impressed by our first-floor room, from where we watched the sun set.