“Someday, I’d really like to see the area where the novels take place”, Leslie said to me, referring to her reading of the Anne of Green Gables books, “I’ll bet it’s beautiful”. The primary setting of the books, written by Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, is where she was raised by her grandparents, on Prince Edward Island or PEI.
It wasn’t the first time Leslie had mentioned visiting PEI – she enjoyed the books and shared them with our daughters. But this was the time where we were actually in a position that perhaps we could pull off going to such a far-away destination.
As I started researching the Maritimes, consisting of the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI, I quickly learned that there is a LOT to see here. Without spending several weeks in the area, you are left to be decisive on where you will go and what you will see. Sometimes when we go on a vacation that involves air travel, we plan it so that we fly into a major center to minimize flight time and then do a road trip from there. This is what we did for our Maritimes trip we took just last August.
Arriving in Halifax
We stayed in the Marriott Hotel between the Citadel and the Harbourfront, which might have been a bit of a mistake for a wheelchair – a hill went down to the harbor and a hill went up to the Citadel. It probably would have been better to choose a hotel along the Harbourfront where the ground is level. It’s a nice place to be, with shops, restaurants and museums – virtually all of it accessible.
The Harbour Hopper, Citadel, and Public Garden
While in Halifax, we went on a Harbour Hopper tour of the area and it was a lot of fun. If you choose to do this, you must transfer from a wheelchair to an amphibious vehicle. The stairs are a bit steep and rather narrow, but people were patient with us getting Jamie on and we found a seat that worked at the back.
We went to the Citadel, which is quite accessible. The grounds are of a hard, graveled dirt and we were able to get the wheelchair around just fine. There is an elevator in the museum and a second elevator that takes you to the top of the wall where you can walk around the entire fort. Be aware that if you walk around there, you will run into some tricky parts where there used to be cannons and military equipment. Still, we went around the entire top with Jamie in her chair.
Every day at noon, the military personnel fire a cannon to mark 12:00 PM so it was kind of fun to see that.
Peggy's Cove
Hall's Harbour and Surrounding Area
It is close to about a 90 minute drive from downtown Halifax and it is about 6 hours between high and low tide, so you will need to hang around in the area and do some site seeing. You can walk around the entire area fifteen minutes on sidewalks or just the road – there is not much traffic. There is also a little place you can get a lobster dinner 😊 Anyway, check out these photos at high tide from the late morning and low tide late in the afternoon – quite dramatic!
North to New Brunswick
The next morning we started heading north, out of Nova Scotia and up to New Brunswick. On the way, however, we made a stop to Shubenacadie Wildlife Park. The grounds were peaceful and the animals there had large enclosures to roam in. The entire park was accessible – just be ready for some mosquitoes because there is water!
Finally, I am including a map of our Nova Scotia destinations, so you will have some idea of their proximity to each other. You can see we were only in a small part of the province.
