Arriving in Charlottetown
From Bouctouche, the drive to Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, is about two hours and we got there in the afternoon. We headed downtown for lunch at Brits Fish and Chips and it was really tasty! After lunch and checking into a B & B, we walked around the town a bit and the map below shows where we went:
A Visit to Green Gables
The next day, we headed to Green Gables Heritage Place – wow, was it hopping with tourists! The grounds were of the same type of packed dirt and gravel we had gotten used to seeing in eastern Canada by this time and there was a ramp up to the house. You could get around the main floor just fine, but the second level was out of reach.
The rest of the grounds are laid out like this and nearly all of them are accessible:
Part of the way through, there are stairs that lead to another area – not sure where. But the main loop could be done completely in the wheelchair without the need to turn around. As far as the Balsam Hollow trail, you first go down a slight incline with a trail similar to the one pictured above. At the bottom, the trail divides – take the first one you get to that meanders along a small brook (the other trail actually goes up to the golf course). You will not be able to complete the entire Balsam Hollow trail as there is an area with quite a few stairs. It was fine though – the area was lovely to walk through.
Cavendish Beach
After we nabbed some lunch, we drove over to nearby Cavendish Beach, an inviting coral pink sand beach that is part of Prince Edward Island National Park. PEI actually has a lot of beaches, but Cavendish is one of a handful of beaches on the island that offer beach wheelchairs. They had the same types of wheelchairs as Parlee Beach had, with some that sat upright and others that would allow you to lounge in the water. I was totally impressed – they had four – yes four – chairs there at the bottom of the access ramp!
We chose another upright one this time and someone was more than happy to try it out!
when we finished with the beach, there were other areas within the vicinity to explore with Jamie’s regular wheelchair. If you go on those trails, keep an eye out for bicyclists:
A Historic Village and a Lighthouse
On our last day, we went to Orwell Corner Historic Village, a late 19th century/early 20th community. There was a church and cemetery, a farm, a blacksmith shop and other buildings you would expect from that era. They also had some people who were in character for the day to describe living at the time. We heard a shopkeeper and school teacher talk about what their experiences would be at the time as well as watched a blacksmith practice his trade.
It was a fun place to go, but not everything was wheelchair accessible. Some of the buildings had a step or to up to the door. Jamie could get out of her chair and navigate the steps to enter the building, but I know that is not an option for all. This blog post has some pretty decent pictures of the grounds and buildings so you can better judge for yourself.
The cemetery you could walk through without restriction as well as the blacksmith shop, but the general store had stairs as you can see below:
We also went to the Point Prim Lighthouse where the grounds and gift shop were accessible. I climbed to the top of the lighthouse and got a shot of Jamie and Leslie enjoying the view. It was a nice way to end our visit to Prince Edward Island:
The Maritimes will go down with me as a memorable vacation and I can say Canada has done a pretty good job of making many facilities accessible. If you decide to go, HAVE FUN!