To Cheticamp, CBI

The next leg of our Eastern Canada trip would take us to the small town of Cheticamp on the north coast of Cape Breton Island (CBI). To accomplish that, however, we had to leave Prince Edward Island by ferry, then drive east across part of Nova Scotia and across a causeway that connects to CBI.

We made an early morning start at the Kettle Black;

 and after stoking up on cappucinos and muffins we headed east from Charlottetown.

The landscape slid by until we got to the ferry at Wood Islands.

We were a bit early and so ended up with a front-of-the-line view of the ferry – only to later discover that it wasn’t our ferry at all. Ours hadn’t actually arrived from Caribou, Nova Scotia yet. A map in the waiting area put the Nova Scotia ferries in perspective.

Turns out that our ride (about an hour) was actually one of the shortest routes from Nova Scotia – and the longest, the overnight ferry from Sydney on Cape Breton Island to Newfoundland, wasn’t even shown. The other thing this map showed us was the relationship between our tour and our starting point in Boston. During our wait for the ferry we got to take in a bit of the local landscape – another boggy coastline.

Finally our ferry arrived and we drove aboard.

This involved driving up a ramp to the car deck so steep that we could barely see the ferry beyond it.

Once above I took a picture of our neighbor ferry which was very similar to ours.

From up on deck we also had a better out look over the coastline.

Marine hardware can be impressive, both the parts attached to land,

and the parts attached to the boat.

Most of the passengers found places in the sun on the top deck.

The PEI cormorants waved good-bye.

and we headed out. It was a pleasant trip across, highlighted by some whale and seal sightings, sunshine and a cool breeze. My partner, Jane, using some good binoculars, had a more focused experience, “The ferry ride from PEI to NS was lovely. The Northumberland Straight is deep enough to attract whales and we saw a pod of either Fin-backed or Minke whales (I couldn’t tell which). There were also some Northern Gannets looking very much like cigars with wings. Sadly, none of them did their dramatic dive for fish while near the ship. The Gray Seals had a very funny way of using their long noses as snorkels and were a hoot to watch. The other passengers were from all over Canada and even a few from the U.S. West Coast. We learned that the Maritimes, especially Newfoundland, are a bucket list item for many Canadians. You can never go wrong with a ferry ride in my opinion“.

Approaching the Caribou terminal we passed some dredging work under way.

Somehow, at the scale the work was being accomplished, it felt as if they were using a tablespoon; but I guess if you take enough tablespoons, the job will get done. At the terminal, the Nova Scotia cormorants welcomed us to Caribou.

Here, we got to reverse our steep ramp experience,

and then headed out across Nova Scotia for Cape Breton Island.

A huge granite quarry, with direct ship loading, marked the beginning of the causeway to CBI, and served as a reminder of how much is done by water transport here.

Once across the causeway, we turned to the north and started on what is called the Cabot Trail, a road system that essentially circumnavigates Cape Breton Island, passing through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, just north of Cheticamp. Here’s a reminder.

Along the way we made time for a major rest stop in Judique, the site of a former small town but now a historic place marker on the Cabot Trail.

If this looks familiar, welcome to Eastern Canada !

The small park sits astride a former railroad right of way, now a hiking / biking trail.

I didn’t know this, but a map explained that it is also part of the Trans-Canada Trail.

If you look carefully way over on the right side of the map you can find the Cheticamp red dot that is just up the road from this site. Here’s another view of the local area.

Some of the very descriptive panels covered the history of the railroad;

while others gave a pat on the back to those who converted the tracks to a trail.

As you can see by the dates, it’s been a fairly recent endeavor; and we certainly appreciated it as a place to stop and recharge. From Judique it was only a modest drive to the Cheticamp area where the bluffs along the highway made for dramatic views.

There is ‘development along the road’ even out here but it can be pretty isolated;

although there are clusters of homes in other places.

Finally on the outskirts of Cheticamp we came to our B and B – set back a quarter mile from the highway for the view and away from traffic noise.

Next time:  the Cabot Trail to Sydney

North Shore, PEI

For a change of pace from architecture, urban design, and cruise ships, we took the opportunity of a beautiful day to drive to the north shore of Prince Edward Island. After escaping the Charlottetown suburbs, the road took us through rolling pastoral land.

And a short time later we approached the coast, made up of inlets and barrier islands.

As you can see on this map of the Dalvay Beach area, the PEI government has turned most of the actual coast line / barrier island land into a thin linear park. Some development has taken place on the inlets behind the barrier islands, such as this hotel.

We didn’t stay there but could imagine it as a headquarters for a summer vacation.

The beach itself is relatively quiet and undramatic. The top of the bluff has been fenced off to discourage people from cutting trails at random and causing erosion.

The various shrubs and grasses seem to be holding the bluff reasonably well.

Since we live in the Northwest part of the US, where big evergreen trees are a specialty, we’re used to seeing large random tree trunks washed up on shore. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, so we took a picture of the largest piece of driftwood we found.

Farther down the road a trail system led from parking through woods to the beach.

It’s obvious that these trees deal with a lot of wind.

None of them were tall; and many were damaged or broken. Our trail took us to a small viewing overlook, in use as an artist’s studio.

We headed back to our car and the road to Charlottetown,

saying good-bye to one of the inlets along the way.

The next day we were headed for Cheticamp on Cape Breton Island – a long jaunt.

That’ll be the subject of the next post. See you then.

 

Charlottetown, PEI, walkabout

One morning we set out to see the opposite side of town from the area in which we were staying. We started downtown, then made a large counter-clockwise loop around

Victoria Park, coming back along the harbor. Downtown presents a bit of a catch-all in terms of development and architecture. While Queen Street contains a number of relatively well cared-for historic buildings, the commercial center is harder to describe.

Around the corner from Brits a hotel/shopping mall ties together most of a block.

While it may not appear so from this view, the hotel tower has a large atrium/mall space at its base that connects into the backs of the smaller retail buildings.

Given Charlottetown’s winter climate, a gathering space like this can be a valuable resource for a community; but I would think that given that climate, more daylighting would also be desirable.

A half a block away a more contemporary office building anchors another block.

This one had three personalities;

but I like the architect’s willingness to deal directly with the climate,

even though Charlottetown’s non-ordinal street grid made that a challenge.

From here it was a fairly quick transition to smaller retail and residential. This particular example maintains a nice mix and balance of the two; and the brick helps to anchor the more major street as a defining element for the residential area behind.

Many of these homes, being so close to downtown, are now apartments, or, as in this case, Bed and Breakfast hotels.

There were a number of stone churches in Charlottetown – and in most of the towns we visited, even the small ones like Caraquet.

Another block or so brought us to a hospital complex.

It felt heavy for this residential area but at least it stepped back from the street and was reasonably landscaped. Beyond it an obviously wealthier residential zone came back;

and the reason was obvious – across the street Victoria Park opened up a view. We walked down through the park, consisting in this area of sports fields and then a kids play area closer to the outer harbor.

The area along the water felt very English to us – neat and cared for – and beyond it,

a more suburban type of housing, in both size and spaciousness. The rocks used for shoreline reinforcement were the distinctive PEI red rock, whereas on the other side

of the drive, the hand of man was clearly evident.

Rounding the corner back towards downtown, we got a good overview.

Given that we were having summer in October, it was hard to visualize all this water frozen solid as it would be in January. A little farther along, another sign of civilization,

leading to the Lieutenant Governor’s House.

I thought the arms of Canada made a nice addition to the story.

I shot this picture of a map of the settlement city to give a sense of scale. We’re at the red dot on the left side of  the map, across an inlet from town.

Here’s an early view, with a bridge across the inlet in the foreground.

And here, the current view.

The symmetrical entrance facade faces formally out to the harbor,

though that formality does not carry around to the side facing the garden, which is clearly comfortable, informal, and domestic in scale.

The house is very much in use and not open to the public; but the grounds, including a lovely garden, are available.

This garden had a kind of informal formality that seemed appropriate to this part of the world. The designer had fun adding points of interest;

but there was a nice mix of sculpture and plantings as focal points. Neither one overwhelmed the other; and the paths were all grass with soft edges.

There was, of course, the occasional indulgence with exotica;

but when all was said and done, it was easy to see how accommodating the garden and this side of the mansion were to each other.

We headed back past the house, down the drive, through the gate, and across the inlet for a look at how the merchant class lived by comparison.

James and Edith Peake had Beaconsfield built based on James’ wealth from building classic, fast merchant sailing ships. Unfortunately he didn’t foresee the impact that steam driven shipping would have; nor could he anticipate the disaster of shipyard fire.

As a result, the Peakes lived only a short time in the house before having to sell it. It passed through several owners, including a girls’ school, before becoming part of the PEI Museums’ collection. We took a tour, starting with then entrance hall where we waited for one of the staff to guide us around. This period of the 19th century was very much into decoration and pattern-making; and the tile entry floor was no exception.

On the other hand, there often was only casual concern for how various patterned surfaces should be designed in relation to each other. Here’s the entry wallpaper,

and the glass in the front door.

Each element shows the craft skills available; but the hand of an overall designer seems to me to be missing. Here’s a tour of some of the other rooms.

Beaconsfield – Living Room

Some of the technology, such as radiators, was new, and probably appreciated in Charlottetown’s winters; but electricity was brought in later in the history of the house.

Beaconsfield – Dining Room

It goes almost without saying that each room was considered to have its own character. The carved cove moulding and chandelier fan were clearly done together.

Beaconsfield – Dining Room Chandelier

The kitchen and pantries occupied a significant amount of space.

Beaconsfield – Kitchen Prep Area

Beaconsfield – Cast Iron Stove

This comfortable family room, with its south-facing bay windows, looks as if it was the indoor center of gravity of the house.

Beaconsfield – Upstairs Family Room

Beaconsfield – one of James Peake’s clipper designs

It must have been a total shock to be designing beautiful sailing ships when the disruptive steam-powered merchant vessels showed up and took over.

Beaconsfield – Bed Room

I was pleasantly surprised when our guide made the tower room available.

Beaconsfield – 3rd Floor Tower Room

Through the center window above you’re looking directly out to the outer entrance of the outer harbor – a key point of view for watching shipping traffic.

yellow dot shows the location of Beaconsfield in relation to downtown

This map also shows the four green squares and relatively open civic square in the center of town that give the city its planning framework.

Beaconsfield Porch

The view from the main floor porch also looks over the harbor but in a definitely more domestic scale and treatment. Around the corner, the porch took us to the exit.

From this neighborhood of well-built historic mansions,

we worked our way back downtown, both along the water and inland. I’m not sure why so many of the walkways through the grass were made of wood.

After several jigs and jogs in the walkway route, we came to the convention center, with its ‘wave theme’ roof.

It did have some nice amenities in addition to marina parking, such as this garden.

Right next door was the cruise ship port.

And next door to that, the cruise ship tourist entertainment zone,

with, you guessed it, shopping and food.

There were also boat ride tours and other water-related activities.

We didn’t spend much time here – other than to buy a hat to shade my eyes from the October summer sun – but continued our loop. Just down from the harbor was the remnant of another bygone technology, the old railroad terminal.

There’s still (very modest) train service to Halifax, but not here. Our loop took us back through the park near our B and B,

and a small public art installation – intention not all that clear.

To the west, we discovered another well-to-do neighborhood near downtown.

Once again, may of these former mansions have been converted to apartments or small hotels – not a bad use actually, given their convenient locations.

And keeping them economically viable also enables keeping the physically up to date.

Back in the center of town we spent a little time in an in-town church.

And then walked down one of Charlottetown’s pleasant streets back to our B and B.

Next time – a short visit to the north shore of PEI