The North Cape Coastal Drive is one of three drives showcasing regions of PEI. It is about a 5 to 6 hour drive without stops if you do the entire loop. We did just part of the drive in 6 hours, enough driving for us for the day. Along the way we stopped to take in the scenery along the coast, stopped in to see the bottle houses, and stopped by the Potato Museum in O'Leary. Summer side was the area of our first stop. It is a mid-size town with some industry, some restaurants, shops, etc that one would expect to see. The coast there is fairly flat with houses and expansive lawns looking out over the Bedeque Bay. The area is home to many French Canadians as noted by the town, store, and even traffic signs....French before English. There are also a few large Catholic churches in the area. As we continued along the coast, we saw lots of farmland, and homes with lobster boats in their front or side yards being worked on. July and August there is no lobster fishing here. They will start up again in late August through October.
Gus traveled with us on this drive, So when we got to the bottle houses Jim stayed with Gus and I went through the site alone. The gardens were well maintained and the houses were interesting...not livable but interesting. They were originally built by Edouard Arsenault in the early 1980s, and reconstructed in the 1990s since the original houses had no foundations. The 6-gabled house used 12,000 bottles, while the other two structures used over 13,000 bottles combined.
The Potato Museum was interesting, especially for those who like to look at old tools and how to develop a crop. The best part of it for me was getting an order of fresh cut fries. They were delicious as expected and I shared them with Gus. Jim got an order of poutine and devoured the whole thing.
