Exploring the Birthplace of Confederation

Nikki Layton
Dec 9, 2024
3 min read

September 23 - September 25, 2023

We start the day with a nice drive, but this time, not along the coast. This drive took us more inland as we headed towards Charlottetown, the capital of PEI. Charlottetown is known as the birthplace of Confederation because it held the Charlottetown Conference in 1864 to discuss a proposed Maritime Union. Instead, this conference led to the Union of British North American Colonies in 1867. This led to the beginning of the Canadian Confederation and the rest is history.

It might also be the birthplace of Love!

We stayed a couple of nights in the newly renovated Royal Maples Cottages. These are super cool self-contained cottages very close to the center of town. We headed downtown to explore and take in the Moonlight Bazaar, a street festival with music, art, and food. After walking around the bazaar we decided to hit The Old Dublin Irish Pub for food and drinks, as luck would have it there was also World Cup Rugby on with Ireland taking on South Africa. Ireland managed to muscle its way to victory, 13 to 8 over the defending champions. What a great day!

The next day was a huge walking day as we explored all the historic sites and soaked up the amazing old architecture of the homes, churches, and buildings. Many of these have had great restorations completed including the Beaconsfield Historic House. Unfortunately, we could not do an inside tour that day but we did walk the grounds and gardens. We worked our way down to Confederation Landing and the waterfront. This is a nice area with restaurants, shops, the convention center, and a huge wharf where we were able to take in a local sailing race. Dinner was at The Old Triangle Pub so we got our fill of old restaurants on the visit.

The next day we started to work our way to Cavendish and the world-famous Anne of Green Gables Homestead. On the way, we had a couple of stops, one of which was one of my favorite on the entire island. The first stop was in New Glasgow and the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, a local eatery and shop offering local jams, and artist wear. There is a nice river walk through their gardens.

The next stop was impromptu because we saw the sign and just had to check it out, The Great Canadian Goat Soap Company. This stop was a lot of fun, you got to feed goats through a fence where they stick their heads into one of those tourist cutout murals. This one, in true Canadian fashion, was hockey-themed. All the soaps are made from, you guessed it, goat's milk. We love stopping and checking out goats and local artisan offerings.

Ok now for one of my favorite stops, The Dunes Studio and Gallery Cafe. Not only was the food fantastic but they have one of the most amazing sculpture gardens and locally made woodwork shops I have ever seen, If I did not live on a boat I would have been ordering some of these pieces of lawn art and furniture for sure. The handmade sculptures and wood furniture were just amazing. Plus they had artwork and other offerings. It is a must but bring your pocketbook as I am sure you will see things that you cannot live without.

After leaving the Dunes we worked our way to Cavendish and Andrea was simply beaming as we hit an area of Canada she has wanted to visit since she was a child. You will have to read the next blog to learn more about The Anne of Green Gables Homestead and our time in this historic part of Prince Edward Island.