Stanley Campground, Prince Edward Island

I awoke at 7:00am and began to make breakfast by myself (that is, taking our food out of the freezer). At 8:00am, we left for Greenwich National Park after having sausages for breakfast.

As we drove along Highway 2, I noticed that wherever I looked, I would find farms and/or orchards and vineyards of some sort. The gently rolling landscape (as opposed to the highlands of Cape Breton) and the lack of urban influence (noise, pollution, bright lights, etc) convinced me that in the future when I retired, I would move to PEI.



At 9:00am, we entered the National Park, paid the admission fee of five dollars, and began to walk along the Sand-Dunes Trail (4.5 kilometres long with return trip). According to my map, we would experience a vast change in landscape as the trail progressed. 
    

Rapid change in landscape,
 from marshes to grassland,
to sand dunes



The meadows at the
 beginning of the trail

The beginning of the trail was surrounded by meadows. Soon afterwards, the meadows were replaced by a giant forest, in which squirrels and fox footprints were sighted. As quickly as it appeared, the forest disappeared and a marsh emerged. While walking along the boardwalk, I spotted a beaver swimming in the pond. A hundred metres later, the marsh was replaced by sand dunes. The series of landscape and wildlife changes fascinated me, as the transition from meadows to sand dunes was truly wondrous. I explored the sand dunes and took plenty of photos of my family. After playing around in the very soft smooth beach sand, we turned around and headed back towards the parking lot.

My little brother and the sand dunes

   At 11:00pm, we returned to the parking lot and began to drive towards Rustico, where we would have our lobster feast. The restaurant’s prices were ridiculous and made The Keg seem like a very ordinary restaurant. The fancy restaurant’s main feature was a 60 foot salad bar (all-you-can-eat) with fresh mussels that tasted better than anything I had ever tasted in my life (no sarcasm in the italics and bolds, just emphasis). Our main course was two large lobsters and a plate of seafood including scallops, clams, and shrimp. The food was delicious, but sadly, extremely expensive at the same time. Our bill was an incredulous $256 dollars and prompted my dad to say: "All the money that we had saved by camping instead of living in motels was spent on this extravagant meal."

At 2:00pm, we left the restaurant and headed towards the Ann of Green Gables House. The admission prices were pretty ridiculous ($30 bucks a family which was equivalent to the admission prices of Hopewell Rocks) and my mom (being smart), decided to send me in by myself (I had a Grade 8 Parks-Pass that enabled me to get into any national park for free) and decide whether or not it would be worth paying to enter. The park itself was not spectacular and I immediately decided that it was a rip-off. I snapped photos of everything I saw (including the information boards) and quickly left.

After leaving the Ann of Green Gables House, we began to drive towards Tea Hill. On the way, we passed downtown Charlottetown, which was not much different from downtown New York City (minus the skyscrapers and office buildings).  

 

Wading and searching for
hermit crabs in the low-tide

After reaching Tea Hill at 4:30pm, I noticed that the tide of Hillsborough Bay had receded so much that the water only went up to our ankles (one could walk for a couple of kilometres and the water level would still not rise)! For the next couple of hours, my family scoured the bottom of the bay for hermit crabs and other small animals. With our pails, my brother and I collected dozens and dozens of hermit crabs and water snails with the intent on releasing them after the bucket became full. My brother even found a couple of large crabs (like the ones you buy in Chinese supermarkets) hiding underneath clumps of seaweed. Soon afterwards, we were joined by seabirds (seagulls and a great blue heron) looking for easy prey (because of the low-tide, the hermit crabs had no place to hide). Upon seeing the heron, I snapped twenty photos of the great blue heron, but sadly, I could not get close enough without scaring it to take a satisfying photo.  

  

A great blue heron searching for
easy prey in the low-tide

As I was walking around, I felt an irritating feeling on my left foot. Upon looking down, I saw a transparent yellow and red leech on my foot that immediately sent shivers and goose bumps through my skin. I kicked my foot around and made sure that the leech did not burrow its way into my skin. I inspected my foot and saw that there were no bite marks or blood.   

 

  

My little brother's excitement

  As the sun began to set (7:00pm), my dad noticed that in the sand, small bubbles of air would rise up to the surface. He used our shovels and upon digging up the sand, he found live clams with meat inside them. For the next twenty minutes, we began to terrorize the animals living underneath the floor of the bay in search for clams. Sadly, most of the clams that we found were dead because their shells were opened and they emitted an atrocious smell. At 7:30pm, I attempted to remove all the footprints that my family had left by filling all the holes that my family created and releasing all the hermit crabs that my brother and I collected. We washed ourselves and began to head back to our campsite.  



Counting all the hermit crabs that we caught



Upon returning to our campsite at 8:30pm, I took a long bath (and washed my left foot with extra care). We had dinner at 9:30pm and after recharging my camera’s battery, I entered our tent at 10:00pm. By that time, I dropped into my sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible so that I would be well-rested for tomorrow's fun...