Back in the Spring of 2026 Jesse asked Kate and I if we would be interested in a couples long weekend to either Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island as they had never been to either. Without hesitation we said absolutely. Kate and I had been to both in 2018, we stayed two nights outside Halifax, Nova Scotia and toured Oak Island, then two nights in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
You can read all about that trip here: Atlantic Canada Adventure
Kate and I and all the kids went back to PEI for a day trip when we stayed at the Bay of Fundy in 2022.
We decided to stay in Nova Scotia, and the weekend that worked the best for us, was Indigenous People's weekend so we booked the Airbnb for October 9th - 12th. The 12th is also a holiday in Canada as it is there Thanksgiving.
Friday October 9th
Kate and I hit the road and picked up Jason and Jesse at their house in Augusta, by 5am! We made good time driving to Houlton where we fueled up Vanatu before crossing over into Canada. We decided to take this route, even though it is longer distance wise over taking the airline and crossing at Calais / St Stephen because the road is better. Also Woodstock just has all the stuff that we want and we know where it is.
We stopped at Tim Horton's first to get Kate her iced coffee and bacon farmers wrap, I got a couple sour cream donuts. I almost got a box of Tim bits because it was shaped like a Zamboni. Stopped at Dollarama to get some snacks, specifically Oh Henry candy bars with Reese's peanut butter.
We made a couple of pit stops for the washroom and lunch, eating at the A&W in Salisbury, New Brunswick. Katie and I had actually eater here before with kids on the way to the Bay of Fundy. We stopped in Mastodon Hill in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia to once again fuel up and I snagged a photo with the new 45th parallel sign.
n Emerald, NS we got some provisions at a Sobey's, the cashier judged me for buy six 12 packs of soda, but we do not have any of the flavors back home, and they are delicious! We also got some Canadian currency at an ATM. Kate went over to the Canadian Tire and found her strawberry shaped jars that she had been looking for in July but they were sold out in Woodstock, NB at that time, so she was excited to get those.
We got the Airbnb just after the 4pm check in time. It's, essentially, a basement apartment with two bedrooms, bathroom, full kitchen, big table, couch, chair and 85 inch TV. After dinner Jason and I headed out to go to Lunenburg for a night of professional wrestling. You can read all about that on my wrestling blog here: Real Action Wrestling
We got back to the Airbnb just before 1030pm and called it a night!
Saturday October 10th
Today we got up early and hit the road by 730am to make the 3 plus hour drive to Prince Edward Island. We stopped at the Tim Horton's 5 minutes away from our room first to get ice coffee for Kate and hot coffee for Jason. I was sucked into getting their white cheddar hash brown patty, I mean it was good, but it was just a regular hashbrown dusted with white cheddar cheese powder!
We made good time to the Confederation Bridge, stopped just before it to fuel up as we figured gas would be more expensive on PEI, it was. Very high winds this morning so tractor trailer trucks were prohibited from crossing the bridge and the speed limit was down to 60...kph so it was a slow going 12.9km drive across the bridge.
Once on the other side we went to the Marine Rail park to check out the bridge up close and grab a few photos. The water was so choppy and full of white caps from the high winds. It's interesting just how much the park has changed since the first time we came here 8 years ago.
We went to the Gateway Village for the washroom and checked out the Anne of Green Gables shop. We then drove across the Island and stopped briefly at the LM Montgomery birth home, because we didn't want to pay the $7 per person to enter the small abode.
We then the Anne of Green Gables Museum a few kilometers down the road. This was Montgomery's Aunt and Uncle's home that she grew up and based much of Anne of Green Gables on.
We had a great chat with the guy that told us where to park, he was dressed like Matthew Cuthbert from the books. He had just been to Maine a week prior and wanted to know where we were from. He took a wrong turn coming across in Calais and took Route 1 instead of the airline to go to Sunday River area.
The museum was very nice but small as it's two stories of a home with a couple rooms shut off. They had first edition signed copies of her books, and rooms were set up as they were back then. When you walk into the home a person will give you an brief introduction to the home and what you can see where. One thing she brought up was the organ is still used today for American's and Japanese who come to get married on the grounds.
On the way out we had to ask why Japanese, and the cashier who rang us in was from Japan. She explained that after World War II the Anne of Green Gables book was published in Japan, and became very popular because the culture in Japan was the women were held in low regard. Anne embodied how Japanese women wanted to be see, she was outspoken, stood up for herself, and became an icon of woman empowerment.
She explained that the love of Anne of Green Gables is passed down through the generations and that in her generation the anime was the number one show on TV and if you missed that weeks episode you would miss out on the conversation the next day. She moved to PEI because of her love of Anne of Green Gables.
Family members of Montgomery still own the home and this year her double cousin George Campbell rereleased the book as it was first published in 1908. We picked up a signed copy that was stamped with the museum stamp. Kate had never read it before and I have read it since middle school.
We then went to Thunder Cove beach, it was low tide so we would walk on the shore and see the famous red cliffs from below, however it was so windy that we didn't go far.
We headed to Cavendish to get lunch, but apparently almost everything was closed up. Cavendish is a tourist town that has fully embraced everything Green Gables that is seasonal. I figured this holiday weekend would be when they close up, but nope, it's was a couple weeks back. The only place open was called Turkey Tavern, so we went to look there and Kate was like, they can't just serve Turkey...yep that's it, only Turkey dinner, nothing else.
As everything in Cavendish was closed we headed to just outside Charlottetown to a complex we've been to before. Jason and I went to Boom Burger, a chain restaurant that is based on Five Guys while the girls went to Moo Moo BBQ to get grilled cheese and soup.
Coming off the Island the wind was decreased considerably and drive back across the Confederation bridge was faster. It was smooth drive back to the Airbnb, but it was another long day of driving over 690km or near 430 miles.
Back at the Airbnb we cooked up a couple frozen pizza's and had Unsolved Mysteries on the TV. After everyone went to bed I put WWE Money in the Bank PLE on Netflix, because as I'm in Canada it's part of Netflix, whereas back home I have to spend ridiculous money on ESPN to watch.
Sunday October 11th
Today we are not doing all the crazy driving we did the last two days! I hit the road early to get everyone Tim Horton's. Jesse cooked up big breakfast of bacon and eggs. We headed into Halifax after to check out some sites.
First stop was the Fairview Lawn cemetery where 121 bodies from the Titanic are buried. Some are unknown victims with just a date and reference number. Others have names, and some families paid for larger head stones.
Fairview is one of 3 cemeteries in Halifax where Titanic survivors were laid to rest. After we went to waterfront to go to the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market. Kate and I had gone here in 2018, it had been huge and it was two floors. We couldn't wait to go back, sadly it moved to another building further down and was only 1 floor. Also being Sunday there was less vendors.
We did have a good time looking around and we did pick up a few things. I'm pretty excited about this molasses oatmeal bread I bought, they call it Nova Scotia brown bread. Kate picked up a few things as well.
Next we headed to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic just up the road on the waterfront. The museum is very extensive covering not just the military but all maritime happenings. Two of the exhibits that Kate and I found really interesting was on the Titanic and the 1917 Halifax Explosion.
The Titanic exhibit had a model of the ship, information on it's creation and the doomed maiden voyage, as well as the aftermath and investigation. There several artifacts recovered from the wreckage they have on display.
On December 6,1917 two ships collided in the narrows of the Halifax Harbor releasing a 3 kiloton explosion that devastated the city killing 1,782 people and injuring 9000 people.
We walked around the harbor yard getting and ice cream at Cows creamery, where they not only make their only ice cream, they also make their own waffle cones right on sight.
I wanted to go see a Lighthouse, so I followed the map and it brought us to the York Redoubt, a fort overlooking Halifax Harbor that was first built in 1793 and was manned until 1956 with several additions and updates made along the way.
It was closed for the season, so we couldn't go into the buildings, but we could walk the grounds, where they had several large cannons on display and we could check out the area overlooking the harbor where we could see Maugher Beach Lighthouse.
We continued down the coast to Chebucto Head and Chebucto Head Lighthouse. We had to park outside the gate and walk about a kilometer up to the light tower. The original tower was built 1872 with this tower built in 1940.
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On the walk up we saw a freighter chugging out of the harbor, Wallenius Wilhelmsen is a Norwegian-Swedish shipping company, this ship was on it's way to New York and then Georgia.
We headed back into Halifax for dinner at the Armview Restaurant, a diner that opened in 1951 and is one of Halifax's oldest eateries. Food was great! We made a quick stop at Sobey's to get some supplies and then headed back to the room for an evening of flicks including Death Becomes Her and Beetlejuice.
Monday October 12th
Here is Canada it's Thanksgiving, back home it's either Indigenous People's Day or Columbus Day depending on what State you are in. Today we traveled back home, but we did make a couple stops along the way.
In Moncton, New Brunswick we took Jason & Jesse to Magnet Hill, a very cool place where you put your car in Neutral and it's rolls up the hill. We did twice, first backwards and then frontwards. Kate and I had been here before, and Kate brought her Mom and sister here as well.
Our final scenic stop of the trip was in Hartland, New Brunswick as the World's Largest Covered Bridge. We have stopped here numerous times in the past, it's just a place we really like. It's always impressive.
They had a large oversized Adirondack chair on the deck of the gift shop!
Kate and I grabbed a couple burgers at the A&W in Woodstock before heading back across the border. We went out to eat 4 times on this trip, I got a cheeseburger each time. The drive home was smooth until we got south of Bangor and hit a couple dead stops. It didn't add too much time to the drive, it was mostly a nuisance.
We dropped off the Fournier's and then headed home getting there about 4pm, not bad time all around. In total we put 1,758.3 miles or 2,829.71 km on Vanatu this trip. Gas was so expensive in Canada as well, it was $1.919 a liter or about $7.30 a gallon.
I look forward to the next Cousin's Couples Weekend.
Until Next Time!
