We had our first snowfall in Massachusetts yesterday. It was cold and messy; more sleet than snow where I live. Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. But the slush that resulted from that anemic smattering of frozen precipitation wasn’t pretty nor did it get me dreaming of a white Christmas. I amused myself by imagining one of the All-Christmas-Music radio stations playing Baby It’s Gross Outside, Let It Slush, and Black Ice Wonderland. Instead of inspiring my holiday spirit, the weather had me thinking about an island vacation. I guarantee you we are not thinking about the same kind of island.
I somehow managed to squeeze an island behind Door Number 3.
December 3, 2025
For the last two summers I’ve had the pleasure of returning to a magical island in the Canadian Maritimes that I first visited as a teenager. While Prince Edward Island is as cold and prone to snow as Boston is right now, in my mind it’s always August there.
My first trip to the island was in junior high school as the guest of my friends’ family. Before you call the grammar police, I assure you I used that apostrophe correctly. My friends are twins. Their parents graciously allowed me to spend three weeks with them in a storybook, Victorian farmhouse in a beautiful town near the north shore of the island. I went with them for three more charmed summers.
They introduced me to their friends that they had grown to call family over the many years of visiting. Within minutes, they were my friends, too. The magic of the island radiates from its people. Sure, the scenery is breathtaking, the beaches sublime, but the most valuable natural resource PEI has to offer is its residents. They welcome strangers as if they’ve just returned after a moment away. Once your toes touch that red earth, you are home. As the island fades into the mist of memory as you cross over the bridge to New Brunswick, you long to return.
In recent years, when the twins and I plan our summer vacation on PEI, we tell our island friends that we are coming home. We make sure that our visit coincides with their being home, too, since some have moved to other parts of Canada and the Commonwealth. No matter where we roam, all roads lead to Prince Edward Island.
What follows is a gallery of photos that I’ve taken over the last two vacations on the island. They include beautiful vistas, whimsical gardens, and red clay roads. Some people go to Carolina in their mind. As for me, I go to PEI. Now you can, too.
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