I was born and raised in PEI, left for 7 years for work, and came back to the Island about 7 years ago.
I love it here. It is quiet and rural, but I like that. I also like that on the news this morning the most serious local news was that there were a few new pieces of graffiti in a trailer park and that a carrot truck overturned near an intersection and the road was closed due to a flood of loose carrots. Incidentally that carrot spill increased my cross-town daily commute from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
If any of you folks “from away” (aka anyone who’s not at least a 2nd generation Islander) have any questions just let me know.
I just went to PEI with friends for a few days in late August. It was fun - there were enough attractions to keep us occupied for the short time we were there, the scenery was beautiful, and the warm shallow water on the beaches was great for swimming (especially since it was well over 30 degrees this August - unusual for the Maritimes). The word that came up over and over again for us was ‘quaint’ - it seemed like we couldn’t go two sentences without describing something or other as ‘quaint’.
So overall it was nice, but I’m not sure I’d like to live there. The pace of life seems pretty slow and in the winter it must slow down even more.
I feel like I should add this - I’ve been to every Canadian province and in my admittedly casual and unscientific survey PEI is way in the forefront in terms of roadkill. There seemed to be an astronomical quantity of dead critters for a place with such a low population. I have no idea why.
Pretty much this. There are lots of new houses and subdivisions popping up, so people must be buying still.
The south shore generally has warmer water compared to the north shore. This is mainly due to the Northumberland Strait which is between PEI and New Brunswick/Nova Scotia. It’s actually a shame as the north shore has the white sand and nicer beaches but I find the water too cold.
I don’t find roadkill especially prevalent here, especially compared to the mainland. On the mainland you see tons of groundhogs and porcupines dead on the road, neither of which live on PEI in any numbers. We also don’t have any large animals here so no moose, deer, or bears. You likely just noticed the skunks more as you smell them even if you don’t see them.
I spent a week there for summer holidays. Beautiful scenery the red sand rocks. But there isn’t much happening there. I was lucky when I was there that there was a 5 day music festival. Otherwise it be a nice place to retire or go and beach myself like a whale waiting to die.
It wouldn’t be the Straight Dope without some nitpicking, so let me just state for the record that the toll on the Sanibel Causeway is only for getting on the island, and you are free to leave anytime. If you haven’t been in a while, though, they did raise the toll to $6 a few years back to help pay for the replacement of the bridge. The drawbridge was demolished and a 70-foot bridge was built in its place.
