P.E.I.: Tiny island with a big heart

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, Canada — It's all about the music.

The lobsters.

The spuds.

The golfing.

And the gentle folk of this holiday island in Atlantic Canada.

Prince Edward Island — Canada's smallest province — is anchored between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Only 175 miles tip-to-tip and about four miles across its waist.

Canadians save time and headline space by referring to the island simply as "P.E.I." They'll think you're a repeat visitor if you pick up on that nickname.

They'll also invite you to a Keltic ceilidh, a musical evening of Scottish and Irish jigs, reels, hornpipes and maybe bagpipers — but won't expect you to understand why ceilidh is pronounced like "Kay-LEE"

"It just is," says Matthew McInnis, a P.E.I. tourism officer.

Keltic country

This most Keltic (or Celtic) of Canada's destinations (hard K for Keltic) will schedule a ceilidh at the drop of a tam-'o-shanter. It's a feast of bright-tempo, foot-stomping fiddle playing, with the backing of cascading guitars and pianos. And maybe some sentimental folk songs.

"We islanders have songs to sing and stories to tell," says John Cousins, a longtime P.E.I. folklorist.

Prince Edward Island

Getting there

By air: Air Canada has flights via Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and other Canadian cities to Charlottetown, the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island.

By land: The Atlantic Canada island is more than 3,500 miles east of Vancouver, B.C., 650 miles from Boston, 850 miles from New York City. The eight-mile-long Confederation Bridge, a toll bridge, crosses Northumberland Strait to connect P.E.I. with the province of New Brunswick.

By sea: Northumberland Ferries has frequent service from May to late December with car ferries between Caribou, Nova Scotia, and the port of Wood Islands on Prince Edward Island. The crossing takes 75 minutes.

Climate

Weather is comfortable in spring, hot in summer, clear and bright in the fall and chilly in winter. Temperatures can range from 90 degrees in summer to 11 degrees in winter.

Lodging

Charlottetown's historic center is ringed with heritage homes turned into elegant bed-and-breakfast inns. Most are within walking distance of the Confederation Centre of the Arts (home of the "Anne of Green Gables" musical), Province House (site of the 1864 confederation conference) and Charlottetown's harbor. My choice was the nine-room Hillhurst Inn at 181 Fitzroy St. The house was built in 1897 for a wealthy merchant. Rates begin at about $135 (Canadian) during peak season, June 15-Sept. 21. Details: Phone: 877-994-8004. Internet: www.hillhurst.com.

Information

Tourism P.E.I.: phone 888-PEI-PLAY (888-734-7529). Internet: www.peiplay.com

Northumberland Ferries: 888-249-sail (7245). www.nflbay.com

Prince Edward Island National Park: www.parkscanada.pc.gc.ca

College of Piping: 902-436-5377, www.collegeofpiping.com

Drop by the Benevolent Irish Society Hall almost any Friday night around 8 o'clock, and a ceilidh will be under way. The hall is on North River Road in Charlottetown, the island capital, hard by the local Home Depot.

Ward Allen MacDonald was the featured fiddler when we were there recently. He leaned back in a cane chair, closed his eyes and played a jig at sprint speed. His feet hammered the floor in time with the music.

In a corner of the darkened hall, several island couples were on their feet, dancing in the shadows.

Another night we heard an amazing Keltic group called the Knot. The seven-member band was playing a medley of traditional and contemporary music — from hornpipes to Bob Dylan songs — for an audience of only about a dozen listeners in a church parish hall. The performance was so professional we wondered who were these talented men and women playing flute, guitars, fiddles, accordion and drums.

"Most of us also play in the P.E.I. Symphony," said Amanda Mark, the flutist, one of the Knot's co-founders.

It didn't bother the musicians that there were only a few visitors to hear their songs.

"We just love doing what we do," said Mark.

Charlottetown (pop. 33,000) likes to tell travelers that Canada was "born" in a Charlottetown meeting room back in 1864.

True, but not exactly with an auspicious set of circumstances for the birth of a nation.

Delegates from regions known then as Upper Canada and Lower Canada sailed into Charlottetown's harbor to discuss forming some kind of political union for the separate English colonies across Canada.

But the historic event rated about as much fanfare as a visit from the tax collector.

Hotels in Charlottetown were booked solid — not for the confederation conference, but for the first circus to hit town in more than 20 years.

Besides, islanders weren't much interested in joining a federal union. P.E. I. was a contented British colony with a thriving shipbuilding industry.

The founding fathers of Canada did manage to lay the foundation for their new nation before they departed Charlottetown. Then in 1867 the British government followed through with the British North American Act — and Canada officially was born.

It was six years after that before the citizens of Prince Edward Island agreed to join Canada.

Small turnout

The proclamation of union was read from the balcony of Province House at the head of Charlottetown's Great George Street on July 1, 1873. The audience in the square below consisted of only three curious residents. Public hangings on Gallows Hill drew better crowds.

Nevertheless, history-proud Charlottetown rightly claims the title of Canada's "Cradle of Confederation."

And mellow Charlottetown is the ideal base for touring the island. P.E.I. visitors will discover a tapestry of uncrowded beaches with wind-sculpted dunes of red sandstone, hiking and cycling trails bounding over mostly level terrain, fishing villages, lighthouses, family farms, country churches — and maybe the best fish-and-chips served on any travel trail.

That would be at Rick's, a seafood shack on St. Peter's Bay, just outside Prince Edward Island National Park, in the northeastern section of the island. Locals have been known to drive two hours or more to crowd into Rick's for a platter of haddock and fries ($6.90 Canadian).

The French fries — local potatoes, of course.

Humorists have described Prince Edward Island as a single beach enclosing a sea of potato fields. Well, sort of. ... P.E.I. is Canada's leading potato province, producing more than 1 million tons a year.

What goes with potatoes on P.E.I. menus? Lobsters.

Island fishermen harvest more than $100 million worth of lobsters annually, and islanders do their best to serve all of the tasty crustaceans to their visitors.

Lobster lovers

There is a long-standing P.E.I. institution known simply as the Lobster Supper.

Charitable organizations and merchants throughout the island almost lead travelers by the hand to the table for family-style lobster dinners with potatoes and other trimmings. Figure on paying $20 to $30 (Canadian). Not all of the countryside fields are reserved for potato farms. Prince Edward Island, with more than two dozen challenging courses, is one of Canada's top golfing destinations. Island golf is so popular that the industry has its own Web site here — www.golfpei.ca. — so travelers can reserve tee times and book lodging.

Then there is the Confederation Trail, from Tignish in the west to Elmira in the east, with more than 150 miles of easy going for walkers and cyclists. The trail follows an abandoned railway right-of-way, with views ranging from seascapes to pastures.

Stanton H. Patty, a Vancouver, Wash., writer, is the retired assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times.