Day 7 of 9 in Prince Edward Island

After our very first night at the Great George Hotel, at random we all came down for complimentary breakfast in the luxurious main floor. I love this hotel and I would highly recommend it to anyone coming to Charlottetown. It was a free day for the group today so everyone was on their own schedule. I had breakfast with Patricia while she waited for Don & Flo. Today was the day I was going to do some more exploring around Charlottetown and get the last of my souvenir shopping done.

 

On my way out of the hotel I noticed this on the piano by the main door - Rod Stewart stayed here last year! If only we were here a year earlier! Rats. Oh well, maybe next time. Rod's got good taste!

 

I walked outside to start my adventure and it was another beautiful day. It was sunny all day actually and the temperature hit 25 degrees Celcius! This is not normal to have weather this good for this time of year here, and yet we have enjoyed sunshine practically the whole time we've been here. Tomorrow is forecasted to be the same as today too. Beautiful.

How do you start your day? Me too:

 

So, that was the first thing I did - get a coffee. I was going to go back to the local coffee shop, Receiver Coffee, again but I was too early and it wasn't open yet. So I went to...

 

Starbucks! ...for my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season! It was so good. In case you are wondering... no, I am not the kind of person that wants pumpkin spiced everything... Just my Starbucks latte!

Then I continued on my journey with a warm coffee in my hand. My morning was feeling much more complete now.

I headed down to the main pier and look what was there:

 

A Viking cruise ship. Pretty cool sight to see up close. I walked around the wharf Boardwalk,

 

...and then headed off to browse in the quaint shops that were just starting to open now. I really had fun exploring these unique stores and trying to figure what I was going to bring back home for the wife & kids. Yes, okay, I am a man that likes to shop. Okay, I said it. I'll admit to it. Let's move on now, shall we?

It wasn't too long before the morning went by and it was time for...

 

No, not scotch... Lunch! It was time for lunch... Although scotch would have been good. It must have been five o'clock somewhere! However as I tried to figure that out (Scotland is actually 4 hours ahead of PEI, and since it was only noon, it would have only been 4pm in Scotland, so I wasn't sure exactly at the time where it was five o'clock), so I settled for a sandwich and iced tea instead.

 

I contacted our fearless tour leader Caryn and met up with her back at the Merchant Man Grab 'N Go (like I did this past Monday) for another one of their wicked smoked meat sandwiches (this time with extra olives)!

After lunch I went and did some more shopping before being called back to the hotel to verify the scavenger hunt collections of 4 of our tour guests. You see on every Chef Dez Culinary Tour there is a grand prize of over $1600 up for grabs - a large Big Green Egg complete with stand and shelves. All 9 of our guests have been working feverishly to collect everything on the list and so far only 4 are now verified that they have done so. The other guests have until tomorrow night at the wrap up dinner to come forward with their scavenger hunt items they have collected. I can't believe that we are already that close in awarding the grand prize! Stay tuned tomorrow to see who the winner is!

 

The Great George Hotel had a beer & wine reception for us from 5-6pm, and they also had a special treat for us: Nate & Kate! This cute young couple (engaged to me married next July) did many cover tunes for us. They were amazing. You know someone is good when no matter what song they do, they consistently sound better than the original artists every time. I posted a very quick video of them performing on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/chefdez but you really needed to be there in person to fully appreciated their voices. Incredible. If they would have had a cd for sale, I would have bought it without hesitation. 

Afterwards we all headed out to find a place for dinner.

 

The cathedral is literally across the street from the Great George Hotel and it looked amazing in the early night sky.

3 of us ended up heading to the Oyster House, while the rest of us went to the Old Triangle Pub.

 

I had a "pint of the priest" and for dinner I ordered:

 

Liver & Onions! Yes, I had liver & onions. Sorry, but I was in the mood for classic Irish pub food... Yes, that's what I said: liver & onions... Yes, I know this is a culinary tour... Look, listen here, many people love liver and onions. Ok, maybe not many, but quite a few do... Ok, some do... Alright, alright, there's probably only a few, but I'm one of them and I don't have it very often.

After our evening out we enjoyed a nice warm evening stroll back to the hotel, a quick conversation in the lobby, and then retired to our rooms.

Tomorrow will be a whole new day, the day we announce the winner of the BGE, and our last full day here before heading out late Sunday.

Until next time... Happy Cooking!