Slip back into history

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It's the 1730s and life is hard. No grocery store to get food so you're on your own to grow it or catch it. Yes, you can really turn back time with the Fish Tales & Tall Ships experience offered by the Roma at Three Rivers National Historic Site. Catch cod like Frenchman Jean-Pierre Roma did when he first settled in PEI to establish a trading post. It offers a heritage lunch where dishes from the 1700s, like creamy carrot parsnip soup, fish cakes, chowder, apple pie or ginger cookies, are dished out to guests.

Or go old school and spend a day as a pioneer at Roma. Find out what life was really like, from hygiene to etiquette, from children's toys to how not fun it was to have to haul water from a well. It's a fitting experience for contemporary kids. After some hardcore chores, they'll never complain about having to put plates in the dishwasher again.

Dining and history collide in Rustico, the Island's oldest Acadian settlement. Hosts Jean and Marguerite Doucet serve as tour guides to some of the town's most notable sights before cooking a traditional Acadian meal while dressed in period costume. Supper happens in a quaint log cabin built in 1772, lit softly with candles. Bed down for the night at the Barachois Inn to take advantage of this Making History in Rustico package.

Agricultural has been a part of Prince Edward Island for centuries. Before the days of air-conditioned John Deere tractors, everything was done by hand. Give some of those early farm implements a try at Orwell Corner Historic Village as you walk through the town with its historic buildings like a one-room schoolhouse, church, barn, and general store. Kids love the farm animals, of course. They can see them at work the land, too. Photographers adore this place, too, for its picture postcard-like scenery.

When it comes to history, all roads lead back to Charlottetown, the capital of the province. Each street seems to be steeped in the past. A surefire, boredom-free way to explore them is to participate in the GPS Heritage Quest.
It combines the best of a walking tour and a scavenger hunt. Using a handheld GPS unit, you'll search for clues at various points of interest to solve a special crossword puzzle and learn quirky bits of local trivia, like why there is a cannon partially sunk into a downtown sidewalk. If history was this cool in high school, we would have all deserved an A+.