On the Rocks - Fort Wetherill 8-21-16

Suzie Q's 

Again we decided to explore our own backyard. Conanicut Island in southern Narragansett bay is home to a single town, Jamestown, as quaint a New England town as can be found. Today this was our destination. But first, off to breakfast. We stopped along Route 1A just south of Wickford at a great little diner called Suzie Q's. Great food, Great service and as always a

Nana and a cuppa joe

 good time chatting with Nana. We got the window seat, right up front, and right in front of the air conditioner. Now Nana is cold even on the warmest of days and to perch her in front of the air conditioner is likely not the best seating solution. However I don't think that there was any real complaints and Nana and I had a great breakfast. To my surprise Nana had a breakfast sandwich (she is not known as a sandwich kind of Nana) but said it was quite tasty and enjoyed her breakfast. Me, I had my usual, with the slight deviation of 'Raisin Bread' for toast. Ordered it toasted dark and dry.. got buttered and only slightly toasted..also it must have come off of a raisin baguette because they were the tiniest slices of raisin bread I ever saw. I could have dropped one into my coffee cup, flat side down. . . oh well. I am guessing that you have realized that I am particular about my toast, so if you ever have the occasion to toast up some bread for me, make it almost burnt, smoking just a little and keep the butter away.
We made our way back to the trusty Ford and fifteen minutes later we were parking at a lot in

Overlooking the sea at Ft Wetherill

Fort Wetherill State Park on Conanicut Island. The whole island is referred to as just, Jamestown, for all the locals, but for those of us who have plied the waters of Narragansett Bay for so long we know it as Conanicut Island which happens to have the town of Jamestown located on its eastern shore. Fort Wetherill was the guardian fort of Narragansett Bay, keeping 'Germans and Japs' out of the area during WW2, and other raiding hordes of earlier history. Must have worked as the only raiding hordes we encountered had on sneakers or dive gear.  Nana and I have been entertaining the idea of traveling by camper as I retire as as we were getting out of the car in the parking lot, a Class C camper pulled up and soon we were making introductions and touring their camper. It was just about exactly what we have been talking about. Very nice way to travel and maybe someday this blog will evolve into an RV Travel Blog... who knows?

Up on the rocks

We hiked from the parking lot East and explored the point that overlooked Newport harbor and parts of the old fort there that guarded the entrance to the bay. We chatted with a fisherman who wasn't catching anything but was having a good time. I hope he caught many fish after we moved on. The hiking here is quite varied, wide paths, narrow paths, flat trails and some climbing. What sets this place apart is the view. Everywhere you look is prettier than the last place. This has got to be one of the best kept secrets in Rhode Island, amazing beauty and such easy access. We were amazed that it was not mobbed on a beautiful summer's Sunday afternoon. In all Nana and I hiked just about three miles. Again our apps that measure our progress were in conflict. My app (AllTrails) said we had walked 3.1 miles and Nana's app (Cyclemeter - set on hiking mode) says that we only walked 2.5 miles. Maybe next time I will try to run multiple apps on my phone simultaneously and see if there is a conflict between the apps or if it is a discrepancy between the phones. When we popped out of the woods we arrived in the middle of an antique car meet. There were lots of stunningly restored cars and trucks scattered around a wide expanse of lawn. One of our favorites and I know a favorite

I want one!

of our  son, was an old VW bus...ooooohhhh... the restoration was absolutely flawless. Maybe Nana and I should get something like this for our camping travels.  After our hike here at Fort Wetherill we moved on to Beavertail, the southern tip of Conanicut Island where the lighthouse is. We took our chairs and sat on the rocks, chatting, sketching and watching people, sea and boats. It was a perfect afternoon. We even found an ice cream stand on the ride home. A great day and we only traveled a half an hour from the house. If you get the opportunity, take a drive down to Jamestown and explore the area. You can't go wrong. More pix below.

Suzie Q's

Toward the point

Marina at the fort

Hidden cove

A badly grafittied fort

MY app says 3.1 miles

Shooting time lapse at Beavertail

With Friends - Prudence Island

Coffee!!

We started early today as we had to catch the 9:45 ferry in Bristol to go Prudence Island. Prudence Island sits right in the middle of Narragansett Bay. We parked at the ferry dock in Bristol at about 8:15, which should have given us plenty of time to catch some breakfast and make the ferry, leisurely. Things just didn't workout that way. We had found a 'breakfast place' which turned out to be just muffins and coffee.. thanks Siri! And walked along Hope Street in hopes of finding a place that serves a full breakfast menu and sure enough we found just the place. The Sunset Cafe, since 1926. The Sunday morning crowd had begun to gather and the place was hopping. We got seated right away and were served coffee in great huge mugs. The good service seems to have ended there. The picture on the left of Nana and her coffee was taken at 8:33 according to my iPhone...we got served at 9:10 and still needed to make it to  the terminal and get tickets. I don't do well in situations like this as I am compulsorily punctual, and I was really getting on edge as the time to catch the boat seemed to be rushing at us, the short version is that we ate fast, and made the ferry just fine, but not without me

Approaching Prudence

suffering some unfounded anxiety. It was a beautiful bright sunny morning with a very strong wind out of the Northwest, the bay was full of white caps and Nana and I stayed inside for the short ride over to the island. Our friends met us at he ferry landing on Prudence and drove us to their house where we had even more coffee and even better conversation. Once we had our fill and caught up on all of the happenings we set out for a hike. We ended up on Broadway just East of the schoolhouse on a well maintained trail, the Heritage Trail,  and began our walk. For the next hour we chatted about all sorts of pressing issues like 'What kind of bug is that?', you know, the real important stuff.  We made it to the site of an old farm, Baker Farm, where a Frisbee Golf course had been set up and many Frisbees were left there for old walkers like us, so we all tried our hands at pitching Frisbees.

Pitchin' Frisbees

It was proven that we had all pursued the right career paths as Frisbee Golf proved a bit too difficult for our talents. The site where the 'golf course' was set up was the site of an old farm and many of the foundations were still standing. Even though this farm has been long abandoned the layout was still quite obvious. we all took turns guessing what part was what...and we came up with logical answers, but we really don't know if we were even close. I was a beautiful spot.

Examining the foundations

As I mentioned earlier it was a very windy day, however the forest around us kept the wind away from us and coming to this clearing which was open to the sky we started to cool off rapidly. Even thought it is the middle of May it was a cool day on the trail if you got out from the protection of the trees. An interesting thing, maybe a tradition on the island, was the setting of old rusted pots on the top of the stone walls that criss-cross the island. I think we saw at least a half a dozen old enameled cooking pots that had their bottoms rusted out, perched on the tops of stone walls. There were several at the farm, which isn't too surprising I guess but further along the trail we saw several others.

Pots on Walls

We walked to the Division Wall where we decided to turn back, making the Division wall our halfway point. Our good conversations continued and we all had a good time in each others company.
Through a series of events recently the value of good friends has come sharply into focus. Shared times like these bring home that fact the these friendships are our most valued possessions and that these times and shared ideas and what put meaning into all that we do. So thanks to all our friends that put meaning into our lives and thanks to the people who stack pots on stone walls to make us confused.

We walked a total of two and a half miles, not far in miles but a great day in the woods. Back at the house w fantastic lunch was set out and more stories were tole, problems solved and plans made. The 5:35 ferry arrived promptly at 6:00 ...well it's island time ... and our little group continued the fun with dinner in a local restaurant before heading home. A truly great, memorable Sunday. We should all have more of these.   Some more pictures below.

Friends

You can't get too lost here.

The ride back

Our Walk, about 2.5 miles

Mothers Day - East Providence-Providence

Broadway Diner

Today we started off with our grandchildren and headed to one of our favorite local diners, the Broadway Diner right here in East Providence. The food and service were fantastic as always with large portions and  great coffee served with a smile. Being Mothers Day there was lots to do and lots to celebrate, and we thanked our lucky stars that we got to start it off with the kids. I even got to do a bit of coloring with Grace and learned much about 'My Little Pony' - did you know that they are all girls? Not sure just how that works, but that is what I was told. We had lots to do and got the kids home in good order and did chores around the house and yard and realized that we had some time before everyone was to come over for supper so we decided to walk the 'Linear Park - 

 the newly finished park that runs along the side of the Washington Bridge that connects Providence to East Providence carrying Interstate 195 East and West.

Could have used a better name.

As we began on the East Providence side of the Seekonk River with the wind in our faces we thought that maybe this walk was not such a good idea. Soon, though, we settled into a good pace and began to enjoy the urban landscape and good conversation. Once across the bridge and through the Linear Park we arrived at India Point Park in Providence where many people were enjoying the sunshine on this Mothers Day. There were an obvious number of Mothers out there, God bless them all. We walked down to the community boat house and checked out the boats and watched some early activity out on the bay. We then headed up the ramp to the footbridge that spans Interstate 195 and into Providence proper. This section of Providence, Fox Point, is filled with wonderful old houses and as you may know I am a sucker for this stuff, I just love the old houses. We turned right onto Wickenden Street and made our descent back toward the river.

Over Rt 195 on the footbridge

We walked down to Gano Street then back under Route 195 and took the stairs back up to the Linear Park and back toward East Providence. Now with the wind at our backs we started shedding layers and I began to build a nice glow (that's a nice way of saying I started sweating). I love the view from this bridge and it is fun to look down and check out the boats in the marina. We kept a boat in that marina for a couple of seasons before we discovered Pawtuxet Cove, but that is a story for another day.

We soon arrived back at the car and we both checked our apps and we had walked two and a half miles..not a long walk, but time was limited and it worked out just right. As a side note, our pace was considerably faster than when we are walking in the forest. So we made it back home in time for the family gathering, and had another celebration for Mothers. So here's to all the Mothers out there, we all owe you so much, thanks.

A Few Pictures

Coloring time

A view of the bay

Best graffiti ever!

Back across the bridge