beavertail lighthouse, rocky rocks, and big berries

6/26 Jamestown, Newport, and Bristol, Rhode Island, part one

After making our way across Connecticut on Friday we planned to spend the weekend visiting Paul and Anne in Providence, RI. Saturday morning with a packed lunch, we made for the bridges and islands of Narragansett Bay. Just passed the bridge to Jamestown we spotted some yard sale signs and being junk hounds, we couldn't resist investigating. Two yard sales, one moving sale, and one church sale later we had collected only some books, a map, and a few small odds and ends... and only one of those things was coming home with us (Rodney is already over-full). The rest would stay in Rhode Island with Paul and Anne.


At the southern tip of Jamestown Island we visited Beavertail Lighthouse and the rocky shore line. We perused the exhibits in the lighthouse museum, its tiny aquarium (housing among other things an enormous snapping turtle), witnessed a small wedding party making vows to the tune of a guitar and crooning, and took some time to look for critters and balls of clay in the rocks.

After lunch we continued East across another bridge to Newport. Here we had a driving tour of the mansions along Bellevue Ave. and made a detour for strawberries.At first we thought we'd just buy some ready filled strawberry baskets but when we laid eyes on the fat brilliant red berries in the field we had to pick our own. We did our best to comply with the "please only taste a few" sign. It was hard to resist eating as many as we picked. Five full baskets made it to the car, but at least a quarter of these were swallowed by dinner time.

Next we headed north to Bristol where the 4th of July is the big event of the year and the outdoor concerts start a week early. There we had a fine seafood dinner at Quito's running the gambit of the non-fish including oysters, clams, squid, and lobster. Yum. Over stuffed with Neptune's palls we sat for a while on the grass waiting for the "British Invasion" part of the evening's concert (as advertised on a stage banner). The opening act was a seniors' choral group. They were doing alright and it was entertaining for about six or seven numbers but we got too antsy to stick around. We never did find out what the british invasion would bring to Bristol.