Laurie, Kathryn, and I came to Rhode Island to celebrate Kathryn's 30th birthday and, while doing so, to knock off another state on my quest to ride in all 50.
Blogger loads uploaded pictures backwards, something I dealt with all last year by loading a few at a time, but not tonight. So this time, I will have to tell the story backward. Which will include out of order pics from our shared album.
On Day 3, we rode to Swan Point Cemetery to visit Greggie and Papa. We bought flowers and cookies to leave on the grave - Samoas because that's what Greggie often had in her cookie jar. Plus, we know how she loved her sweets.
It was a great visit. The cemetery is beautiful, and we remember how much Papa like it there because the top of the cemetery has a view of the river where you can sometimes see swans. We went up to there to see the old graves and actually saw a Turkey doing his mating dance for a female who was hiding in the trees with a brood of about 20 little chicks. Eventually she came out and let us see them!
It was the second of three baby flocks we saw that day - with two sets of goslings making a show on the bike path.
Our beautiful oysters and little necks from dinner in Bristol when we arrived on Saturday night.
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| Pic from Kathryn |
A view of the Mount Hope Bridge that we rode over on Sunday to get to and from Newport. It was forbidden and a little hairy! Pics from Laurie.
The gardens at Blithewold, a mansion and gardens we visited in Bristol. Didn't get to see the house, but the gardens were beautiful. These pics from Laurie.
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| excellent pic Laurie or Kathryn!! (?) |
A giant sequoia planted in the early 1900s. These pics all from Laurie and Kathryn.
They even made bamboo beautiful.
Kathryn in our AirBnB with her 3-layer, 6-in. torted hot milk sponge cake. Thanks Laurie - and happy birthday Kathryn!
I think this is the BeeHive in Bristol on Sunday morning. Breakfast on our way to Newport. Laurie and Kathryn had excellent avocado toast and I had eggs and greens and chocolate biscotti. Yum!
Sunday night at Blount Seafood. The biggest lobster rolls we've ever seen!
Resting our fee on the cliff walk after The Breakers - Vanderbilt mansion - on Sunday. My feet hurt so badly I stripped off my shoes and socks and stood in the cold water for 30 min looking at stones. it was the perfect cure.
Highlight of the weekend - Flo's on Easton Beach. Best clam cakes ever. SOOOO light and fluffy! Plus chowder. Pics by Kathryn.
Kathryn and Laurie running into shark trouble at Flo's!
Easton beach.
Amazing dinner on Saturday night in Bristol. Asparagus in hummus, fish tacos, baked oysters. We share it all. Delicious!
Saturday afternoon, after visiting Blithewold, we rode to the end of Bristol then tried to ride to Mount Hope - "King Phillip's Chair." On the way, Laurie got a flat. We fixed that, then discovered the road to the "chair" was in disrepair because it wasn't open to the public. I was disappointed to turn around. The chair is on private property, owned by Brown U., where papa went to school.
Laurie and I off to see the giant sequoia.
On the way to our weekend, we stopped by Maple Terrace!! I just want to buy this house and rip that brown siding off! None of the other houses have changed, but ours looks kind of terrible. It was amazing to be on the street again.
OK - here is where the shared pics end and all of the pics are mine, in backwards order. This is lunch in Providence at the Ivy Tavern. Slow service but good food and beer. We relaxed. :)
The old part of the swan point cemetery looking over the river. There was a breeze. it was calm and beautiful.
It's a really pretty place. Even though I don't want to be buried in a cemetery, I can see why they chose it.
We rode through a beautiful tree-lined neighborhood to get there.
This bridge connected sleepy villages from busy Providence.
Lots of birds on this trip. Here are some geese parents with their goslings. They hissed at us as we passed a bit too close on our bikes.
I stopped here to bird to watch these distant great egrets.
This is the biggest lobster roll ever again at Blounts - at the end of Sunday.
But before we could get there, we had to get back over the Mount Hope Bridge. Laurie is less than happy here.
Out six oysters at the "wrong Tavern." We went to the tavern on Broadway because we thought it was where Neenie and Papa met, but after we went, Neenie wasn't sure. I think I imposed this location on her after looking online. Whoops! But these were among the best oysters I have ever had!
Strangest photo ever taken by accident!
Here we are in front of the wrong Tavern!
More of the same...
I thought the Town of Newport (most of Sunday) was really super cute. Things on a small reasonable scale are such a relief to me.
speaking of reasonable scale, here is the one pic I took inside the Breakers. It was so opulent, I found myself disgusted. and to think he treated his railroad workers badly.
These are my pics of Flo's from Sunday. Like I said, Best Clam Cakes Ever! Also, the first of 3 naragansetts for the weekend. Trying to love the pilsners!
Inside Flo's.
A view of Flo's with my bike, of course.
The view from Buram road on the way to Newport.
I snapped a few pics at the top of the bridge.
Riding out of Swan Point to the Old North Burial Ground, but Nana and Pop Pop weren't listed, so we couldn't see their grave sites.
After years of reading "17th Constitution Ave." I was thrilled to see the house that plays a central role in the story!
The beehive, where we had the yummy breakfast with things like chocolate biscotti and avocado toast. Also, this is where we panicked when we realized we couldn't ride over the Mount Hope bridge. We spoke to the owner who suggested the bus, but it didn't start running till 10 (said the internet), so we tried an uber, but they wouldn't accept the ride, so we tried to hitchhike, but no one would stop, so finally I just rode over it and hoped Laurie would eventually follow. Which she did.
But here, we are still enjoying our Lattes.
Settingout for our second ride on Sunday. We left at 6:45 am and returned at 8:45, so we were 14 hours out on the road that day!
Sun setting over my bike in a good birding spot on the bike path. We saw and heard a yellow warbler. It says: "Sweet, sweet, you'r so sweet!" Also, goldfinch and red-winged black birds.
So many great birding opportunities. We saw in the weekend: yellow warblers, red-winged black birds, blue heron, great egrets, cormorants, SWANS, a. pair of mating turkeys and their chicks, geese and their goslings, and a black-crowned night heron keeping watch from a tree.
I wanted to buy this glass. Saw it in multiple places and kept forgetting!
By the Mount Hope lighthouse.
Trees at Blithewold. I felt bad, the nice man let us in for free in case we came back the next day. So we wouldn't have to pay twice. But we didn't have time to go back...
Blithewold mansion from the water.
Out bikes in the background at Blithewold.
Riding from Warren to Bristol on the East Bay Bike Path. It had water views...
Swampy birds views...
And forest views. Very peaceful.
Our AirBnB. Thanks to Laurie for booking it!
Ready to head out on Saturday afternoon for our first ride.
Well...almost ready.
More views of Maple Terrace. Which hadn't changed a bit.
There was still a huge maple in the side yard. is it a new tree? Must have been.
On the way in on Friday night, there was the hugest most amazing moon hanging low over NYC. So low it disappeared behind the skyline. And golden. Never seen a moon quite like that - esp. over a city. Laurie tried to take a pic but alas... I kept this here just to remind us.
Laurie and I head out from home on Friday night.
Distance: 103 miles over 3 days (18, 50, 35)
