Rhode Island: The Ocean State

When we go on vacation, we usually spend the day exploring and hiking around, then in the evening, I go through the day's photos and post to this blog. In fact, I often become quite distraught if I am unable to do so. I get anxious if I get behind, because I know the risk that I will never get around to posting everything we did once we get home. The salt marshes and ponds dot the landscape in Cape Cod, but we seldom saw trails or places to park to explore them.

Beach Rose

 

Beach Roses grow everywhere, with small pink petals, which produce gigantic red rose hips. At first, you might think they are some kind of strange cherry tomato!

The Woods Hole Aquarium is closed on Mondays and holidays, so we were unable to go there this trip. We found a hiking area called Lowell Holly Reservation, owned by the Massachusetts Trustees. In the spring of 1891, the legislature voted to establish The Trustees of  Reservations “for the purposes of acquiring, holding, maintaining and opening to the public…beautiful and historic places…within the Commonwealth.”

At Lowell Holly, it appears that little or no activity by man –such as burning, plowing, or the felling of trees – has taken place for more than 200 years on the majority of land. The result is a forest that has largely escaped the influence of man and thus represents a unique natural resource for Cape Cod.This is the largest beech forest I've every seen, along with ponds and marsh lands. We got on the wrong trail, and ended up walking every last foot of the place before finding our car again.

It wasn't a long drive into downtown Newport, RI. I normally don't like "city" vacations, but Newport was absolutely wonderful! Our condo units were right on the docks - across the street from the Newport Shipyard and the piers for the lobster fishing fleet. Our first RI food was lobster bisque from the Lobster Shack, right on the dock where the fresh lobsters are brought to market each day. YUM!

"Lobsta' rolls" are a staple, and available at fancy expensive restaurants and the snack bar at the beach (which was actually the best one we had).

The harbor goes on and on, with boats of all sizes and prices bobbing on their mooring buoys. On Labor Day, the crowds were elbow to elbow, but the next morning, it was much easier to walk the docks.What shall we do with all these boats? Go sailing, of course!