Jamestown and Newport

Another beautiful winters day with a maximum forecast of 6 degrees meant another perfect opportunity to go to the beach. 

This time we headed back to an area that Jen took Tracy and myself when we last visited in 2003, called Conanicut Island in Jamestown. 

It was not a sandy beach like we are blessed with in South Australia, rather it was bordered with some massive rocky ledges and looked to be the envy of any fisherman who comes from a land of sandy beaches. 

We spent close to an hour here clambering over the rocks, testing whether the ice pools were frozen enough to hold our weight and generally just enjoying the scenery. 

We then headed into Newport which was a further 15 minutes away and was a quaint little town that reminded us of a much busier Goolwa from back home. 

We agreed to head into a favourite eating place called The Brick Alley pub for an early lunch. 

This had traditional pub burgers and similar meals that we all ordered and devoured. 

The pub itself was decked out with a huge range of motoring artefacts. I never got an answer as to what the significance was, but it made for a very interesting experience. 

We realised just how smart it was to go in for a pre 12:00 lunch once we had finished. The place was now jam packed with people lined up and waiting for up to half an hour for a table for lunch. 

Not bad for a Monday that is not even a public holiday or traditional annual leave day here. 

The next few hours was spent exploring all the local shops, searching for public restrooms and just wandering around as though we were tourists. 

We then headed down Ocean Drive which is a very well known road otherwise known as Millionaires Mansions road. These houses and properties were ginormous. 

Starting price is somewhere around the $5million mark. I only have $4.999 million to go. 

From the Italian connection to the beach

After 2 very well deserved lazy 2 days where we hardly got up off the couch and just “caught up”

We didn’t realise just how much we all needed this after the last 12 non stop days. 

With cooking, drinking, laughing and reminiscing from 13 years ago, the days passed quickly and gave us time to recover 

Saturday arrived and we all bundled into our cars and headed to Federal Hill. This is one of Jen’s special places and has lots of Italian shops, eateries and other cultural experiences. 

We looked around a bit, stopped for lunch at a pizza place, and looked around some more. 

There was ice still everywhere from the recent snow, which kept the kids entertained as we wandered the streets. 

The following day, Tracy and myself bundled into the car and went visiting the port of Providence whilst the kids stayed behind with Jen and Jay. We went for a walk through the town, then down the back streets to the waters edge where we were lucky enough to see an eagle devouring what looked to be a squirrel it had caught.  

There were some huge mansions along the waters edge, some of which looked like they had been converted into multiple dwellings, whilst others seemed to be still sole occupied residences. 

One of the strangest things we have discovered throughout America - and especially back in NY, is that there are NO public restrooms (toilets for us Aussies). It is the weirdest thing for so many people to not have access to basic amenities. Many of the cafes, Starbucks etc have them, but either can only be accessed by a code on your receipt after buying something, or have a security guard stopping you using them if you haven’t bought something from the store. 

This little seaside was no different, and despite pretending we were shopping in various stores, there was not a restroom to be found - not even at the fuel station where I did fill up the car. 

So we raced back home, did our business, had lunch with the kids, then went back out again to a local beach only 15-20 minutes up the road. 

It is kind of weird seeing a beach with great big areas of ice on the sand and rocks, however this simply gave the kids an extra bit of fun seeing as their boring parents wouldn’t let them go into the sea (something to do with the 2 degree air temperature, no towel or bathers and a bit of common sense).

 

We found some public toilets but this time they were locked. We later found out this is because during winter the water pipes freeze and burst and the patronage is low, so the council just locks them. 

To avoid any embarrassment, we chose to frequent one of the local cafes and buy ourselves a bag of donuts and use their amenities as part of the price. Worth every cent I say. 

This evening then became the night we all decorated our own stocking ready for Christmas morning. This was simply using a range of glitter glue in a bottle from the dollar shop and squeezing out whatever came to mind and was within our non-arty ability. This is far from any activity we would normally choose to do ourselves, however with the strong American influence from Jen, we found it to be a really fun time together as a family, albeit a little competitive between whose looked the best. Not sure how that argument started as mine was always going to win 😎. 

Goodbye Crazy life, hello relaxation

Our booked transportation to the rental car place was its own little nightmare - as with everything else here. 

We can’t take a taxi because we have 5 suitcases. 

We can’t take the subway because we value our lives. 

We can’t catch any other type of bus service because we don’t have 6 hours to spare. 

So we had to book an airport shuttle that is only allowed to pick us up from a hotel and deliver us to the airport. 

We packed our selves up and walked the 100m up the road to o a hotel and stood out front in 2 degree but sunny weather. This time the shuttle was a reasonable 20 minutes late, however it turned out we were also the first passengers ( it takes about 12-14 people.) This meant that we got a full sightseeing and traffic experience of New York as he negotiated the stupid traffic to pick up another 8 or so people. One family was actually 20 minutes late and caused him to get a parking ticket which he was rather annoyed at - as you would be. 

We finally got to the airport. Now we had to get onto the free monorail that will take us back away from the airport to the rental car location which is about 8km away. 

The whole saga was actually quite good in the end and worked out exactly as we needed it to. 

We were in our car and on the road by about 1pm. An hour later than we had hoped, but we got there. 

The drive was a bit chaotic for the first hour as we tried to get out of the city, and finally hit the freeway that was to get us to Rhode Island. 

The landscape very quickly changed to what I would describe as typical USA country charm, with snowy forests of leaf-less trees with houses dotted amongst them and every 10 miles or so a town could be seen just off the freeway. 

We got to Jen & Jays house just before 5pm in the dark. Still getting used to sunset being before 4:30pm here. 

After a very warm welcome, we were also greeted to our first real snow fall. 

It was as exciting for me as it was for the kids. This is the first time I have ever been in a snow fall. The minute amount we experienced in NY was still not classed as enough for me, so this was a unique and great experience.