TA DA - Our 50th State - Rhode Island

When we first talked about the States we had not yet been to, back in April, 2016, the list consisted of Montana, N Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut (11).  That same year, we polished off 6 of them with our western trip + Maryland later in the year when we went on our baseball trip to Washington and Baltimore.  Last year we stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas, so that only left the 3 eastern states, and now they’re all done!  I’m not sure how I feel about it...a bucket list item done, I guess.  Now, don’t ask me how many we’ve actually slept in.  Most of them, but there might be a handful we haven’t.

Anyway...

We arrived here yesterday afternoon.  We didn’t have to leave Connecticut very early as we only had about 2 hours on the road, at the most.

What a gorgeous little state this Rhode Island is.  We haven’t seen a lot of it, but we tooted around this island we’re on (Aquidneck), and in particular Newport, RI.  Nice little town, we must say...history plus the pier areas.

So the first thing we did today was head out to Brenton Point, which is at the very tip of the island.  We drove down to Ocean Drive, then along there and saw all the mansions along the shore.  Wow.  Multi-million $ HUGE homes (probably summer cottages).  Here’s part of one, but there were lots.  I don’t feel comfortable stopping and taking photos of people’s houses.

And here’s the truck parked at the Point.  (By the way - for my geocaching friends - this is where the oldest cache in R.I. is.  That’s 2 now.  You’ve gotta start a streak somewhere!)

As we were leaving the Point, a cargo ship of some description was coming out of the bay. 

So, apparently the Kennedys lived here for a while.  Don’t know how long, but we believe this was their place - called Hammersmith Farm.

We went back to our RV and had lunch with Tibby.  He should be thrilled we take time out of our busy days to spend time with him!  And, we also had to change our clothes before we went back into town.

After lunch, we thought we would check out more of the Town of Newport.  We were planning to go up to Providence, but when we saw this town, we changed our minds.

So we wandered around the little shops for a bit.  There was a great store full of gag type things where we spent quite a bit of time.  We saw this shop and figured Andre the Giant was in there, so decided there was no room for us.

This is one of the little streets of shops, but not the oldest shops/buildings in town, that’s for sure.

After wandering around for a while, we decided to stop for a brewski at this bar set up on a pier.  I sat on a bar stool beside this guy.

And what we had.  

We struck up a conversation with another couple there from Boston.  They were quite nice and offered their sympathies for our Blue Jays.  We told them we were going to Boston in September for our baseball trip this year.

This was in the little square.  I took it while sitting at the bar.

And we had to try some New England clam chowder.  Delicious.

We did a little more walking after we left the bar.  The next 3 photos were from the end of the pier.

      

This is the spire of Trinity Church, a centrepiece in the town.

I love signs.

Interesting sculpture we saw.  I imagine the surf gets up pretty good on the east side of the island just south of the town.  Today it was pretty calm.

I know this is a bad picture, but we were driving along to head back to our RV when Gerard noticed this church, and a sign that said JFK and Jackie were married here.  We were stopped right beside it at a red light.  By the time the phone was out of the pocket, we were on our way in traffic.  Sorry it didn’t turn out better.  But thought I would put it here anyway. 

So tomorrow we’re still here in this little State, and we have plans.