Rhode Trip

We slipped away last week for a mini vacation on the Rhode Island and Connecticut coast.  Our road trip started bright and early on Sunday morning -5:30am- with a stop at Massabesic Audubon in Manchester for some bird banding.  The morning was hot and sticky, and we all had to be in long pants and rubber boots because of the rampant poison ivy and ticks at the study site.  Despite the conditions we helped Jay set up the ten MAPS mist nets and make several rounds to check on them.  We caught only four birds while we were there, but two were red-eyed vireos and one was a hermit thrush- birds you rarely get to see up close.  Haley was a trooper making net rounds in the ergo carrier on my back, and Aiden was helpful with many parts of the process- especially carrying the birds in from the nets in their little cloth bags.

Hermit Thrush

Aiden watching Jay take a phoebe from the net

Our next stop was Mystic Seaport, about a 2.5 hour drive from Manchester.  I remember visiting Mystic Seaport as a kid, and even sleeping outside in a sleeping bag on the deck of an old schooner with my girl scout troop.  We don't do a lot of historical trips and excursions with the kids (a bit of a bio-overload in this family at times) so I thought it would be interesting for Aiden and Haley to step back in time a bit with all the old shops and people dressed in period costume.  The day we were there, they were having a Civil War encampment, so there were all sorts of union soldiers sprawled out on the green, with their white cotton pup tents sprinkled around here and there.  It was cool to see many of the instruments and weapons (and even games and other amusements) that civil war soldiers would have used in the 1800s, and the kids got a big kick out of the cannon firing demos.  Haley actually said the cannons were her favorite part of the day.  We had a nice lunch (with warm ale, ala 1800s) at Spouter's Tavern and after a full afternoon headed back to our hotel for a swim in the indoor pool.  All thoughts of the 1800s were banished from the kids' minds once they saw that pool, I can assure you!

Lunch at Spouters

The next day was a rainy one, so we opted for Mystic Aquarium.  I couldn't believe how packed it was on a dreary Monday morning, but Andy reminded me that schools are winding down and take lots of field trips towards the end of the year.  Literally, it was mobbed!  The beluga whales, penguins, and rays were cool to see, but to be honest I was glad to get out of there by noon and get back to more secluded venues.  Thankfully, by the afternoon the skies had lightened and it stopped raining.  We headed to the beach at Watch Hill (Napatree Point) in Westerly, RI for some seaside exploration.  This was much more our speed.  Aiden had a great time checking out (aka torturing) huge horseshoe crabs on the bay side of the beach, and Haley (as Haley will do) anchored herself at the first patch of sand and set up tea party central.  Dinner was at the Bridge restaurant in Westerly, where we had one of our top-ten all time meals- Aiden enjoyed piles of raw littlenecks and oysters, and Andy and I had the most amazingly smoky and yummy fish tacos ever.  Plus an appetizer called tuna "pokey" that was some concoction of raw tuna, sesame seeds, seaweed, and edamame all mashed up and served with rice crackers.  We were loving the salt air and the fresh seafood that night.

Belugas at Mystic Aquarium

Aiden using his plankton net at Napatree Point

Horseshoe crabs are wicked cool!

Haley isn't sure they're really cool.

Tea Party Girl

Haley tries her first oyster - and approves!

Next up, an early rise and morning drive to Galilee, RI to ship Aiden and Andy off on a fishing boat for a half day of flounder fishing.  The two of them made a bet as to who would catch the most fish as they were leaving the docks.  Final tally:  Aiden, 2; Dad, 0.  Oh well, poor Dad.  Aiden caught a nice keeper flounder that furnished our dinner the night we arrived home in NH, as well as a gnarly looking sea robin.  Meanwhile, as the guys were bobbing about on the brine, Haley and I visited two RI state beaches.  Guess what we did there?  Salt water tea parties, yes.  And shell collecting, playing on the playground, and climbing on jetty rocks.  Haley made a new little friend, Khloe, who was also 2, and the two of them held hands walking along the beach and collected shells to fill each other's buckets.  It was beyond cute.  

Aiden's fluke

Haley and her friend Khloe

We had lunch at a greasy seafood dive that day (more oysters, more lobster and homemade ice cream for dessert) and visited East Beach in the afternoon to walk off our gluttony.  This state beach reminded us a lot of Watch Hill on Fire Island, with its windswept dunes, plentiful beach roses and pounding surf.  Aiden was running in and out of the waves when he lost a croc in the surf- despite our shouting for him to just leave it to come in on the next breaker, he went in after it and a huge wave broke over him, tumbling him up good.  I ran in to grab him out of the sucking surf; he was shocked but not really hurt.  Water up his nose and a bucketfull of sand in his hair, but otherwise fine.  The croc was also salvaged.

Lunch at Champlins, near the fishing docks in Galilee

At East Beach, before the "croc incident"

Beautiful East Beach

We spent the night at a mom and pop motel directly across the street from yet another RI state beach (that's the fourth for the day, if you're counting...)- Scarborough Beach.  This beach is perfect for kids, with nice flat grading into the water, causing the surf to come lapping in gently.  No crocs were lost, but we stayed out on the beach to enjoy the beautiful night way past the kids bedtime, and walked across the street again in the early morning to get a few last sandcastles in too.

Haley loves her daddy, at Scarborough Beach

Tickle torture time

On our final day, we spent the morning at Sachuest Point, one of Andy's study sites when he worked on saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows at URI.  Sachuest is a national wildlife refuge, an absolutely gorgeous spit of land that sticks out into Narragansett Bay, full of seaside fields and craggy shoreline rocks.  The kids enjoyed the change to "rocky beach" after all those sandy beaches, and got in a little tidepooling during our loop hike around the property.  We headed back into Newport for lunch at an Irish pub and some souvenir shopping  (three "newport" tees for $10- how can you refuse that?!) before the long drive back to New Hampshire.  It was a perfect few days of family time on the coast- some of us (i.e. the 6 year old) are already planning a "next" time and thinking about URI for college.  Go go Rhode Island!

Cool tidepool find

Sachuest Point