Vacation from our Vacation???

Day 152 - 187 / 1,895 Miles - Newport, Twin Lakes, Block Island, Boston & Tampa

Well these last 30 days have really been a whirlwind for us. After arriving in Newport, Dennis & John headed off to Twin Lakes - California for his annual "guys only" fishing trip.  Becky was joined by Paula for a girls week in Newport. Then the 4 of us headed to Block Island for a few days of "Island adventure".  And if this weren't enough fun to be had, we headed off to Boston the following weekend for a visit with Jess, Andrew and Devin.  And... if this weren't enough fun, after our return from Boston, we headed back to Florida to celebrate Kevin, Laurie and Barbara's induction into the fabulous 50 club.  Whew 

Newport

Upon arrival in Newport, we spent a few days on a mooring ball in Newport Harbor.  For such a busy harbor, the ball was pretty comfortable.  We had a great view of all the boats coming and going from Newport and were treated to the L’Hermione, a French frigate, that was docked at Fort Adams for a few days, who upon arrival began exchanging fire with Fort Adams. (I'm so sad... I had a video of this exchange that seems to have gotten deleted)

Staying at Bannister's Wharf was perfect, centrally located in downtown Newport the GS was nestled amongst some very large vessels.  They were "over the top" with amenities and some of them provided some very interesting people watching.  Our first night at the marina proved very interesting.  The boat in the video below is out of South Florida and is the weekend home to several young studs from Russia and their Untza Untza music.

By the end of the evening, our Russian friends had found themselves "dates" who, after being encouraged by dock security not to run the docks naked found themselves in the boat's hot tub discussing who was and was not going to "f#$k a russian"... You can't make this stuff up.

This New England town is far from "sleepy".  If you can't find something to do here, you just aren't trying.  "The Ladies" had a pretty amazing week in this little sailing town.  Our days were full and adventurous; from touring the mansions, hiking, biking and swimming off the cliffs along Narragansett Bay.  Each day ending with a sampling of the local cuisine and pubs including the now infamous Aerosmith Tribute Concert.



Narragansett Bay was our old boating waters when we lived in New England over 10 years ago, so we had visited Newport several times in our past.  One of things that I enjoyed most about this visit to Newport is that we included some non touristy things in our days like finding swimming holes rather than traditional beaches as well as hiking and biking to our destinations rather than car or taxis.  It allowed us to see and experience things that the normal visitor doesn't usually see or experience.

Block Island

July 20 - 24

We headed out to Block Island after "the boys" returned from their Twin Lakes trip.  It was fairly foggy when we left Newport limiting our visibility a bit for our crossing of block Island Sound.  Moorings are on a first come basis and we were pretty lucky to have one available upon our arrival.  Our departure was pretty as several boats were circling waiting for us to drop our lines so they could pounce on the open ball we would leave. While on The Block, we spent a day wandering the town, checking things out, another floating off the back of the boat mixed in with a little work to free a fishing line from the shaft of the boat and the final day hiking to Mohegan Bluffs and the Southeast Lighthouse.  Mohegan Bluffs are pretty spectacular cliffs with over 150 steps down to the ocean.  Easy walk down, and you earned it on the way back to the top.

As usual a good time goes by completely too fast and before you knew it, it was time to leave.  We spent the next week bopping around Narragansett, stopping in Warwick, Wickford and an unplanned weather delay stop in Newport.

Boston

July 31 to Aug 3

Hard to believe that we haven't seen the kids since they got married at the end of April.  Much too long for this momma!!!  So we took the train into Bean town and spent the weekend being uber tourists; Freedom Trail, Taking in a Red Sox game (yep they beat the Rays), going to the top of the Prudential Building and a Duck Boat Tour (Quack Quack).  Throw in a bonus visit with Devin and you couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  Again too short!

Florida

Aug 5 - 9

Happy Birthday shout out to Barbara, Laurie & Kevin who have all joined the nifty 50 club.  So glad we were able to celebrate with y'all.  Kevicakes - you were definitely missed and we will make it up to ya next time we see you.