My Rhode Island Hit Parade

Here is, in no particular order, a list of my favorite spaces and places in this beautiful state.

1.  The Spring House on Block Island.  An old Victorian grand hotel, the front porch of the Spring House is the perfect place to while away an afternoon or evening.

2.  Napatree Point, Westerly.  Now a wildlife preserve, this spit of land was swept bare in the Hurricane of 1938, killing 15 people.   Today it’s a peaceful beach free from the crowds that swarm other local beaches.

3.  The view of Providence from Prospect Terrace Park.   I love this statue of Roger Williams gazing out over the city he founded.  I recently found out that H.P. Lovecraft frequently visited this park.

4.   The Ocean Mist.  The O’Mist is a legendary beach bar, hard by the shores of Matunuck Beach.  People once played volleyball in front of the deck, but severe erosion has claimed most of this space…..pro:  you feel like you’re on a poor man’s cruise ship….con:  the future of the Ocean Mist is iffy.   Come for live music, excellent fish tacos, and a great beer selection.

5.  Diamond Hill Vineyards.  Yes, a winery in Cumberland is one of my favorite spots!  It’s really come a long way over the last few years, a great spot to hang out and sip wine.  This picture was taken on a beautiful December day, when it warmed up to over 60 degrees!

6.  The Towers, Narragansett.  The entire town qualifies for my Best Of list, but the Towers are an iconic and beautiful landmark.  Built as part of the Narragansett Pier Casino in the 1880s, they’re now a venue for private events.

7.  Wickford Village.   Shopping and dining with views like this:

8.   THIS BARN.   I am on a quest to get a picture of it in all seasons.  Come on spring!!

9.   The Pawtucket Wintertime Farmer’s Market.  I can’t believe this place doesn’t get more press.  It’s bigger and better than the summertime markets.   I counted four vendors selling grass-fed meat.  FOUR.  There are fresh winter veggies, seafood & poultry, products such as herbals, honey, pickles, chocolates.  My routine is to grab an insanely delicious crepe (my fave is brie, spinach & craisins), a coffee from New Harvest, and stroll around for an overview before I buy anything.

10.  The Clarke Cooke House, Newport.   Four stories of fun in a beautiful Colonial-era building, from the basement nightclub to fine dining on the top floor “Porch”….and five bars that I can think of.

Well, there you have it!  Do you agree with my choices?  Am I missing anything obvious?  Be in touch and let me know!

 

 

A VERY LONG OVERDUE SUMMER WRAP UP

Yes, I know how crazy that sounds on October 25th, but I had some leftover pics I needed to get out of my camera and phone.  The first one is a dock at New Harbor, on the Great Salt Pond on Block Island.  The one below it is the view from the outside bar at the Surf Hotel on Block.  The Surf was empty and decaying for several years, up for sale with no takers.  The owners chose to take  it off the market and refurbish.  The view of Crescent Beach from the back deck is, in my opinion, one of the best on the entire island.  No small thing on an island loaded with stunning views.

When I look at this picture of the bar at The National Hotel on Block, I hear Kate Smith singing God Bless America

Coming home on the ferry the first week of September, there was no denying that summer was over:

A year or two ago I went through a phase of filtering all my photos.  I assured you all that it was behind me, but I’m like a junkie, I can’t stop.   The first two are a field in Tiverton, right down the road from Tiverton Four Corners:

The images below are, in order:  East Sandwich Beach, Cape Cod; view from The Oar, Block Island; Hyannis Harbor, Cape Cod.

The next two are Galilee, Rhode Island:

FarmCoast MA

One of the most beautiful and underrated areas of New England is the area comprised of four coastal towns, Tiverton and Little Compton RI, Westport and Dartmouth MA.   It’s pretty, pastoral and quiet, but chock full of things to do ….if you happen to like food, wine and art.  A real tough sell, right?  Every year I swear I’m going to make it to SouthCoast Open Studios Tour, and this year I finally did.    The local artists open their studios to the public twice a year, and a map is provided to drive between them all.  After spending the day at the beach, I hit four or five of them.   But first, lunch.  A local favorite is The Bayside.  You’ll never catch me sitting inside for a meal in summer, but that often means compromising on the quality of the food.  Not at The Bayside!  I had a salmon burger with avocado and tamari aioli, washed down with a local brew (Grey Lady from Cisco Brewers on Nantucket).   I could have stayed here all day.

A hub of activity in this area is the historic district of Tiverton Four Corners….lots of cute shops, a couple of options for eating, and lots of art and antiques.   The vibe here – and throughout the SouthCoast region – is understated and casual, but with a certain elegance about it.

Act like a local – buy a used book at the library’s used book sale:

Farming is a big deal here, Westport even bills itself as a “Right To Farm Community”.  It’s written right into their bylaws that farms shall be allowed “to function with minimal conflict with abutters and town agencies”.  It’s common to see an unattended table at the end of a driveway, with a pile of corn or other produce, and a container to leave your money.   One of my favorite stops is Westport Rivers Winery, specializing in sparkling wines.  Like many businesses in this region, they’re closed on Sundays so plan accordingly.

The same family owns Buzzards Bay Brewing right around the corner…..don’t miss it.  If you’re looking for more to see and do in this region (as well as addresses and a map), see my Jauntful guide.

Volvo Ocean Race, Newport

Like Newport isn’t fun enough, this year the city had the distinct honor of being a stopover for the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race.   The race covers 39k nautical miles and circumnavigates the globe over nine months.   The Race Village was open for about a week mid-May, and then the boats were on to Portugal.  The boats are relatively tiny – can you imagine crossing the ocean in this??

The day I was there was gloomy and cool; much as I love a warm sunny day in Newport sometimes you just gotta work around other people’s schedules.   Once I looked at my pictures I realized how much bright color was on display….maybe it was the contrast with the gray day?

This gloomy day morphed into a foggy low-key evening:

The Volvo Race is currently in Portugal, then onto their next stopover in Lorient, France.  They’ll have a quick pit stop at The Hague, Netherlands, and the race will end in Gothenburg, Sweden at the end of June.  You can download the app to follow the race here.

Sugaring Off Season (or mud season for the pessimists)

Maple sugar season – when sugarhouses all over the northeast come to life – is my favorite sign of spring.  It generally runs from late February through mid April, when longer, warmer days cause the sap to run.  Making syrup really hasn’t changed, it’s still a very manual process….buckets hung from trees to gather the sap, wood fires to boil the sap in rural shacks.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup; remember that the next time you balk at the price of real syrup.   I’m pretty sure the ingredient list for Aunt Jemima is just high fructose corn syrup and one melted brown crayon for color.

An old-fashioned tradition that has thankfully survived is seasonal pancake breakfasts right in the sugarhouse.  I had several on my short list, and narrowed it down to Williams Farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts for a couple of reasons:  it was a bit closer than a few of the others, and also seemed the least likely to have a wait.  I’d really like to get to Gould’s one of these days, but a wait of up to two hours is possible.  Since it was already a two hour drive, and my backroading turned it into a three hour drive, I wanted to get right down to pancake-eating when I arrived.

From Worcester I took 122 north, a two lane road through the rural towns of Barre and Petersham before linking up with Route 2 (The Mohawk Trail).  Once out of Worcester the route quickly turns wooded and pretty and looks much like New Hampshire.  Around Petersham you skirt the northern border of The Quabbin Reservoir, at about 40 square miles the largest inland body of water in Mass and the main source of water for Boston.  Its creation in the 1930s caused the destruction of four towns; cemeteries and town memorials were moved and even today you can drive down roads that once led to these towns but now dead end at the reservoir.

During maple season, if you are driving in the rural northeast and see a rough wood building with steam coming out of it they’re probably making maple syrup.

All you need to know now is….is this a pancake making sugarhouse or a non-pancake making sugarhouse?  Out of the car and we breathe in the smell of woodsmoke.  Inside the rustic post & beam building are rows of picnic tables and a counter where you place your order.  I stuck with the basics, really good (hot, fresh & light) pancakes, their own maple syrup, and a side of bacon to cut the sweetness.  Nothing about the experience is remotely fancy:  paper plates, the tables are shared, and you pick up your food when your number is called.  And that’s good.  Fancy would be wrong here.  I grabbed a bottle of Grade B (deep color, robust flavor) on my way out the door.  Typing this makes me want pancakes for dinner tonight!

I made a quick pitstop in Historic Deerfield for a few pictures.  This sign gives a brief history.

The village today is an outdoor history museum comprised of twelve historic buildings, eleven of which are on their original sites.   There’s also an inn with a full service restaurant.  The house below was a beautiful bright robin’s egg blue but it’s not as evident in the photo, because of the competing blue sky.

I plan to get back to the Pioneer Valley when the weather warms up some more.  I have a list of places I’d like to visit in this Jauntful guide.  There’s so much to do here once you start looking around.

Hygge…wha?

I just heard about hygge today and have fallen in love with the idea.  It’s a Danish cultural concept that if summed up in one word would be cozy….but it’s so much more.   To the Danes, hygge (pronounced sort of like ‘hoogah’) is a feeling, a concept that has elements of family & friends, camaraderie, hominess, food & drink shared with those you love, some would add safety & contentedness, and CANDLES.  Apparently those short winter days close to the Arctic Circle have bred in them a deep love of candles and all manner of twinkling lights.   In early January spring seems so far away but the reality is the first day of spring is only about 75 days away (even if true springlike weather won’t show its face in New England quite so soon).  I’m going to fight the urge to wish winter away and will use the idea of hygge to embrace it instead.  My perfect hygge day would be hanging out with a small group of my closest friends, a pot roast in the oven, sipping red wine in front of a fire.  Extra points for nasty weather outside.

Another lovely Scandinavian idea is friluftsliv which translates directly from Norwegian as “free air life”.   It means spending time outdoors, in all seasons, hiking, camping, or even just going for a walk or taking pictures.  Since hygge comes easily to me, I will have to work at friluftsliv this winter.

If you’re looking for some motivation to get out of the house on a Saturday morning, look no further than Pawtucket, RI.  Truly.  Hope Artiste Village is probably my favorite repurposed mill in the area.  Chock-full of artists, designers, cafes and even a coffee roaster, it hosts (every Saturday November-May, 9AM-1PM) a kick-ass wintertime farmer’s market.  To give you an idea of the scope of this market, I counted four vendors selling grass-fed beef alone.  There are stalls loaded with winter vegetables like kale, winter squash & potatoes….herbalists selling skincare and natural remedies, soup, freshly made cheeses, knitted alpaca mittens, local oysters….you name it.  Get a coffee from New Harvest Roasters, a stuffed crepe from La Creperie, then walk around and plan out your dinner from what’s available that day.   If you’re still hungry, The Bread Lab is right in the complex, interior doors open to the action, and offers brunch & live music on market days.  If you want something quicker, the mill courtyard is full of food trucks.   You’re having so much fun, why stop now?  About a block away is Bucket Brewery, run by a great bunch of guys putting out some shockingly good beers.   Walk over from the market for a tasting, they’re open 11:00AM-5:00PM on Saturdays, as well as Thursdays 1:00PM-7:30PM.   After that, hop in your car for a 3 minute drive to Foolproof Brewing.  According to their website Saturdays are for tours, so call ahead for a reservation (although they will accommodate walk-ins).  It seems they do a ‘tasting only’ option on Thursday nights.

This first picture is McCarten Violins, one of the tenants of Hope Artiste.  Aren’t they beautiful?  I suspect I’m drawn to violins after my failed attempt to become a musician in 4th grade.  It wasn’t bad enough my glasses made me look like Benjamin Franklin, I decided to play the violin…and failed.

I know I should just let Pawtucket bask in its glory by itself today but I have two pics of Providence I feel like throwing in here.  The beautiful skyline from the Point Street Bridge:

The building in the picture below is one that I was mildly obsessed with as a child.  Even driving by it scared me, I felt that you could get a shock just looking at it.  Back then, it was actually producing electricity and you could somehow tell that by looking at it.  It glowed brightly and just looked….electrified.  According to Wikipedia:

“The South Street Station (also known as The Narragansett Electric Company Power Station or Narragansett Electric Lighting Company Power Station) is an historic electrical power generation station at 360 Eddy Street in Providence, Rhode Island. It is a massive brick and stone structure, built in stages between 1912 and 1952. Despite three major phases of construction, the 58,000 square foot building has fairly consistent Classical Revival styling. The building, an excellent example of early 20th-century power plant design, burned coal to provide electrical power to the city. It was gradually taken over by the more modern Manchester Street Station, and was decommissioned in 1995.^[2]

Narragansett Electric Company is a subsidiary of National Grid USA. The Rhode Island Historical Society was planning to build a “Heritage Harbor Museum” within the building. Construction ceased and the project was canceled in 2009 due to lack of financing.

In 2013 Brown University along with the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College announced that the vacant South Street Power Station would be a redeveloped with student housing, retail, a URI/RIC nursing school, administrative offices, a new parking structure, and additions to the adjacent riverwalk. The project is slated to also include student housing built on a parking lot along Point Street.”

That’s all for now.  Happy New Year!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas…

I know it seems a bit early but it’s only because I want you to get out there and enjoy some Christmas events!   You know if you don’t plan ahead it won’t happen.

I’m a bit of a history geek and my favorite of the living history museums is Mystic Seaport.   For the 35th year they are presenting their Lantern Light Tours, a progressive play set on Christmas Eve 1876.  Leave some time for lunch or dinner at S&P Oyster Company in downtown Mystic.

Old Sturbridge Village offers up Christmas By Candlelight, with a full slate of traditional activities such as caroling, roasting chestnuts and the like.  The on-site Oliver Wight Tavern offers special dinners to coincide with their Christmas events, as well as Brunch with Santa.

Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth NH is unique in that it encompasses over 300 years of American history, up to 1954 when the site was saved from urban renewal.  Sticking with the historical theme of ….candles….their seasonal event is the Candlelight Stroll.  Weekends in December bring sleigh rides, live music and seasonal entertainment along walkways lighted with wood and glass candle boxes.   This would make a fantastic weekend away, as Portsmouth is a great small city, full of shopping and dining options.

People tend to forget about Newport once summer’s over but it’s really got a lot to offer in all seasons.  December brings Christmas At The Newport Mansions, probably the best time to see these amazing Gilded Age mansions decked out in their holiday finery.  You can’t go wrong with dinner at The White Horse Tavern; in their own words “from farm to table since 1673”.  Yes, really: 1673.

I’d like to end with a reminder that this Saturday, November 29th is Small Business Saturday.  Shop local!  Shop small!!

Orange you glad foliage season is over?

No?  Well, you will be soon.

This post is All Connecticut All The Time.  I didn’t intend it to be, it just happened.  One of my favorite places in CT is Sharpe Hill Winery in Pomfret.  Classic New England:

This area of northeastern CT is known as The Quiet Corner, and also The Last Green Valley.   If you were to fly over New England at night, this area is the only place from DC to Maine that is in darkness, it’s truly rural.

Right around the corner is The Golden Lamb Buttery, a highly regarded restaurant that has been in the same family for generations.  I pulled over to take a couple of pictures and realized a wedding was going on.  You couldn’t ask for a nicer setting, the only incongruous note was hearing that horrid song “Happy” blaring out of the barn.  This beautiful guy coming over to say hello made up for it.

This fall the abandoned village of Johnsonville CT has been getting a lot of press after it was announced it would be auctioned off in October.  Oh if only I could get my hands on $3M!!   I wasn’t able to buy it but I was able to visit and take pictures.

I’ve always heard of Gillette Castle but never got around to going.  Wow, I was really missing something!  The castle is cool although it was closed for the season and we didn’t get to go inside.  But the real star of the show are the grounds which have become a state park, with amazing views of the Connecticut River.

Driving home I saw this cool old barn:

Now for a couple of Rhode Island pictures.  As I got closer to home the light was really cool and I saw a lot of nice foliage in Acotes Hill Cemetery in Chepachet, so I had to pull in.  I love a good cemetery.

Hard to believe the holidays are almost upon us.  In my next post I’ll list some holiday events in case you’re looking for things to do.  Stay tuned!

When I Move To Portland….

I’m going to run for City Council.   I’m going to run the concession stand at the high school football games.  I’m going to start a Neighborhood Watch.   I’m going to be all-in with this town.  Seriously Portland, you had me at hello.

I expected to like Portland before I got there.  On the drive up we got off the highway to cruise through Old Orchard Beach.  I hadn’t been there since I was 12 years old but as soon as I drove into town I remembered the street where my mother bought a Ginsu knife from a street vendor.  They meant it when they said those things were guaranteed for life…I still have that knife and use it daily.  Not kidding.

From there we headed up Route 1 to the Portland Head Light, called the most photographed lighthouse in the world.  Let that soak in.  THE WORLD.   How can they tell?  I don’t know but I believe Them.  It was pretty and I liked taking pictures of it.

A bit further north on Route 1 we drove into downtown Portland, which reminds me either of a larger Salem MA, or a smaller Boston.   They seem to love pretty signage as much as I do.

I’ve always been pretty smug about Providence’s status as a foodie city but man, Portland has them beat.  These people are obsessed (in a good way) with eating local.  We had a fab dinner at Caiola’s in the West End, awesome brunch at East Ender (fried-chicken-and-waffles-with-maple-sour-cream-awesome!) and visited two breweries, Shipyard and Rising Tide.   They had a wonderful farmer’s market but I didn’t get anything since I didn’t have a fridge and a kitchen.

The only downer was the heat & humidity – after a temperate summer, we had a couple of days of brutal heat & humidity that coincided with my visit.  I still loved it, but I’d like to get back here in boots & sweater weather.

Hi Neighbor!

That’s the tagline for Rhode Island’s own Narragansett Beer.  While the concept – a shandy made with Del’s Lemonade – and the can (PRETTY!) are both really cool…..true RI street cred in a beer goes to the Coffee Milk Stout from Ravenous Brewing in Woonsocket.  But a picture of this can taken on Block Island is a really cool bit of Rhode Islandia.