Cape Cod & Rhode Island – Day 6

Our last day on the Cape and Chris cooked up a pancake feast to send us off, as well as fortify all of us for the morning’s supreme mini-golf challenge over at Pirates Cove Adventure mini-golf, the spot me & BK missed out on a couple nights before.  It was still pretty busy as we arrived, but not as bad as before.  The actually course was much tamer than it looked from the road – not many holes with exciting obstacles, but we still had fun.  Despite playing with Gunnar strapped to his chest, Chris had an impressive back-9 to storm past me & Kari into second place but he couldn’t quite catch BK.  I started off with a Hole-in-One right at the beginning, but faltered on a couple others to land in third.  BK now owns the current lead in our continuing battle, 2-1 (but all games have been very close).

Back home we packed up the car and hit the road for a short detour into Rhode Island, but as we arrived in Newport it was pretty foggy and did not provide the picturesque photographic scenes I had envisioned for BK.  So, we grabbed a quick snack, drove along the water and past the mansions seeing what we could see as best we could, then headed north pretty quickly up to Providence (where it was nice and sunny).  The last time I was in Newport with Mar it was pouring, so apparently I’m never meant to really enjoy the mansions of Newport?

We had started the day much later than anticipated so we didn’t really have any time to walk around explore Providence either.  Instead we hopped on our phones to search Yelp and picked a spot for dinner.  We did walk through a bit of downtown and along the water to find it, but didn’t see much except an actual gondola floating down the river:

We chose an Italian spot called Bacaro - you can never really go wrong with Italian in Providence, and this was a newer spot started by a chef who go this start at one of Providence’s classic spots.  The dining room was full so we sat at the bar and shared lots of little things as usual:  meat & cheese plate, squash blossoms, arancini, dates and a pasta carbonara.  All was delicious, and topped off with these cute “bombolini”, little doughnuts filled with orange curd:

Then it was home to the hotel to enjoy our first night of internet connection in 5 days!

The Ocean State – Here we go!

Thanks to the generosity and organizational skills of Mar, Arlene & Laurion, I have just returned from 4 days in Rhode Island – a place I had never really anticpated going unless I was on soem NE road trip or something.  So, it was very exciting to be jetting off to the East Coast for AK & LB’s wedding, especially since I would get to catch up with Mar since she’s been a busy gal as of late.

We were on a red eye to Dulles first, where we arrived Sunday morning at 5:30am and had a couplehours to sit around.  At one point I spotted a young pilot heading down the jetway and remarked to Mar that I thought our pilot was younger than us.  She shook her head in disbelief, but a few minutes another pilot appeared, standing near the ticket gate – and when he turned around I noticed his iPod which he was cooly listening too before heading down the jetway.  Once again, Mar was like “No way – those aren’t our pilots.”  But as we settled into our small regional jet to hop over to Providence, sure enough our two frat boys were on the flight deck.  Whatever pilot #2 was listening to on his iPod must have really revved him up because we hit the tarmac in Providence at an incredible speed – I’m not sure the flaps were up and I felt like we could easily take right back off.  Later my dad said it was because those guys just got out of the military and are used to taking off & landing on the Air Craft Carriers, which is probably true!

As we all know, Mar & I love a good meal, so the first plan of action was brunch, which we found at a spot near campus called Rue de l’Espoire.  I had french toast made with Portugese sweet bread and a popover with strawberry jam – yum!

Now fed, we began wandering around the neighborhood and campus, accidentally running into graduation as it was going on.  Having heard from Sallie that Alums march along too, we called AK & LB to see where they were – unsurprisingly, they were still in bed.  So next we called Michelle, who has been studying at RISD.  She was awake and met us over on Thayer Street, equivalent to the Ave, which we strolled along for a bit.  Then Michelle toured us around RISD and through the museum where we saw an exhibit of pieces from teh new graduates whihc was neat.  By now, AK & LB had woken up, so we all met them at a local sandwich spot, Geoffs, where we chatted and ducked under a big umbrella from a storm cloud that arrived.  The stormcloud’s arrival was not a good sign for Mar & I as we had afternoon/evening plans that required no rain.

Unfortunately, the rain kept coming.  Mar & I parted ways with the others and jumped in our car to head south to newport.  The original plan was to do the Cliffwalk and look at all the old Newport mansions, but that was not to be.  Mar was trooper driving through the storm, and we looked at what we could through our rain-soaked windows while dodging lightining bolts. 

Since we were now on the southern end of the state, we went in search of a clam shack for dinner, taking advantage of our proximity to fresh, local seafood.  The weather finally broke and we enjoyed a feast at Cap’n Jacks – Clam Cakes (like fritters), Lobster bisque, clear Clam Chowder (a local favorite), and lobster rolls.  And for dessert, a concoction of Blondies, apples, ice cream and caramel – MMMMM!

Throughout the day we quickly learned that Rhode Island drivers are horrible, Rhode Island signage is non-existent and many roads are badly in need of repair.  Driving home all three of these were evident once again, but we got back to the Warwick Holiday Inn in one piece – even despite the fact that Mar thought she had a free left turn on a highway while staring down a red light

The next morning was nothing but blue skies and we headed south again to Point Judith, where we caught a fast ferry to Block Island for the day.  Block Island is 12 miles south, between Long Island & Marth’s Vineyard.  Not too big or too steep, we rented bikes and hit the road, meandering through town and down to each end with a lighthouse.  We could not have asked for better weather and the island was beautiful – everything you imagine an east coast marine town to be.  It also wasn’t too crowded yet, as there are only about 1,000 residents and the high season was yet to come.  The cool breezes however fooled me into thinking it was that hot out, so without sunscreen on my arms I cam home looking like I had two big lobster claws – oops!  I don’t know what I was thinking.  Anyway, it was a fabulous way to spend the day, especially when we capped it off with more clam cakes upon arrival back in Point Judith!

Dinner that night was on Federal Hill, the Italian district of providence, at a restaurant called Pane e Vino – it was good, but nothing thrilling.  There’s just as good of Italian food in Seattle. 

The following morning we spent at the Culinary Archives & Musuem, part of Johnson & Wales University.  It is set a little south of downtown and I’m not sure how many visitors they usually get – but when we arrived and paid our fee, the girl at the desk then said “Ok, I’ll go turn on the lights for you.”  It was a big place, with lots of artifacts and memorabilia related to all aspects of food and the culinary industry – fairly intersting.  And while we were there, a coupel other folks did show up.  But we then needed to head back to the hotel to change for the wedding.

The wedding was a small, casual affair but so much fun,  Arlene looked gorgeous in her dress, LB was snappy in his suit, and the woman presiding over the ceremony was great.  Short & sweet, we were soon gobbling up cake (it came in four flavors) and catching up with old friends.  From there, most folks headed to dinner at Gracies restaurant, where more eating and catching up ensued.  These times are best conveyed from the pictures at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=286060855203&page=1&sort_order=0

As the evening wore down, everyone went their separate ways and Mar, Kyung & I walked back to the hotel with Arlene & Laurion, where their town car was waiting to take them to Boston for the night.  The next morning they would then head off to Seoul for three weeks, thefirst stop in a 78-day around the world adventure.  the three of us headed upstairs to their suite which they had given us for the night to debrief, pack and crash.

In the morning, we checked out and got our stuff into the car, which had been parked overnight in a sweet FREE spot on the street scored by Mar.  We headed back to Federal Hill to eat and shop before dropping Kyung off at the bus station as she was heading down to NYC for a few days.  Mar and then got lunch at a favorite of Sallies:  Bob & Timmys wood fired pizza – it was yummy!  Then it was off to the airport.

Last week we had been alerted to a change in our itinerary – we were no longer on Unted, but on US Airways.  For a few minutes US Airways didn’t seem to want to believe that, but eventually they found us and we headed off to security.  However, our crazy ticket change must have set off a whistle, because both of us were pulled aside for extra screening, even being sent through a new space-age chamber full of air puffs that screen you for explosives residue.  freaky!  We finally got on our plane and out on the tarmac, only to have the pilot come on and say we were heading back to the gate to have maintenance take a look at something.  Hmmmmm.  Luckily it was nothing serious and easy to fix and we were soon our way to Philadelphia, as our pilot annouced while rushing down the runway “Here we go!”  Then home to Seattle, where Mr. Chen picked us up and I crashed early.

Thanks Mar, Arlene, Laurion, Michelle, & Kyung for a fabulous time!!!