After spending a week in Rhode Island, however, I can not only easily place it on the map (right there between CT and MA), but I have so many fond memories as well.
Here are some highlights and fond memories from Rhode Island:
Most Authentic Meal: Iggy’s. I ordered a lobster roll
. I needed to try one. I’ve seen and heard so much about them, but it was Levi who surprised us by ordering fried calamari. Now that I think about it, it’s not surprising. It’s fried and squishy – right up his alley! Then we ordered an insane amount of food in order to try everything: a bowl of red clam chowder, clam cakes, and the infamous dough boys. The red chowder was actually pink and didn’t taste as tomatoey as we thought it would, so we were a little disappointed with that. The clam cakes didn’t disappoint; though, they tasted like fritters. You couldn’t taste the clam at all, but I’d still rather eat my mom’s corn fritters whenever I can sweet talk her into making them! The dough boys were the finest of our feast, resembling a warm, delicious semi-flattened donut hole rolled in sugar, melting in your mouth.Most Regrettable Meal: Hot weiners. We should have just stopped right there with the name. Who decided to call them “hot wieners” anyway? They were recommended as a Rhode Island must eat, though, so we had to try them, at least that’s what Mike, the hot dog lover, argued. We ordered them “all the way” which means with mustard, meat sauce, onions, and celery salt. How they picked celery salt out of all the spices in the spice rack, I’ll never know.
The wieners weren’t the best, in my opinion, but my favorite dog is the kind that wags its tail, so I’m definitely not the expert in this area. Actually, Chloe was the only one in our bunch who liked them, and she just ordered mustard on hers. At least they were cheap and tiny, so we had plenty of room to try another Rhode Island must, Del’s Lemonade.
New Foods: All of the above already mentioned foods plus Del’s Lemonade – a sugary, soft frozen lemonade. You don’t drink it, so you don’t need a straw, but you also don’t eat it, so you don’t need a spoon either. You sort of shake the cup and eat it with your tongue, and the heat from your hand slowly melts the ice. Levi and I really liked it, but Chloe and Mike wanted more tartness to it.
Biggest Surprise: How fast the Rhode Island Coalition Donate Life folks could pull an event together! Steve really worked hard setting up the event at Mulligan’s Island. We appreciated his enthusiasm and hard work.
Mulligan’s Island offered to give a free round of mini golf to anyone registering to be an organ donor. (a $10 value) How awesome is that!? During the event, NBC10 came out and did a story.
While we were manning the booth with another volunteer, Lisa, the kids were each stationed at different holes on the course. They were very responsible in maintaining their positions for the full three hours, telling people about the raffle, and handing out raffle tickets to the people who hit holes-in-one.
Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Missing my laundry machine. When we first started the trip, I missed and suddenly appreciated my old laundry room, right there off the kitchen with easy access, but in Rhode Island I discovered that I now appreciate laundry machines in the same building as us! The Hotwire hotel we were at for the week in Rhode Island didn’t have laundry machines, so for the first time on the trip, I ventured out to a local laundromat...after convincing Mike I’d be safe there.
Now, I haven’t been to a laundromat in many years. Things have sure changed! For one thing, they got really expensive, and I thought the hotel laundry prices were ridiculous! Secondly, the laundromat I frequented 15+ years ago had seating, not this one. I stood the entire time. I was tempted to sit on the machines but felt weird with the owner lurking about. In all fairness, he wasn’t lurking; he was a very nice Italian man who helped me figure out the ropes. I had plenty of time to think while I was leaning and realized that sometimes you don’t fully appreciate what you have - until it’s gone…All the more reason to be on this trip promoting organ donation registration!
Best Tourist Spot: Newport with Cliff Walk and the mansions. Of the numerous mansion tours available, we opted for The Breakers Mansion tour because of their recently added family tours. All this meant was they have a different audio for kids to listen to; although, it wasn’t as kiddish as I thought it would be. I know because I listened to it instead of the adult tour. After all, someone had to hear what Chloe was listening to.
The mansion was amazing, all 138,000 square feet of it. It was built by the Vanderbilt family in the late 1800’s as a summer home. Yes, a summer home! After seeing their mere summer home, I can’t help but wonder what their regular home was like. By the way, the Vanderbilts were millionaires from the railroad, not fashion industry, as I previously thought!
My RI Hike: Cliff Walk. After gawking sufficiently in The Breakers Mansion, we walked a large part of the Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is a 3.5 mile path along the ocean with huge mansions on one side and ocean on the other. It’s amazing to me that they have a public path right between the two, that the land isn’t privately owned all the way to the water. Because of this path and the gorgeous views it offered, I’d rate Cliff Walk as one of my favorite walks on the trip.
Best Deal: Save the Bay Aquarium. It’s small, really small, but for 5 bucks the kids were enthralled with the touch tank, touching sea creatures and learning about them until their fingers were well beyond prunes! On a busy day, this would probably be too crowded, but on a quiet day, you can definitely get your money's worth.
Funniest Memory: Finding a bathroom in a traffic jam. We had no idea that Newport was so busy on Labor Day! What was supposed to be a short 30 minute drive turned into 2 1/2 hours. We later learned that the normal tourist traffic was confounded with move-in day traffic at Salve Regina University; however, when you’re expecting a short 30 minute drive and you’ve refilled your drink before leaving, you don’t really care why the traffic isn’t moving, you just need to move! Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and turned the wheel over to Mike.
The kids and I hopped out to find a bathroom in downtown Newport. When we returned to the van 15 minutes later, we walked ONE block, no exaggeration, up the street from where we left it. Mike was anxiously awaiting our return since the driver behind us had bumped our van. Fortunately, there was no damage: it’s difficult to receive damage creeping along at 5 mph. Of course, I have to tease Mike about handing the keys over for a whole 15 minutes and him getting into an accident!
Best Memory: Fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. We set sail for a 4 hour cruise, and the time flew! Levi caught the first fish in our family: a 16” black sea bass. Chloe didn’t catch anything for about the first 2 hours, but then she made up for lost time and caught the biggest fish of anyone on the entire boat: a 26” blue fish. She called grandma to compare it to Mike’s big catch thirty years earlier, which hangs on their wall to this day. Supposedly, they’re the same length, but I'm a little suspicious.
Worst Memory: Feeling guilty about eating at Panera for dinner. Rhode Island had so many local restaurants. I felt like I should have been trying them instead of a chain; however, I’m just not much of a foodie fish fan. I keep trying it and trying it, even on the coast where you get the best fresh fish. It’s like that saying, “You can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the girl,” or something like that. I take it to mean that I’ll never enjoy eating fish.
Biggest Revelation: They get hurricanes way up there! We were in Rhode Island when Hurricane Earl wreaked havoc on the East Coast, or at least was supposed to. Fortunately, it turned out to be no big deal, just some rain. We took advantage of the rainy day by hanging out at a bookstore, reading their books, sipping their beverages, and using their Wi-Fi. Sometimes rainy days can be fun!
Worst Closure: The beaches. They were closed most of the time we were in RI due to the riptides caused by Hurricane Earl.
What We Did Miss: Providence, numerous Newport mansions, most of the beaches, and lots of fish restaurants.
In Summary: Rhode Island, what you lack in size, you make up for in fun, and don’t worry, I’ll always pick you out on a map from now on!
The Mom
It's been a long time since we've had corn fritters. We might have to request them at the next family function!!
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