Category Archives: Rhode Island

Hurricane Sandy

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Well here I am stuck inside. Fingers crossed the power will stay on. Hurricane Sandy is pounding the East Coast with high winds, storm surge and extremely high tides helped along by the full moon.

AT SEA - OCTOBER 28: In this handout GOES satellite image provided by NASA, Hurricane Sandy, pictured at 16:00 UTC, churns off the East Coast as it moves north on October 28, 2012 in the Atlantic Ocean. Sandy, which has already claimed over 50 lives in the Caribbean is predicted to bring heavy winds and floodwaters to the mid-Atlantic region. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

The power went out for about 3 hours but there hasn’t been too much hard rain …at least not where I am anyway.

I don’t live right on the ocean and I’m not on the first floor. We have a lot of rivers that crisscross  our town, some are tidal rivers and we do get flooding from those sometimes but it never reaches my area of town.

(Waves roll in at Winthrop Ma)

Photo by: David Brazier, Winthrop, MA.

I have the sliders to my deck open and can hear the wind blowing and gusting but it’s very warm. If it weren’t for the drizzle you wouldn’t even need a sweater.

They say Hurricane Sandy is the biggest storm to hit the Northeast since a hurricane in the 1800’s. New York City is flooding even now and there is expected to be major  shore erosion on Cape Cod.

I wanted to go down to Beavertail State Park in Rhode Island to see if I could get some “angry sea” photos. I changed my mind when I saw pictures on the news of the waves on Narragansett Bay.

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There’s a section of the road to Beavertail that is very low with Narraganestt Bay on the left and the tidal flats on the right. I’m sure that’s underwater right now.

Photo By Steven SenneA woman reacts to waves crashing over a seawall in Narragansett, R.I., Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools a

But here in my little corner of the world it hasn’t been as intense as Hurricane Irene which dumped torrential rains along with the winds. My neighborhood had huge trees come down during Irene. I watched them from my deck but there’s been nothing here this time. Not to say there aren’t trees and limbs down other places…just none near me.

(Taunton MA)

Danforth Area

We still have a number of hours to go and the longer the wind blows the weaker the trees will get so we may still lose a few.  Tomorrow I will venture out to see what I missed by staying inside today.

Roger Williams Park and Zoo

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Back from Maine life did not slow down. Summer is flying by. The deadline for the opening of my stall at Cape Cod Crafters was looming so much of my time was concentrated on getting the type of pictures they said would sell for my cards. A quick photo shoot at Nantasket and then back home to fold and package cards.

Finally the big day came, the stall was open and I was hopeful life could return to normal.

That’s when Nancy reminded me that we owed the kids their annual summer outing. I enjoy it as much as they do so we had to squeeze that in. We wanted a zoo or Aquarium so we had narrowed it down to 3 choices…the Zooquarium in Yarmouth (Cape Cod), Mystic Aquarium (Mystic , CT.) or Roger Williams Park and Zoo in Providence , RI. I compared prices and travel time and  Roger Williams was the closest and in the middle for price so Roger Williams it is.

I hadn’t been to the  Zoo there in quite a while. I went the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular the last 2 years and I like the Carousel Village for pictures but it’s been closer to 20 years since I’ve been to the Zoo itself.

Here are some of the sights and scenes from the trip.

We saw a dominate tortoise “beating up” on his “lesser” cage mate. Yup. It’s 2 males jousting for dominance. It’s pretty clear which one was winning.

No Lions, Tigers and bears but for once the Snow Leopard was where it could be seen.

The Flamingos were nice and pink.

And look at that tongue on the giant ant-eater.

We spotted a cute little red panda. That was quite a hit.

Our national bird, The American Eagle was majestic as he perched in his enclosure.

I think it’s safe to say that we all had a good time.

Too many pictures, not enough room!

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The kids played in the “misters” and we found the green eggs to go with the ham, but I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, I do not like them Sam I AM (Dr. Seuss)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

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I am so excited I just have to share this news! In my part of the world one of the biggest newspapers is the  Boston Globe. I like the “Globe” and browsing the Sunday Travel Section recently I saw a new feature called “The Sight”. Apparently this alternates with “The Rave”.  “The Sight” is a reader submitted photo of something seen or experienced on a trip. “The Rave” is a 150 word story about an experience on a trip.

I thought it over and decided to submit a picture to “The Sight”. At first I was disappointed because all of the pictures being published were from exotic places, not the good old USA. I figured my little picture didn’t have much chance if they wanted foreign travel.

Well, just as I had given up an email came in confirming who took the picture and where the photographer lived. That was easy. Me and Taunton Ma.

Bingo. I got a response right back thanking me and telling me my picture will run in the Travel section of this Sunday’s Globe. WOW! My feet have not hit the ground since.

I know not everyone is from  here so I’m including the picture right here. You may recognize it as a cropped picture of the lighthouse that currently graces the header of this blog. It’s the North Lighthouse on Block Island.

So I guess I can now add that I had a photo published by the “Globe” to my photo credits. 🙂

And that’s enough bragging for one day!

A Poor People’s Lunch

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The taxi tour of Block Island covered a lot of the same ground I’d walked the night before so once I got to the 2nd lighthouse I was happy.

 Mission accomplished. Once we left the lighthouse it was just a short drive back to town and the taxi stop by the ferry terminal.

On the way back  Jim told me about a book he’s written about living the Christian life. He said it was called “Overcoming” and it was geared toward people who were already active in their church. It is non-denominational so any one can read it and enjoy it. He was very low-key about his accomplishment. Since he said it was his first book I asked him how he got published. I’d heard so many times about rejection slips for new authors that it seemed amazing to me that he got a publisher first try. He admitted it was tough so he had finally gone the “self-publish” route. Even so, I found the book listed on Amazon.com.

Back at the terminal I asked him where he would suggest I go for lunch. He gave me the same suggestion as the “Jim” from the day before…”The Poor People’s Pub“.

Unlike the Mohegan Cafe where I had dinner. The Poor People’s Pub was supposed to be more reasonable and where the “locals” went to eat. To get to the Poor People’s Pub I started back down Water St in the direction we’d just come. I can’t get over what a beautiful day it turned out to be.

As I meandered along Water St I admired the little park that ran between the street and the water. There are benches where you can sit and watch the ocean. Folks were walking dogs. It was just lovely.

At the end of Water St. I turned left, passed through a 4 way intersection and walked about 2 more blocks before I spotted the pub on the right.

I went inside to be seated. The interior was dark and cool but I asked if I could sit outside. It was too nice a day to waste inside. A wrap around porch held additional seating and there were quite a few patrons there already.

The menu was typical pub food..French Fries, Onion Rings, Burgers but they also offer French Onion Soup, sandwiches, pizza, salad and a kid’s menu. I actually ordered from the kid’s menu because the portions were gigantic from what I could see at the other tables. A kid’s hamburger and a soft drink was just enough for me for lunch.

While I was eating the signature car arrived. That was when I remembered someone telling me I would know I was in the right place when I saw a car with steer horns on it. Sure enough, a set of long horn steer horns were mounted on the hood of the car. Now that was a sight.

After lunch I returned to the Harborside Inn and their lovely porch to just kick back and relax. I decided I would take the 3pm ferry back.

My bags were in lockers by the ferry terminal so everything was set for my departure. This was just enough of a break… like a “nugget” of vacation …but it was time to return to real life.