When you ask a local Connecticutian what there is to do in the area, you will get one of two responses; a dead blank stare along with the question “Are you being serious?”, or a loud and cackling laugh. Apparently there isn’t much to do in Connecticut besides go to the surrounding states or hang out in the super old graveyards. So, thanks to the advice of everyone we asked, we ventured out into two other New England states, the first being…
Rhode Island
If you have thirty minutes and want to see some of the more beautiful parts of the thirteen original colonies, you can drive through the entirety of Rhode Island. It is the epitome of a cute little New England town stretched out across an entire state. There are beautiful old buildings, great seafood, sunny beaches, and amazing history.
Over one of our weekends in the area, we decided to make our way in that direction after meeting up with one of our friends from Nevada, Sean. He was stationed in Connecticut shortly after we left on our trip so we made it a point to visit him. We met up with him in Groton where he gave us the grand tour of the naval base that was there and then made our way to Rhode Island with a brief drive through Mystic, Connecticut.
Our first stop was for lunch in Warwick. I had spent the long drive scrambling to find any restaurant in the area with cheap seafood and it was not as easy as one might assume. After years of vegetarianism I had forgotten that seafood is generally quite expensive. We lucked out when I finally discovered Iggy’s Doughboys and Seafood Restaurant, a cute little spot that was packed with beachgoers. After a painful wait, we finally got our food and it was exactly what I wanted it to be, the deliciously fried fast food versions of some east coast specialties.
Fried Clam Roll was one RI delicacy that we enjoyed.
After we ate, we made our way to Providence where we marveled at a giant teddy bear statue, ate ice cream, and wandered around briefly before moving on to Newport. We did make the mistake of stopping at a beach to goof around before trying to see some of the famed Rhode Island mansions, which do close at a certain time. First Beach was the one that we ended up going to, even though it was apparently the lesser of the two in the area. I think it was a perfect choice though because we did get to experience the red tide, where the water appears crimson due to the red seaweed being pulled onto the shores. It looked like a bloody massacre from afar and it was awesome.
As I said before, we made an attempt to see some of the painfully extravagant mansions that dot the Rhode Island coast but we were too late and also too broke. The one place that we found that was open wanted $25 per ticket to go in so instead of shelling out a small fortune to marvel at someone else’s much larger fortune we resorted to taking pictures of the outside and then leaving. It was a bit disappointing, I was excited to see how the other half lived but we have a good time nonetheless so everything is fine.
-Brooke
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