Rhode Island Trip Report
Sep 8th, 2008, 06:16 AM
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Rhode Island Trip Report
Friday: arrived early morning and drove to Newport. Had coffee and muffin/bagel at a little cafe (can't remember the name) before getting started. It was really foggy until 1pm or so and then cleared to become a beautiful day.
Things we did:
-Newport Harbor Lighthouse: it was ok, small and hidden behind the Hyatt Regency.
-Went to the Purgatory Chasm. Waste of time, not much there. I had the wrong chasm in mind, I thought we were headed to the one that is somewhere in Massachusetts where you can climb through the chasm.
-Flo's Calm Shack: I got clam balls and chowda. Chowda was good, balls were way too bready. My wife got fish & chips. Fish was good, chips were just alright.
-Had a few beers at Coddington Brewery. Beer was really good, they had a fantastic watermelon and blueberry.
-Did The Breakers + One Tour. So we did The Breakers and The Elms. We enjoyed both tours. Elms was audio tour with individual headsets. Breakers was guided tour. No pictures allowed inside homes, only outside. Even though I enjoyed the tours, visiting two mansions was enough for me, I could not have done anymore tours. They start to look the same after a while.
-Did a little of the Cliff Walk (area behind The Breakers). It is ok, wouldn't go out of my way to walk it.
-Drove around Newport a bit, looking at all the nice homes.
-Went to watch the sunset at the Newport Inn but did not feel like having to pay a valet to park our car, so we just watched some of the sunset near one of the beach areas.
-Drove to Fort Adams to try and get some pictures from the outside (I did not want to tour it). Waste of time, no photo ops outside of Fort. Good photo ops of harbor and bridge though.
-Headed to Providence after our day in Newport to hit Trinity Brewpub for some food and beer. Beer and food was just ok.
Saturday: Weather was crappy all day because of the hurricane. Foggy, grey, wet, rainy, windy. Gloomy but not horrible.
-Went to downtown Providence because my wife wanted to see the hotel that her Great Grandfather worked in (now a parking grarage) and where her Grandmother grew up (houses no longer there).
-While downtown, the grand re-opening of the Dunkin' Donuts Center was going on so we walked through that for a few minutes. My wife and I both contributed to a guys effort to break the world record for high fives. I got my picture taken with the Celtics '86 Championship Trophy and got some autographs from members of the Celtics dance team.
-Walked through the lobby of the Biltmore Motel, looked at old pictures, artifacts and the line where the flood reached.
-Had a beer at Union station Brewpub. Beer was just ok.
-Headed to Mystic, CT to visit the town and have Mystice Pizza. I had been there before, my wife hadn't. We both enjoyed the pizza but on the way there, my wife read an article about the movie and found out that the entire movie "Mystic Pizza" was filmed almost entirely in towns other than Mystic. So, that took away from her excitement. She didn't even like the movie that much but this article turned it into a mission to find the actual film locations. So, after eating and walking around Mystic for a bit, we headed to find these locations.
-"Mystic Pizza": In the Borough of Stonington, we located the building they used as the pizza parlor, the house of the "rich kid" and the bar they hung out in.
-We headed to Westerly to see the Watch Hill Lighthouse and Flying Carousel. Mistake....The carousel was not operational (out of season) and the lighthouse was a 15 minute walk and it was pouring outside.
-Headed back towards Newport to end our evening drinking the best beer in RI at Coddingtons. On the way I wanted to stop at the Hitching Post to try the clam fritters as recommended but as we drove by, it looked like they were closed for the evening. From what we could tell, places started closing around 5pm in some areas. Guess because it is out of season.
-Before crossing over into Newport/Middletown, tried to find Beavertail Lighthouse but got all turned around and just gave up.
-Back at Coddington. Enjoyed a few more beers, wings and calamari rings. Everything was good. All in all I tried five different beers there and liked them all. Only bad things was that the bartenders were not too friendly. We did find out that "Happy Hour" is illegal in RI.
-Headed back to the hotel for the night in a complete downpour. Could hardly see the road.
Sunday:
-Weather had cleared and it was a nice mroning to fly out.
-Was going to buy some Coastal Extreme Brewing Blueberry beer at the airport but was told that they cannot sell alcohol before noon on Sunday. Arghhhh!
I don't think I forgot anything. All in all a good trip. We really enjoyed Friday but the weather Saturday and the added frustrations of not being able to locate some of our sights put us in a bad mood off and on. Almost everything I had wanted to see or do did not pan out. Rhode Island, or at least this part of rhode Island does not have great road signs. Many times we found no street signs, faded street signs and no signs showing distance to next town. I had wanted to try some more seafood places recommened by Fodorites and see more lighthouses but ran out of time. Oh, well.......next time.
We stayed in West Warwick at a Comfort Suites and it was fantastic.
I use TripAdvisor and post my reviews/ratings on there if anyone is interested.
Things we did:
-Newport Harbor Lighthouse: it was ok, small and hidden behind the Hyatt Regency.
-Went to the Purgatory Chasm. Waste of time, not much there. I had the wrong chasm in mind, I thought we were headed to the one that is somewhere in Massachusetts where you can climb through the chasm.
-Flo's Calm Shack: I got clam balls and chowda. Chowda was good, balls were way too bready. My wife got fish & chips. Fish was good, chips were just alright.
-Had a few beers at Coddington Brewery. Beer was really good, they had a fantastic watermelon and blueberry.
-Did The Breakers + One Tour. So we did The Breakers and The Elms. We enjoyed both tours. Elms was audio tour with individual headsets. Breakers was guided tour. No pictures allowed inside homes, only outside. Even though I enjoyed the tours, visiting two mansions was enough for me, I could not have done anymore tours. They start to look the same after a while.
-Did a little of the Cliff Walk (area behind The Breakers). It is ok, wouldn't go out of my way to walk it.
-Drove around Newport a bit, looking at all the nice homes.
-Went to watch the sunset at the Newport Inn but did not feel like having to pay a valet to park our car, so we just watched some of the sunset near one of the beach areas.
-Drove to Fort Adams to try and get some pictures from the outside (I did not want to tour it). Waste of time, no photo ops outside of Fort. Good photo ops of harbor and bridge though.
-Headed to Providence after our day in Newport to hit Trinity Brewpub for some food and beer. Beer and food was just ok.
Saturday: Weather was crappy all day because of the hurricane. Foggy, grey, wet, rainy, windy. Gloomy but not horrible.
-Went to downtown Providence because my wife wanted to see the hotel that her Great Grandfather worked in (now a parking grarage) and where her Grandmother grew up (houses no longer there).
-While downtown, the grand re-opening of the Dunkin' Donuts Center was going on so we walked through that for a few minutes. My wife and I both contributed to a guys effort to break the world record for high fives. I got my picture taken with the Celtics '86 Championship Trophy and got some autographs from members of the Celtics dance team.
-Walked through the lobby of the Biltmore Motel, looked at old pictures, artifacts and the line where the flood reached.
-Had a beer at Union station Brewpub. Beer was just ok.
-Headed to Mystic, CT to visit the town and have Mystice Pizza. I had been there before, my wife hadn't. We both enjoyed the pizza but on the way there, my wife read an article about the movie and found out that the entire movie "Mystic Pizza" was filmed almost entirely in towns other than Mystic. So, that took away from her excitement. She didn't even like the movie that much but this article turned it into a mission to find the actual film locations. So, after eating and walking around Mystic for a bit, we headed to find these locations.
-"Mystic Pizza": In the Borough of Stonington, we located the building they used as the pizza parlor, the house of the "rich kid" and the bar they hung out in.
-We headed to Westerly to see the Watch Hill Lighthouse and Flying Carousel. Mistake....The carousel was not operational (out of season) and the lighthouse was a 15 minute walk and it was pouring outside.
-Headed back towards Newport to end our evening drinking the best beer in RI at Coddingtons. On the way I wanted to stop at the Hitching Post to try the clam fritters as recommended but as we drove by, it looked like they were closed for the evening. From what we could tell, places started closing around 5pm in some areas. Guess because it is out of season.
-Before crossing over into Newport/Middletown, tried to find Beavertail Lighthouse but got all turned around and just gave up.
-Back at Coddington. Enjoyed a few more beers, wings and calamari rings. Everything was good. All in all I tried five different beers there and liked them all. Only bad things was that the bartenders were not too friendly. We did find out that "Happy Hour" is illegal in RI.
-Headed back to the hotel for the night in a complete downpour. Could hardly see the road.
Sunday:
-Weather had cleared and it was a nice mroning to fly out.
-Was going to buy some Coastal Extreme Brewing Blueberry beer at the airport but was told that they cannot sell alcohol before noon on Sunday. Arghhhh!
I don't think I forgot anything. All in all a good trip. We really enjoyed Friday but the weather Saturday and the added frustrations of not being able to locate some of our sights put us in a bad mood off and on. Almost everything I had wanted to see or do did not pan out. Rhode Island, or at least this part of rhode Island does not have great road signs. Many times we found no street signs, faded street signs and no signs showing distance to next town. I had wanted to try some more seafood places recommened by Fodorites and see more lighthouses but ran out of time. Oh, well.......next time.
We stayed in West Warwick at a Comfort Suites and it was fantastic.
I use TripAdvisor and post my reviews/ratings on there if anyone is interested.
Sep 9th, 2008, 03:31 PM
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Take home message...you really like brewpubs!!!!
I agree with the signage up there, and the bad weather probably didn't help see what signs there are. Too bad you gave up on Beavertail, though, the Island it is on is not that big, and narrow, so you just keep driving south until you can't drive any further, and you are there! Not more than 10 (15 minutes tops) from getting off RT 138 in Jamestown.
I am also guessing you are a lighthouse buff, because I have never heard of anyone consider the Newport Harbor Light an attraction besides myself(mostly because I got engaged and married there).
I agree with the signage up there, and the bad weather probably didn't help see what signs there are. Too bad you gave up on Beavertail, though, the Island it is on is not that big, and narrow, so you just keep driving south until you can't drive any further, and you are there! Not more than 10 (15 minutes tops) from getting off RT 138 in Jamestown.
I am also guessing you are a lighthouse buff, because I have never heard of anyone consider the Newport Harbor Light an attraction besides myself(mostly because I got engaged and married there).
Sep 10th, 2008, 03:26 AM
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Yes, big beer fans......
Whenever my wife and I go somewhere, we always seek out the breweries/brewpubs. We have a list of 70+ that we've visited.
Not a lighthouse buff but enjoy seeing and taking pictures of them. I found a website that listed all the ones in the area and the first we got to was Newport Harbor, which was not impressive at all.
While trying to find Beavertail, we never came across a sign for the State Park or at least we never saw one. We ran into Fort Wetherill but then seemed to just go in circles. We decided to just give up trying to find it because we were tired and tired of driving.
Whenever my wife and I go somewhere, we always seek out the breweries/brewpubs. We have a list of 70+ that we've visited.
Not a lighthouse buff but enjoy seeing and taking pictures of them. I found a website that listed all the ones in the area and the first we got to was Newport Harbor, which was not impressive at all.
While trying to find Beavertail, we never came across a sign for the State Park or at least we never saw one. We ran into Fort Wetherill but then seemed to just go in circles. We decided to just give up trying to find it because we were tired and tired of driving.
Sep 10th, 2008, 08:14 AM
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We did enjoy Newport. My wife and I really liked the two mansion tours we did. We both agreed that two tours was enough for us.
We liked driving around and looking at all the huge houses, Newport is really nice.
We only walked a bit on the Cliff Walk (we were tired of walking and standing by this point), in and around The Breakers area. We were not impressed. Maybe we didn't get to walk on a better portion of the Walk.
We liked driving around and looking at all the huge houses, Newport is really nice.
We only walked a bit on the Cliff Walk (we were tired of walking and standing by this point), in and around The Breakers area. We were not impressed. Maybe we didn't get to walk on a better portion of the Walk.
Sep 10th, 2008, 12:10 PM
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Loved your report. Great to see how an outsider sees Newport.
Our clam cakes "clam balls" are bready, that how we like them. Not at all like crab cakes. Flo's clam shack has the best fried clams ever. Chowda is a bit too watery.
Too bad you could not have stayed on Sunday. It was beautiful weather. DH and I walked the miles and half loop around the bird sanctuary that day. The ocean was pounding, the sun was shinning. It was gorgeous. Agree with you on mansions. Could never do more than one. You had to miss something about the cliff walk.
Oh yeh, and our signs to stink and don't ever try to ask directions. You'll be told things like "Take a left where to old CVS use to be" Or "go to Chipman Corner and then hang a right." No one will ever use route numbers. I was once told, "Go down this street till you see a Do not Enter, One Way sign. Go thru the one way. It's Rhode Island, what can I say.
Our clam cakes "clam balls" are bready, that how we like them. Not at all like crab cakes. Flo's clam shack has the best fried clams ever. Chowda is a bit too watery.
Too bad you could not have stayed on Sunday. It was beautiful weather. DH and I walked the miles and half loop around the bird sanctuary that day. The ocean was pounding, the sun was shinning. It was gorgeous. Agree with you on mansions. Could never do more than one. You had to miss something about the cliff walk.
Oh yeh, and our signs to stink and don't ever try to ask directions. You'll be told things like "Take a left where to old CVS use to be" Or "go to Chipman Corner and then hang a right." No one will ever use route numbers. I was once told, "Go down this street till you see a Do not Enter, One Way sign. Go thru the one way. It's Rhode Island, what can I say.
