Rhode Island Travel Diary 2019

Sunday afternoon, my family and I flew back to St. Louis from Rhode Island.  In case you are new to my blog, my family goes to Rhode Island almost every year.  My grandma was born and raised there but moved to St. Louis with my grandpa after they were married.  Her siblings and their families still love there so we go up as often as we can to see them.  The best part, though?  My great-grandma (my grandma's mom) bought a beach house when my grandma and her siblings were young and has been in our family for generations.  My grandma's brother is the current owner of the house, and him and his family live there every summer and it is my favorite place on Earth.  I love the state of Rhode Island as a whole, but hanging out at the beach house, swimming in the bay, playing card games, and just making memories in general is so special to me.  I have been going there since I was 2 months old, and a dream is to eventually live there some day.  I don't know if that will ever happen, but it's on my bucket list!  So, if you have ever wondered what Rhode Island has to offer, here is what we did up on the east coast for a week!

SUNDAY JULY 21

My family and I didn't get in until around 11p.m. the night before, so Sunday was our first real day in Rhode Island!  It also happened to be the day of an extreme heat wave and the house has no air conditioning!  We started off the morning by heading to 10:30am mass with my family and making a stop at Dunkin Donuts for iced coffee (because Dunkin is always better in New England!)  Thankfully it was high tide all day so every jumped in the bay to cool off and enjoy the water on the hot day.  The water and a cold shower definitely helped with the heat and cooled everyone down!  We grilled some pork tenderloin for a delicious dinner, had a few drinks outside, and headed to bed with the fans on high to cool down!  Bonus picture from the day: my brother and I are the godparents of my cousin's youngest kid, and we had a blast brainwashing him to be a Blues fan!  We brought him a Blues shirt that he wore three times while we were there and told everyone that the Blues are the best team!

MONDAY JULY 22

The heat wave had thankfully rolled out to a nice day so we decided to get out of the house for a bit.  We headed down the street to a restaurant called Chelo's on the water for lunch where we had a gorgeous deck view of a marina.  I started with a mojito to drink, but was tempted by the pink sangria, so that was my next drink!  I also ate a hot lobster roll with some fries which fulfilled my yearlong craving!

After lunch, we drove to the adorable town of historic Wickford.  This is also on the water (most towns in Rhode Island are) with adorable boutiques and restaurants, all in old buildings.  It's so cute and a quick walk to go through the whole thing.  We stopped in pretty much every store and I bought something I had been wanting forever: a Cape Cod bracelet!  It's so gorgeous and I've never gotten one before since I've never actually been to Cape Cod.  But this little boutique was selling them and I treated myself!  I haven't taken it off since and have no buyer's remores for dropping the money on it!

We also saw a stand for Del's Lemonade.  Del's is usually sold in a cart or a truck, and is homemade frozen lemonade.  There are even little chunks of lemon in it!  There are a ton of flavors but I love the classic lemon, so we had to stop and grab some!

We then headed home to hang out with the rest of our group at the beach house where we sat outside and had some drinks.  We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and ended the night with a game of Scat, something we play every night after the younger kids go to bed!

TUESDAY JULY 23

We woke up to some pretty bad rain storms on Tuesday morning so we spent most of the day at the house.  Playing hockey runs in my family, so the boys all grabbed their skates and took my youngest cousin to an open skate.  Meanwhile us girls stayed back and played games with my little girl cousin like Bingo, Go Fish, and blocks.  Once the boys got home, we were getting a little stir crazy so we packed up the care with ten of us and we went bowling!  I haven't been bowling since probably high school and it was such a blast with my whole family.  I did use bumpers since we had the two little ones with us, but I ended up bowling over 100 which I was pretty proud of!

The kiddos were pooped when we got home, so we put them to bed after dinner and I headed out to grab a drink with a few of my older cousins.  We went to a place down Water Street called BLU on the Water which is becoming a tradition for us!  They've been taking me there for drinks since I turned 21 and it has quickly become our spot!  I got an aperol spritz (highly recommend), my cousin got the skinny margarita, and her husband had a beer.  When we got home, we had our nightly Scat game, and then we all headed to bed.

WEDNESDAY JULY 24

We were planning on heading out for a late lunch/early dinner on this day so we had a slow morning.  This means that we played a lot of games with the kiddos to keep them entertained!  We ended up going to The Coast Guard House in Narragansett, something that my mom had requested.  I had never been here before but it quickly has become one of my favorite parts of the trip!  The restaurant is literally right on the water.  Like, outside of the restaurant are adirondack chairs, rocks, and then open ocean.  Everyone staying at the beach house was able to go, and we were even able to meet my great aunts from Massachusetts there as well!  We got calamari and stuffies for appetizers, and I was in heaven!  Stuffies are something very native to Rhode Island!  They are quahogs (a type of clam found in Narragansett bay), chopped up finely, and made into a stuffing.  The stuffing is then placed back in the quahog shell and served.  My family usually makes them homemade since we live on the bay, but they are some of my favorite things to eat every year!  For my entree, I got the fish tacos which were incredible and had a lemon ricotta tart for dessert.  Seriously one of the best desserts I have ever had!

After dessert, we headed out back to sit on the rocks and enjoy the nice day

After enjoying the beautiful view, we headed home.  I headed out with my cousin and her daughter to her ballet class.  She was so excited about me coming because I had been dancing since I was 5 years old, and she loves dance!  Her little class was adorable and really brought me back to my studio days!  After dance she was treated to ice cream where I got my favorite: coffee ice cream with chocolate jimmies (what Rhode Islanders call sprinkles)!

THURSDAY JULY 25

This was the day I was most excited about!  Since I graduated from college this year, I wanted to go on a little island excursion.  I originally requested Nantucket, but life and some extra expenses got in the way.  However, there is an island 13 miles off of Rhode Island with a 45 minute ferry called Block Island.  Shockingly, I had never been there before.  SO, I requested Block Island as my island excursion!  So we all got up bright and early, bought our ferry tickets, and were off to the island at 9:30am!

The first stop once we got off the ferry?  Food!  My cousin, her husband, and their two kids went for a bike ride around the island while the rest of us were on the hunt for food.  We found a beautiful deck overlooking the water at a place called Harborside Grill that looked delicious, so we decided to eat there!  We all started with some drinks, and I had another aperol spritz.

For lunch I had a caprese salad which was to die for!  It had the usual mozzarella, basil, and balsamic.  But it also had cherry tomatoes which I like way better than regular tomatoes, avocados, bacon bits, and was over a bed of greens.  I didn't even take a picture because I was so excited about it and ate the whole thing.

We then walked around town to explore and do some shopping!  I bought a touristy tee shirt and a baseball hat with the outline of Block Island on it.

After some shopping, we headed to Ballard's beach where we sat at the outside bar, listened to the live music, and had some drinks!  I had the banana mudslide which was delicious.

By then, we had been there all day and were pretty exhausted, so we caught the 3:00pm ferry back to the mainland.  There was a nice couple on the ferry next to my grandma and I and offered to take our picture together which was so nice of them.

Since none of us felt like cooking after the long day, we ordered pizza for everyone and ended the night with Scat.  I made it the farthest this night by finishing in third place!

FRIDAY JULY 26

This was my favorite day of the entire trip!  The day started out at the farmer's market in the park down the road from our beach house.  One vendor was selling hazelnut iced coffee which was delicious!  We then bought a hand-stitched ornament that looked just like my dog from home, a little wooden anchor (the symbol of Rhode Island), and another Del's lemonade!

When we got back home, my uncle offered to take my brother and I on a ride on his boat.  So we hopped in the car along with my cousin to head down to the marina and ride around the bay!

After lunch and lounging around the house for a bit, a few of us headed to some local Rhode Island breweries for some tastings!  We started out at a place called The Tilted Barn which was gorgeous, on a nice expanse of land.

This place was great, but was honestly my least favorite of the three places that we went to.  My favorite was the next one though: Whalers!  Whalers is the only place out of all that we went to that actually sells their beer in stores, and it's only one out of the six brews that they make.  We did a tasting that included all six brews.  The inside was so cool with lights on the ceiling, giant games of cornhole and jenga, and pool.  I bought a tee shirt that came with a free beer (woohoo!) and my brother bought a tee shirt and got a free glass.  Definitely love this place and think it would be even more fun at night!

The last stop was a place called Line Siders.  It's actually owned by a former New England Patriot and the atmosphere is an updated version of Whalers.  They had games inside and outside, food trucks, and really clever names for their beers!  The one I was drinking was called "Blonde Jovie" and my brother's favorite was called "Another Damn IPA".

We went straight from Line Sider's to my cousin Jimmy's house for a pool part and cook out.  We went swimming with all four of the young kids, played a game of soccer and just got to hang out with the entire family which was the best!  We had stuffies and chips and salsa for appetizers, and grilled some steak tips and chicken for dinner.  It was so delicious and we all had a blast sitting outside and talking and laighing together.  We finished the night by making some smores, and then going home and crashing!

SATURDAY JULY 27

Saturday was our last day since our flight left at 6:25am on Sunday.  So, we decided to have a chill day and hangout at the beach house all day.  My cousin Brenda and I made a bet when the Stanley Cup Finals started that whoever's team lost had to buy the winner a mudslide.  And since the Blues beat the Bruins, she owed me a mudslide!  So we headed to our favorite place, BLU, to cash in the prize!

We had the best bartender ever!  He made mudslides for some other people and since he had some leftover, gave us that for free!  But that's not all.  He then gave us free, leftover mango rum punch, and the extra of a pina colada!  We topped it all off with an order of Rhode Island calamari, and left as some pretty happy campers.

My great aunts also came down to hangout with us on our last day.  One of my aunts is older and wasn't able to get a mudslide with us, so we surprised her by bringing some mudslide mix home and making them ourselves!

We then made home made macaroni and meatballs, my favorite dish that my family does!  And after dinner, my whole family surprised me with an impromptu graduation party!  There was cake, a balloon, cards, and even a bottle of champagne!  I seriously had no idea and it was so sweet of them to do this for me.

My brother and I then took our annual picture with our godchild, which turned out incredibly cute since he wanted to wear his Blues shirt, too!

We played our last game of Scat once everyone went home, and had an early night since we had to get up wicked early the next day.

I seriously had the best week in Rhode Island and am already doing research and planning for what I want to do when we go next year!

xoxo, Hannah