I recently visited Block Island, off the RI coast, Concord, MA, and parts of NH and VT, all my native countries, as I lived in Southern New England for half my life, and the rest in Maine. (If you click on the first photo, you will see arrows that allow you to navigate the rest).
It was kind of a memory tour (photos above)which was fine. After coming in via upstate ny (I stayed in a very cheap suites hotel both ways w/ very nice Indian proprietors) I went to see my relatives at st Ann’s cemetery in Cranston ri. 160,000 dead Catholics! I had not been there to see Gabe and Fr Joe, ma, dad and terry in almost a year and a half and lay flowers. I went to solitros bakery nearby to get ri delicacies and ate a pizza strip and spinach pie while chatting with the rel’s. I had missed my visits very much. It was great. Then I drove down to Galilee, RI to board the ferry which thank God I did as I was nervous re parking, procedures etc. I had never been to Block, but I have traveled a lot, so my nerves were weird to me, as everything works out eventually. That was a main blessing of the trip...getting past/ real about covid anxiety. Block island was fantastic. We never went there when I was a kid, which kind of angers me, but my parents were older and kind of out of gas re excursions by that point. It’s absolutely gorgeous ...a Victorian beach town with much preserved architecture and beautiful empty beaches the entire perimeter of the island. There are a lot of restaurants and a few bars but nothing trashy. I attach some pics of my hotel and the architecture. There was one place with a different classic rock cover band every nite and I wish I’d gone there. Thursday’s were karaoke/ drag queens🤪 Everyone was very friendly including the young international staff at my hotel. I had a great chat with the barista from South Africa. I also became enamored of the nespresso machine and might possibly buy one tho I’m resisting thus far. Finally I also visited the site of the ocean view hotel where my grandparents met in 1890...he was the stable master and she was a chambermaid. It was a huge place w/ 300 rooms...just some ruins (staircases and foundations) remain, overrun by roses and beach plums. I never met them but I do know about those paths to the beach and I saw the view of the Atlantic they would have seen.... So I was there for a couple of days then saw friends in Boston and went out to see again some very dear people in Concord, with whom I have been friends for many years. It was wonderful to catch up, lovely party in back yard, walked and visited gardens etc. Later the trip east to west thru vt and ny is very lovely as you’re going thru the green mountains and by many sparkling rivers. When I drive through some hideously overdeveloped commercial strip, this is the landscape I escape to. Quiet, spare, with the new life returning subtly, hard won and valuable. (And people driving correctly, for in New England, he who hesitates is lost. IMHO, only the cops drive right in Pgh.)
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May 2024
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