New England (South Kingstown, RI)

6.27.24-6.30.24 (Part 1 of 5)

This week I will be breaking from my normal weekly schedule to share a 5 part travel log from a trip to New England I took with Sylvia (my partner) that went from 6.27.24 to 7.5.24.

Part 3 is particularly fun.

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I haven’t used my teapot in more than a week and a half. I had tepid tea on the flight from Chicago to Boston and drank from Sylvia’s double-bagged-and-hour-long-steeped Starbucks Earl Grey while waiting in the Boston airport to come back home. I almost used my teapot yesterday afternoon when Sylvia was grocery shopping but I had forgotten to remote cool the house from the airport and it was ~90 degrees inside.

It is cool in the house now. Let me brew a cup of Jin Kongque and then I’ll tell you about the trip.

…

Okay. Gosh this tea is good.

6.27.24

Our flight was a little after Noon. I can’t remember flying out of Tucson that late before. I get antsy before a flight – I want to be where I am supposed to be and I don’t want to miss a flight.

I knew I would be, so I gave myself a morning project to help me keep my mind busy. On my first trip with Sylvia to San Francisco, I was working on developing a card game. We played it in our Airbnb and that was a good memory. I’ve shelved that project and have come around to another card game where the players are playing mech pilots who are trying to prove themselves to the mech’s AI in a universe where all of humanity is on the run from something terrible.

Before our flight, I was scrambling to format 456 proxy cards and print them. I got them printed in time but barely. I didn’t have time to cut them out of their sheets but figured we could buy scissors while we were there.

We got to the airport with plenty of time. We left the house together, so Sylvia was there waiting for the full time – about 1.25hrs after security. You don’t need to get to the Tucson airport so early but I much prefer to be at my gate safe and assured as soon as I can.

We got Bruegger’s Bagels. I got to try a new cranberry bagel that they have on offer. It was good but not better than their other sweet options. They gave us 3 free bagels by mistake. Bagels before flying is a tradition I would like to uphold whenever possible! They make decent post-flight food, for when you’ve gotta scramble to your next flight and can’t pick up lunch or dinner.

While sitting at the gate twiddling our thumbs, we talked about a game we wanted to play while traveling. We were trying to come up with something that would be fun to be on the lookout for. Will we see more of X or Y while we are traveling? Some ideas of things to keep count of were bikes, bike racks, anime, sandals with socks… We did track sandals and socks (11) but we found something to track side by side. Would we see more camo patterns (59) or leopard print patterns (28)? Sylvia (and Bryce) thought we would see more leopard print. I thought we would see more camo. Military Police on the 4th in Boston sealed things quite neatly in my favor, to the point where we were only halfheartedly counting at the end.

Bryce! The impetus for our trip was to see him marry Sylvia’s friend, Julia. We bumped into him at the airport - we were on the same flight plan from Tucson to Chicago to Rhode Island. We chatted with him for a bit before we took off. We would see him again on 7.28 (casual dinner) and 7.29 (wedding). This was the Rhode Island leg of the trip which would be followed by Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Plymouth, and Boston. We rented a car for everything up to Boston.

The flights and layovers were uneventful, though I think my Dramamine wore off before we came into Boston and it was quite unpleasant. Not as unpleasant as landing in Dallas on the way back, though. That was quite bad.

We found our way to the Airbnb in the dark.

6.28.24

We woke in South Kingstown right by the cemetery. I am not a big fan of New England house architecture generally, but the area was undeniably pretty. There was a nearby running river and we were within walking distance of a superb bakery that just so happened to be owned by someone that Julia’s sister Emily went to high school with! The raspberry danish phenomenal. Different from the true Danish danishes we got in Copenhagen but very very good.

We chose to go to Narragansett Beach which is apparently referred to as a ‘meat shop’. This trip is the first time I’ve heard a place like that referred to in this way. Parking was almost a bit of a problem, but we found a spot parallel to the water right in front of the Shore House that wasn’t too hard to park in.

Our walk to the beach entrance was nice. We found a cool circle to take a picture in front of and we exchanged picture taking services with a couple that happened to be walking by. They offered first after seeing us mess about taking silly pictures of each other.

And we also saw castle looking bridge thing. Back at the Airbnb there was a painting of this thing with a big ol’ squid attacking it. The Airbnb had some interesting art on the walls…

The beach was beautiful! We stepped barefoot through loose and soft sand. We walked on wet packed sand sloshed over by the thin waves that stretched out to meet our feet. Sylvia eventually got right in there! She was a wave warrior in her yellow bikini, battling Posidon’s surge with the cold-shock smile of someone having a blast in waters that are just a tad too chilly.

I watched her from the shore. I have several vivid memories of my dad at the shore. He doesn’t really get into the water often, but he stands in the liminal space where waves take away the sand beneath your feet and also shift sand over them. Standing there and experiencing the slow sinking of the ocean’s shore is a reminder that we do not stand on stable ground but, even so, you can find some stability through grit or perseverance or… or maybe simply with the passage of time.

Despite applying sunscreen, we both got a little burned in places that were missed. I haven’t laid out on a beach in a while! We spent about 3hrs on the beach and a majority chunk of that was spent laying on towels listening to 19 year olds talk about message protocol for navigating potential relationships. “Should I leave him undelivered?” the alpha girl of the group asked about a boy before proceeding to organize the evening’s party roster.

We didn’t lunch on the beach this day because we had a late omelet breakfast at Bluebird Cafe before showing up. Sylvia brought some nuts which we munched on, but we were plenty hungry by the time Julia and Bryce’s night-before wedding dinner happened at her parent’s house.

Gosh. Her parent’s house! Or, more to the point, her parent’s yard!! Julia’s father, Billy (Will? - he was Billy in the albums on the coffee table in his home), is a retired landscape architect and he’s put 30 years into his yard. I told him that my late step-father was a landscape architect and asked him for a tour which he graciously obliged. I think it was something like 30 minutes – maybe a little longer? But oh man it was fantastic! That man has worked wonders with his location.

After that, Sylvia and I shmoozed around like you do at parties where you know 2 people who are mostly busy talking with the other 25 people you don’t know. Met some interesting folks from the UK and a guy named Ian who was originally from the UK but spent more than half his life traveling all over the place and backpacking and what not. I liked his suit blazer on the wedding day.

We met a toddler named Jack who really wanted to come into an Arizona room Sylvia and I were sitting in but… His parents would open the door and he would see us and then run away. And then he’d come back to the door and want to check it out and they would open it and then he would run away. It was pretty cute.

Of course we met other people and I definitely remember all of their names.

Dinner was great. Turkey burger and this pork sausage that was very very tasty. Other stuff - fruit, chips, veg. Desert was almost a disaster but Sylvia saved the day. There were three choices and one of them was a strawberry rhubarb oatmeal thing. It looked amazing! And it tasted good but Sylvia got a blondie which tasted VERY VERY GOOD. I made the wrong call getting the oatmeal thing. Sylvia graciously traded with me and then we went back and I got another blondie and she got a brownie. Yum.

In between dinner and desert, Sylvia and I played ping pong out back and were visited by a very fetch friendly dog. We paused ping pong to throw sticks together. We were a bit separate from the party - we could see and be seen, but we were nicely apart and enjoying ourselves. Sylvia didn’t know that ping pong is one of the top 10 sports in the world. She was critical of it for not requiring a lot of physical… was strength the word she used? Either way, I don’t think she’s seen this video.

To our squid painting temporary home and then to bed.

6.29.24

Sylvia woke up on the wedding day and went for a run around town. Through the cemetery and along a bike path and who knows where else. She does, probably. I stayed home and jotted down notes in my journal which I am now using to write this.

We then drove to breakfast at So Co Bread Co where I got that amazing raspberry danish and we walked around the town. We realized we did not need to drive to the place - it was well within walking distance (and we would walk there the next day before heading out).

We found a path by the river and then found another path to a waterfall. Where the water was falling, we found a woman who was fishing. Sylvia has been learning to fly fish on the UofA mall and has also been tying flies, so it was cool to hear her talk to someone actively fishing. I liked that moment a lot.

We went back home after that and then picked up Subway and headed back to Narragansett for a quick 45min beach time where we watched surfers and made a sandcastle. Then we hustled on home to get ready for the wedding.

We made it to the wedding on time! It was at a golf course right next to Billy and June’s house – the one with the amazing yard. We got our bubbles and puttered about waiting for things to start. Met some people and talked to some people we had met the night before. It was windy and my hair was everywhere.

The ceremony was nice. It was overcast, so not too sunny and hot. Emily, Julia’s sister, ran the thing up front. Bryce’s siblings flanked the bride and groom and each read a poem. Vows were read. A wine glass was stomped on. People kissed and were married.

There was a chill out period with some fruit at the bar while we waited for whatever it is that happens immediately after a bride and groom are wed. Pictures, I imagine. We did some more shmoozing and walked around the building and talked about people’s outfits and other things. Then dinner with some of the folks we had previously met and then DANCING.

This was the first time Sylvia and I really got to dancin’ on a dance floor together. Previously it has been just in our homes or in the Target electronics aisle or small things like that. We would get to have one more dance later on in the trip, but we tore that floor up!

The week before and the night before we practiced a little and got the hang of doing this small dip move that was a lot of fun to do. We executed that move several times! It was good and best after a spin.

Desert. More dancing. Exit before the rain.

There was a bonfire back at Billy and June’s that was to occur after the wedding but it was going to take some time to get there and sit on those beautiful big boulders and to enjoy it and the both of us were pretty tired, so we elected to head home prior to the fire. I think that was the right choice, but I am sure the fire was a lot of fun too if it didn’t get rained out.