Biking Block Island and Heading North

On Saturday morning my uncle, cousin, sister and I took the ferry over to Block Island just off the coast of Rhode Island. (Author's note: I now realize that this naming could cause some confusion for people that aren't familiar with this area since Rhode Island is not actually an island at all.  It does have several islands off its coast, one of which is in fact where the state's name originated from.  The full name of the state is "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" but that seems awfully long for the smallest state in the country and I wasn't even aware of it until I checked out Wikipedia...)

Paul: Pure concentration

Anyway, back on Block Island, the four of us arrived and immediately went to rent bikes and start exploring.  Unfortunately, it was turning out to be a hot day so what may have been a long ride became a much more leisurely paced tour around just a small slice of the island.  We stopped by the road to putter around on some greens kindly set up by a local (I barely scraped out a win in our own round robin family tourney). The golf was followed by more biking (this time mostly downhill) and a stop at the beach for some swimming, splashing and a few short races (again amongst ourselves).

That afternoon we headed back to the mainland for a BBQ hosted by my aunt's family in Narragansett. There were times when I wouldn't have been shocked if a Casey Affleck character had walked in and joined the conversation with his own stories of growing up. I was surrounded by true Northeasterners: dialect and all.  I enjoyed sitting back and taking it all in.

Meagan, Me, Kate enjoying the afternoon

And then...it was time to leave.  My entire week in Boston and Rhode Island ended in the blink of an eye. I was having so much fun re-visiting places, doing things I haven't done and catching up with people, that I didn't even realize it was flying by. I made it back to Boston on Sunday and was fortunate enough to meet up with my American roommate, Meagan, who was coincidentally also in the city visiting a friend. We had a great afternoon in South Boston and then an awesome dinner by the water at a swanky Mexican cantina (called Temazcal in case anyone is in the area. I would recommend it).

I ended my fantastic week talking politics, solving the world's problems, and sipping wine with my family on the back deck of their house. Monday morning it was off to Maine for more family time and a bit more "quintessential" America.

Next up: Moving up the coast to Maine