Day Seven : Westerly

We’re here!  Weekapaug Rhode Island.  One of my hubby’s favorite places!  And I must agree, it’s a great place.  After yet another large breakfast at the hotel, we packed up and headed for Uncle Rick’s.  We made it here a little after 10am probably.  Uncle Rick and Aunt Cheryl have a wonderful house in Westerly, just a few miles from Weekapaug where all the Chases grew up vacationing.  It’s been great to see them!  The kids took to their dog Brady right away and played fetch with him in the backyard for a long time.  Ryan and I had been here before about seven years ago, but it was the first visit for the rest of the family.  And it’s been renovated since then and looks great!  The deck is huge and has a view out to the ocean.  We caught up on life for a little while and unpacked the car and ran a load of laundry [hooray for clean socks and underwear!].  Aunt Cheryl had to go out for most of the afternoon, so we headed for Watch Hill with Uncle Rick.  We drove through Misquamicut past all the beaches and along the ocean.  And even past one of Taylor Swift’s houses.  It was huge with visible security guards everywhere.   

Watch Hill is a really fun little area.  We headed straight for the merry-go-round carousel.  It’s awesome.  It’s the oldest in the country and it’s actually flying horses, no bottom to the ride.  Thus only Ryan and Abby rode; I couldn’t have walked with Chloe and I couldn’t imagine her going by herself.  She never asked or showed any interest anyways.  As you ride, you have to reach for the rings and whoever grabs the bronze ring gets a free ride.  Ryan got the bronze ring twice, so he rode three times in a row!  The second time he won, we bought Abby another ticket, so she rode twice.  From there we ate lunch at Saint Claire’s Annex.  Great- Grandma used to love their lobster rolls, and Rick and Coleson shared one today.  The food was great and the atmosphere really fun.  Despite being stuffed, we had to stop for gelato afterwards.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever really had gelato, but it was super tasty.  The man running the store was awesome and so very helpful.  We tried lots of things, and he was great about finding flavors that he thought the kids would like and helping us pair them up [a small had two scoops, so we were mixing and matching].  We ate our gelato outside on the wall by the Watch Hill Yacht Club, what a view.  And no one fell in the water, score.  And of course, we had to stop at The Candy Box for fudge, we’ve been waiting all trip for that! 

After Watch Hill, we returned to Rick’s to change and regroup and then we were off to go sailing!  Rick has a beetle that he keeps at the Weekapaug Yacht Club.  Six of us fit just fine, although three squirmy kids made for an interesting ride and a few squished pinky toes :)  They had a blast though.  The wind wasn’t too strong, so there was lots of back and forth and tacking.  Ryan and Abby loved climbing all over the boat and standing at the top in front of the mast.  All three loved to steer and take turns with the till.  Although Chloe thought it was more like an oar and would send us zig-zagging.  We puttered around the pond and even ventured towards the jettys that lead out to the ocean.  Despite Ryan’s wishes to sail into the ocean in search of England and France, we did not actually go to the ocean.  Beetles are small boats and small boats and the ocean don’t mix.  We sailed past black birds on big rocks [loons?] and lots of nice houses.  The kids were begging to swim, so we stopped at Ski Beach.  The water was ridiculously cold, but they’re tough and determined and actually swam.  They shivered and bundled up in cocoons on the return to the yacht club.  They also took turns hiding inside the front of the boat in attempts to warm up.  It probably didn’t help that it was overcast and only in the mid-70s.  But thankfully we still haven’t had any daytime rain or bad weather.  And tomorrow’s supposed to be warm and sunny.  Thanks to Uncle Rick for a really fun afternoon on his sailboat!

We got back to the house after 6:00, so by the time we showered and warmed up, we ordered in pizza.  It was really, really good pizza.  And Cheryl was home by then and put together a salad – so nice to have something nutritious when you’ve been travelling as long as we have!  The kids vegged on the couch in PJ’s and watched a few episodes of Octonauts – their current favorite TV show on Netflix.  The adults, and Ryan too when he wasn’t watching TV, have been working on Aunt Cheryl’s puzzle.  A 1,000 piece Boston Red Sox/ Norman Rockwell one that has a lot of grey pieces.  Let’s just say we celebrate when we find a piece.  But it’s fun and addicting.  Coleson’s actually still at it while I write this and everyone else sleeps. 

It’s been really good to see Rick and Cheryl.  We’ve enjoyed the day and we’re looking forward to more fun tomorrow.  Cousin Chris and Meghan will join us at breakfast time and then we’re beaching it!  Woohoo!