Time with Family

The second week of July Fran's sister Helen joined us for a week. We did nothing but have fun the whole time.

First we toured Newport and then sailed, actually sailed, to Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard is a nice island with several little towns and striking views of the ocean. Helen took this photo of the Light house at Gay Head on the southeast corner of the island. One town, Oak Bluffs has a famous retreat center with charming cottages that started out as tents 100 years ago.

We then sailed to Cuttyhunk, a small island with only about 50 houses. It feels very remote and peaceful.
A lot of the beaches in New England are rocky. Everyone flocks to the sand beaches on nice days. This is Al on a rocky beach in Cuttyhunk.

After the nice visit with Helen, Frances went home and got spoiled by her parents for a week. She found out that she really misses thunderstorms, a regular bed and air conditioning. She realized also that it is a lot easier to drive a car than a boat. It was a wonderful visit with her friends and she loved spending time with her mom and dad. Al stayed in Tiverton and helped his Dad with some projects around the house. Next time Al will probably want to go home with Frances!

We are back in Newport again for the folk festival this weekend. We will be around this area another week and then go north for a while.

Bristol 4th of July and Newport

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Bristol, Rhode Island. They have had a 4th of July parade there every year for over 200 years. It's a big event for the entire area around Bristol. It's not just a parade either, the town starts celebrating days before the 4th. Bruce, Al's brother and his wife Angie never miss the parade because Angie is from Bristol. All the families have parties after the parade. We had some great Portuguese again food thanks to Angie's Aunt. The Herreshoff Museum held a series of events that we attended over the weekend too. It made the weekend really fun and we met some other cruisers there, too.

Before the 4th we did make it to Newport to see the Maltese Falcon start a transatlantic race. It was an amazing sight and we're glad we made a special trip to see it.

We have been back in Newport all week. One neat thing in the anchorage is that every day we have children sailing right past the boat learning how to sail. They are so brave to learn in such a busy harbor.

Fran's sister will be with us this next week so we will be leaving Narragansett Bay and going to Martha's Vineyard and other places. Then Fran will be going home to visit her parents the week of the 17th while Al goes back to Tiverton.