Category Archives: Rhode Island

(Sea)Food for Thought in Rhode Island

Rhode Island, tourism, ,

Nothing beats a pile of fried whole bellied clams. Unless it’s twin lobster rolls. These are the truisms my sister and I discovered, along with the remarkable seaside and rural scenery, and the opulence of the Gilded Age, during a recent trip to Rhode Island.

She rented a cozy cottage about a ten minute walk from South Shore Beach for a couple of weeks, and I helped get her settled in and stayed a few days. The first day the weather was glorious, mid-70s and sunny, and we enjoyed our clams and fried shrimp at Evelyn’s Drive-In in Tiverton on a picnic bench near the water. By the next day, our long-awaited lobster rolls from Easton Beach Snack Bar outside of Newport had to be enjoyed in the car, as the temperature had plummeted into the 50s and the wind was stiff.

No matter, we had a good time regardless. In Newport we hopped on the free trolley bus, rode it to the end oohing and aahing over the lavish homes, deciding which ones we would want to own given the (not very likely) chance that we became billionaires, then got off and toured two of them: The Marble House and The Breakers. (We could have walked the Cliff Walk between the two, but we might have either frozen or been swept off the cliff’s edge by the wind, so we opted for the longer inland route.)

In addition to seafood and historic mansions, we sampled the local produce in the form of juicy, fresh-picked strawberries, and took some drives and walks in the vicinity of Little Compton to admire the impressive stone walls and quaint gray shingled cottages.

One story must be related regarding the cottage we were staying in: that is, the Mystery of the Weird Sound. The first day we were there, we noticed a sound like some animal growling, or snoring, or just a not very happy poltergeist, emanating from somewhere in the wall (?) or basement (??), loudest in the bedroom in one corner of the house. The owners, who live not too far away, came the next day to investigate and found nothing in the basement (much to our relief), so it remained an ever-present, non-ceasing mystery. I finally figured it must be the electric wires which are attached to the house on that side. They pass through a pretty substantial dogwood tree on their way to the house, and rub against the branches, thus probably causing the sound. My sister didn’t have to deal with it since the master bedroom was far from the sound, and I eventually got used to it, but it was truly creepy that first night!

Okay, so not exactly a Vanderbilt mansion, but the Hydrangea Cottage served our purposes. The hydrangeas were not out yet but they are there.

Yum, yum, whole bellied clams on left and shrimp on the right at Evelyn’s.
The plethora of classic Corvettes leant a time warp factor to Evelyn’s (or the idea that the drive-in doubled as a used Corvette sales area?) until we figured out a Corvette club was having a luncheon there.
Gilded Age splendor at the Marble House’s “Gothic” Room. The audio tour you can download on your phone is good, though bring headphones if you use it…another visitor complained because we had ours turned up too loud so we could both hear it! At the Breakers we couldn’t use it at all because there were too many people. They have printed versions as well, but the spoken narration was much more fun.
Trick of the eye umbrellas are painted on the ceiling of the portico of the Breakers looking out at the sea.
The tours take you “downstairs” into the kitchens and pantries as well. It took a lot of shiny copper pots and pans and a whole bank of stoves to prepare those eight course meals!
Breezy, freezy beach shore scenery.
Sakonnet lighthouse in the distance.
My attempt to take a panoramic photo of South Shore Beach creates a dark portal into another world… maybe the one that the Mystery Sound is coming from??
Two swans were braving the stiff wind on the pond across from the beach.
Last but not least…behold the chunks of deliciousness in the twin lobster rolls. And yes, I ate both of them. Good thing my current wardrobe includes almost exclusively elastic and drawstring waisted pants!