My Thanksgiving Trip to New England

We got back last weekend from a 6 day stay in New England at my in-laws place in Rehoboth Mass. (near Attleboro not quite at the base of Cape Cod). It was our second time vacationing out there, last time we went was our honeymoon 2 years ago, and it was amazing! This time was no different, my heart lusts for the maritime nostalgia of New England! We had 8 days all together, the first and last were spent driving to and from, I hauled *** out there 22 hours straight (1,187 miles) and did even better on the way back (just 19 hours). It was taxing, but worth it!
We took numerous day trips to different parts of the area; Glouster, Woods Hole, New Bedford, and Newport RI. Last time we were there we visited Narragansett, Nantucket, Block Island RI, Yarmouth, New Haven CT, East Providence Bay RI, and more. It was nice to see new places, the whole trip was really amazing.
Glouster is a real current day commercial fishing port, the air was pungent with the smell of the fresh catch and we saw many boats unloading their catch down by the piers, and the Perfect Storm Memorial. Unfortunatly I don't have pix of Glouster at this time, they're on my wifes camera. My camera fell with me into the ocean the previous day at Woods Hole....don't ask (all considered, it was still pretty funny).
Woods Hole was a very special trip for me, a great little aquarium there, I spyed a couple of their autonomous underwater explorers Remus 5000 and Remus 1000 I believe. I also got a chance to have a very engaging conversation with some people there, I had a lot to ask since I've been receiving OCEANUS (the Woods Hole Scientific Journal) for the last 5 years.

In New Bedford we visited the "Ocean Explorarium," I found a pretty decent reef tank there, it was pretty sweet, the staffers were pretty lame though. The curator was nowhere to be found unfortunately.

The highlight of New Bedford was the Whaling Museum, this was especially cool for me since my grandfather has been building ship models for many years, one of his prize models is the Charles W. Morgan which I visited in Mystic CT last time we were in NE, but this really added some extra history to the industry of whaling. Fascinating stuff, my wife and her mother almost left me behind because god forbid I wanted to READ the displays there! lol I got through a lot of them and learned many new things! Of course New Bedford hosted the largest whaling fleet in the world in the late 1800's and early 1900's, followed by Nantucket.

My wife and I did the Cliff Walk in Newport and drove the Ocean Road to find some sites along the coast there. Fancy place, a lot of private beaches, but my uncle Scott informed me that as long as you walk between the high and low tide lines you can basically tell "private" beach owners to get bent. It actually worked! lol This old dude walking his dog gave us some lip, and I cited my rights to oceanic sports and recreation and he told me I better stay inside the wash line, at that point the tide was really low so I had a good 20 feet or more! haha what a jerk, or maybe I am lol.

Hope you enjoy the pix, I got 1400 more to sort through!

 

Great pics, thanks for sharing! I've always wanted to spend more time up there, but so far have only gotten a couple days in Rhode Island........someday! I have a bunch of ancestors that came over to Newport; what a neat place full of history!

 

Thanks for posting...I've never been to out there, but looks like a great place to go !!

 

Great pics. Looks like an awesome trip.

 

So that's where you've been lol. Looks like you had fun awesome pics.

 

Yeah when I went for my (accidental) swim my phone was in my pocket. I can't get my spare to activate for some reason, and I don't have time to go to Verizon till next week. I'm eligible for an upgrade on the 16th anyways. It was 34 degrees when I went in, and I was a mile from the car! I think my D90 will be salvagable, it just needs a little shop work. I've gotta D300 too anyways, but it doesn't do video like the D90 so I didn't take it with.
Thanks for the replies everybody! It was a really awesome trip, if you want to see more of New England, as always you can visit my flickr page for more photos. This is the New England album link http://www.flickr.com/photos/reefte...020619765/

 

What a cool story Andy! You should look into becoming a writer! Very well written.

 

Wow thanks! I really appreciate that, that's after all the whole reason I write, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Journalism and writing has always been a hobby and aspiration of mine. Maybe sometime after I'm done with college I'll have time to put something together for publishing. Honestly this little blog I just slapped down, I usually try to polish my thoughts when I'm writing seriously. I've been told that I write with a lot of character by some, and told that I suck at writing by others. I like to write in a manner where my personality is quite penetrable, I guess it all depends on how readers perceive me. I've found that I'm much more likable and charming in person though! hahaha
BTW you guys, if you haven't checked my flickr album of New England you're missing out on some hilarious titles for these pix. Some of the above are titled; Dolphin Debonair, Low Tide Limpets, and of course the picture of the harpooners beetle row boat is called, "Whaling is for Pansies...NOT!" I apologize for my self indulgence but I really crack myself up!

 

For all ocean lovers, the view from the cliffs of Newport. Such a crystal blue beauty! I can hear the whispers from distant ports of call in the break of each receding wave.