A long weekend back home.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

I was fortunate enough this past weekend to get away and camp in RI where I am originally from. I visit there a lot but have not stayed in RI in a couple of years. Since Silvia had Monday off, thanks to a Jewish holiday, I decided to take the day off as well and we would go camping. We have lots of pictures to share. I hope you like beaches.....

We started out loading the car as soon as Silvia got home Friday afternoon. We were dropping our dog off with friends in RI so we could have a nice quiet weekend. We loaded up and got ready to leave when I realized I could not find my work issued credit card. I found this out when I went to make the payment on it. We searched almost everywhere for it. I say almost because of course Silvia found it today in the basket on the shelf for our keys. ow or why it ended up in there we will never know. I of course had already called and cancelled the card so this one is now useless.

After our little delay we headed out to Cranston, RI to drop our buddy off. Our friends have 2 kids who love when they get to watch Jedi. We dropped him off around 6:45 and chatted for a little bit before heading out.

We finally headed south in RI around 7:45 and decided since it was already dark out we might as well stop and get dinner first. We stopped in Wakefield, RI at a restaurant called the Mew's Tavern.

http://mewstavern.com/

This place is great. the food is awesome but even better is the beer collection. They have 69 varieties on Tap and they constantly rotate the offerings. Some are seasonal soem because they got something new in they want to try out.

I was so tired and hungry I forgot to take pictures. We just dove right in.

We shared an appetizer of Nachos with black beans, cheddar and jack cheese, salsa, sour cream and pulled pork. These were great.

Silvia had the Guiness battered Fish and Chips. While I had a really tasty burger. Yep just a burger for me. I like there burgers.

At the Mew's you can get small or large flights of beer, which are 4 or 6 pint(?) glasses and you can pick any beers you want. Unfortunately I was driving so I had coke. Silvia had a vintage reserve Woodchuck Hard cider and really liked it.

After dinner we headed down to Charlestown, RI and checked into Burlingame State Campground. This campground has 755 sites. None have electric, water, or sewer on the sites. The do have water spigots in the campground areas for communal use and Restroom/shower station in each area. I will not use the word comfort station for these as they really need a lot of updating and are not that comfortable. They get the job done though. Resident price is $14 per night but since I am out of state now it is $20 a night. I do have pictures but will share them in the second days pictures.

We set up the brand new tent by the warm glow our headlights and lantern and then got the air mattress inflated. We made up the bed changed and went to sleep. Wehad lots of fun planned for the weekend.

I will be posting pictures of the campground map once I scan it in.

ETA.. Someone already scanned in the map.

The writing in white is theirs.

Our first 2 nights we were in site 534. You will have to wait to see where we are the last night.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

The next morning we got up and got ready to hear out. I proceeded to take pictures of our site and the new tent.

Before (taken once we broke down the tent)

After

Some pics of the sites and surroundings.

And some pictures of the new tent. I picked us up the Coleman Cimarron from Walmart.

Ignore the little bit of mess. We had already moved in of course.

And the house.

Once we were ready I took Silvia over to a local coffee place for breakfast. She sais the Iced Coffee was excellent and the Hot Cocoa I had was made from milk and cocoa powder not from a pouch or machine so bonus points from me. We both had a blueberry muffins. These muffins are the size of a softball. Grand total $12 for breakfast. They have inside and outside seating. Since it was nice out we sat by the waterfall area.

After that we headed north to Providence. I will pick that up in the next post.

[michele j 9]

Looks nice & peaceful. You you near the ocean? One of these days(years) we are going to make it to Rhode Island to go camping. We haven't been to

RI.....sounds silly because I'm from New England also. Can't wait to see that beautiful state.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Looks like a beautiful place to camp.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

So after breakfast we headed up to Providence to the Providence Place Mall. We wanted to walk around for a while, do some shopping, and hit 2 particular places.

In our travels Silvia's eyes lit up as we went by Teavana. I said let's go in and she really liked the Youthberry Tea they had there for sampling so we picked her up a half a pound of it. When they rang it up I felt my wallet clamp shut, but since I am going to Disney without her in January I pried it open and bought her some tea. It better be good.

After that since I had bought her a "souvenir" we popped into gamestop and I picked up a video game I have been eyeing. We decided to drop the purchases off back at the car in the parking garage so we wouldnt have to carry them around for out next stop.

Next we headed into Dave and Buster's. If you are not familiar with it it is an eating, drinking, video game establishment that we enjoy but had not been to in years. we spend a couple of hours playing video games and skee ball and other games. Then we headed for Lunch/dinner

We ate at a restaurant known as Fire and Ice. In case you have no hear of it I will describe it as best I can. It is an all you can eat place. You pay for your meal and you pay for your drinks. Dessert is extra. With your meal you get unlimited salad and trips to the grill. This is a place where you load up what you want to eat and then give to the guys on the open air grill and they cook it up right there, with lots of flips and tricks going on. As always we ate our fill and it was very good. Sorry I forgot to take pictures. of the food this whole trip.

After Fire and Ice we headed out to Roger Williams Park on the Providence/Cranston line.

The Bandstand (needs a little work but still cool)

The casino (no gambling just a meeting place)

Some of the water ways in the park

On the path to the Bandstand

You can rent these fun paddle boats

A really cool tree. Japanese Maple I think.

I will continue in next post.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Looks nice & peaceful. You you near the ocean? One of these days(years) we are going to make it to Rhode Island to go camping. We haven't been to

RI.....sounds silly because I'm from New England also. Can't wait to see that beautiful state.

Burlingame is a great place to camp if you want to get to the beach. One of the best beaches in RI is only 10 minutes away. If it makes you feel better I have never camped or stayed overnight in VT. I have been in Vermont. I have driven through it on my way to Montreal, but i have never slept in Vermont. It's the only NE state I can still say that about.

Looks like a beautiful place to camp.

What it lacks in bath house facilities it certainly makes up for in beauty. I have lots more pics of the campground coming. I covered it pretty thoroughly so I could write it up in the campground board.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Dup Post

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

From the Bandstand area we headed over to the Carousel.

When we left the carousel there was a Duck boat outside for tours of the park. This was something new that we found out had just started 2 months earlier. Neither one of us had ever been on a Duck boat so we said why not. It was $10 per adult and $5 for kids. It is a 30 minute ride and you can learn a decent amount about the park.

The park is the 3rd oldest in the nation and one of the designers is the gentleman who designed Central Park in NYC.In addition to the caousel, casino, and bandstand, there is also a Zoo that is fairly nice, a botanical area, a boathouse where you can rent water craft, and a museum/planetarium among other things. I will try and point them out as we drive by.

Here's our ride.

More swan boats

The botanical building

Out on the water

The Temple to Music.

The Japanese garden area

Cont in next post.

[SCTigerCock 171]

It looks beautiful up there. I really want to get up there on my way to PEI.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

It looks beautiful up there. I really want to get up there on my way to PEI.

Let me know when you are passing through. We will have to meet up. I havent been to PEI yet so I will look forward to your pics when you go.

[SCTigerCock 171]

Key word "want". Need to find the time. This "job" thing Sux.

But it is on the bucket list.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

After the Japanese Garden we headed out. We were supposed to be having a friend drop by the campsite to hang out that evening but he ended up with 3 cranky kids. Somehow I think we won on that deal.

Since we were on our own we decided to just crank up the campfire and relax.

After a couple of hours of that we turned in. It ended up dropping down to about 45 degrees out which was 10 degrees cooler than we planned on. We put on some layers cuddled up and went to sleep.

The next morning we got up and drove around the campground to get pictures of everything for you guys.

The camp store. We never made it in here this weekend. It is the edge of the season for them and the hours are screwy.

The playground area next to the campstore.

2 separate jungle gyms there.

The volleyball and basketball courts

The open fields for playing games in

Some of the camp sties down behind the camp store area.

one of the communal water spigots.

More open fields

A little covered area for activites

The rec hall. Closed while we were there.

Look Pay phones.

They do exist!

Seriously thought I have Sprint for personal use and AT&T for work. Both had very strong signal everywhere in teh campground.

Cont in next post.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Key word "want". Need to find the time. This "job" thing Sux.

But it is on the bucket list.

I hear you on that one.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Providence is an interesting old city. I was staying there for work once and walking around downtown at night and they had all these huge fires burning in the river. I think they call if Firewater, or something like that. Like bonfires. and the fire reflecting on the water was beautiful.

Great pics so far Jason....looking forward to more. And then you need to head west again in your writing! :rofl3:

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

The campground is also on a very large pond with a couple of beach areas.

The water was very clear and still fairly warm.

They also have camping cabins here. They are $35 a night resident or non resident. The provide 2 twin size bunk bed frames. You will need you own matresses, pillows and linens.

They seemed kind of quiet so i thought I would stop at the check in station and see if there was any availability for that night. Figured it would be warmer than our tent and the temps were supposed to go lower.

They did have availability and were even kind enough to apply my campsite fee to the cabin so I only had to shell out $15 for the upgrade. We ran back to our site and packed up the tent. We like the tent very much and will probably use it for year to come but we thought this would be a fun thing to try.

The check in station

We took our gear over to our new cabin and I proceeded to push the bunk beds together so We could set the queen air matress up on them. After getting it inflated we decided to head out and get breakfast.

That will be in the next post. Pics of the inside of the cabin will be coming later.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Providence is an interesting old city. I was staying there for work once and walking around downtown at night and they had all these huge fires burning in the river. I think they call if Firewater, or something like that. Like bonfires. and the fire reflecting on the water was beautiful.

Great pics so far Jason....looking forward to more. And then you need to head west again in your writing! :rofl3:

Waterfire is the name of it. To be honest I have never been to see it. The city is a quaint old city with lots of hidden things. On the east side the Rhode Island School of Design has a wonderful museum with lots of artwork and my favorite part. Greek, roman and egyptian artifacts. The first saturday of each month that museum is free if I remember correctly.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Waterfire is the name of it.

Yeah, that makes more sense. Firewater is what the Native Americans called whiskey I think.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

So a friend of mine who lives in the area frequents this great little place for breakfast. the food was great, the price was very nice and the view was awesome.

The view from our table.

We were having a tough weekend. :rofl3:

Silvia had French Toast and I had an Omelet with home fires and toast. All of it was wonderful. We were lucky this was there last day of the season. I will be back there next year though.

Here are some more beach pics. This is Miscquamicut State Beach

They were having there Fallfest so we headed over to check it out. Sometimes my friend has a booth there and I was hoping to run into her. Well she didn't have a booth this year but we did run into her. We chatted for a while and then headed out. They had carnival games, some vendors and fair food. We had some New York System Hot Weiners from the American Legion guys which were okay but if you ever want good ones let me know and I will take you. Guy Fieri love them and tried making them on his show one time. His recipe is not bad but he didn't get them right either.

Oh what are they you say? They are steamed hot dog rolls, with Dogs that are cooked on flat top. You put mustard, onions, and celery salt on them with a meat sauce. The meat sauce is the key. Every place makes them differently. Some are heavy, some are greasy but my favorite place makes them just right. I am still working on duplicating their recipe. It is taking a lot of trial and error(and eating) but its for a good cause right?

We head up US1 from here. I will pick that up in the next post. Lots more beaches to see. After all this is RI.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Yeah, that makes more sense. Firewater is what the Native Americans called whiskey I think.

Thats sounds right.

[Onkel Hans 25]

You took some great photos of Roger Williams Park. That place looks amazing and would be fun to spend a day or more exploring.

It looked like you had some good weather, too. I wish I had that kind of luck!

[stefa70 205]

Geez, you move faster than my brain. I'm trying to take it all in.

Of course more great pictures.

The campground looks like a neat little rustic place. I love the site number on the rock.

In one of your tent pictures, it looks like maybe Sil is passed out? sleeping? comatose? admiring the ceiling of the tent? At least I think it's Sil (?)

The swan boats reminded me of the ones they use to have at the MK.

Hoping you enjoyed the cabin and you guys stayed warmer.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

In one of your tent pictures, it looks like maybe Sil is passed out? sleeping? comatose? admiring the ceiling of the tent? At least I think it's Sil (?)

I believe she was putting her contacts back in. I didn't notice her in that shot. Let's not tell her about it.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This is another great TR, Jason.

Thanks for sharing.

I really like the looks of that campground. Certainly nothing fancy, but isn't that what camping is all about? I am kind of surprised by the size of it- it is much larger than any of the State Park campgrounds I am familiar with in Florida.

I like your tent, and it's neat that you got to upgrade to a cabin for $15.

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip.

TCD

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Geez, you move faster than my brain. I'm trying to take it all in.

Of course more great pictures.

The campground looks like a neat little rustic place. I love the site number on the rock.

In one of your tent pictures, it looks like maybe Sil is passed out? sleeping? comatose? admiring the ceiling of the tent? At least I think it's Sil (?)

The swan boats reminded me of the ones they use to have at the MK.

Hoping you enjoyed the cabin and you guys stayed warmer.

Ok I'll buy the contacts therory, but oh my, is that a butt shot thru one of the windows :rofl2: Lucky man that Sil loves you :heartsmiley:

Love your trip reports, such detail and good food locations :banana:

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

Well my heck, I don't know how I have missed this. Looks like a great weekend! I like this statue!