Ben’s Blog

Had a great time yesterday seeing the sites in Rhode Island - the nice thing about the traveling here: you can get from one side of the state to the other in no time.  After trying some “bananas foster” pancakes for breakfast (hadn’t heard of this before, basically pancakes with warm bananas on top) we headed to Newport via scenic route 1A through some cool little towns.  Once we got to Newport we went straight to the cliff walk to see the mansions and the scenic “cliff” views.  It was an extremely hot day but an occasional breeze made it bearable.  I was able to get a couple cool photos to share and learned a little about Newport on our ~3 mile hike.  We walked by a small private school (Salve Regina) with some beautiful buildings right on the ocean - GVSU has a great campus but nothing could beat some of these views.

After the cliff walk we took a drive to view some of the mansions and sites off the beaten path.  I saw the church where JFK and Jackie O. were married and then ended up at Bretton point, a park known for it’s high winds and thus a great place to fly a kite. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring Holly next time and would love to spend a whole day exploring Newport - the downtown area had some great shops and even houses an international tennis museum (if thats your thing…).

Once away from ocean breeze the heat became a little more intense so we headed to Cranston for an early dinner at Twin Oaks restaurant.  Twin Oaks apparently is a Rhode Island “institution” having opened originally in the 30’s as a speakeasy during prohibition; it is now described locally as a poor man’s country club.  A couple things struck me about this place - first, it is way off the beaten path in the middle of a couple neighborhoods so I was surprised to hear that it is almost always packed and hard to get into (it has 6 dining rooms that hold over 400 people), second was the fact that Twin Oaks only employs males and the uniform is a white button up shirt with a bow tie, and every order is taken by memory.  We had a table of 5 and our order was varied with substitutions and appetizers but the seasoned waiter got everything correct.  On the funnier side, I snapped this picture on their door - no muscle shirts allowed.  Oh, and I also had a quohog for the first time - kind of a stuffed baked clam and very good.

I ended the day with Sunday night mass, something Catholic churches in Michigan don’t seem to offer, where the priest talked about not spoiling kids during the homily.  He slept on a plank when he grew up and he appreciates things now - sounds good to me.  It was looking like rain when we left so we grabbed some coffee and then decided to take a chance walking a nature trail to get some more views of the bay.

Heading up to Boston later this morning via train to check into the conference and attend the opening session later this afternoon.  Heat index is going to be between 100 and 105 today so that is pretty cool.  I can honestly say the weather in Austin, Texas was cooler this same time last year.