On Tuesday morning Cathy got on the phone and found us a new spot in Bellingham, MA. We practice "just in time camping". After the hour drive, we pulled into our site and realized that we only had a 30 amp hookup. So I went back to the front desk and talked with the lady with the personality of a pet rock and she reluctantly gave use a new site.. which was awesome!!! The sites with in the middle of a grove of tall trees and, in Cathy's words, "super shady". It was always about 5-10 degrees cooler at our RV spot.
That night we ventured out into the local area and found a sign for a small, family-looking restaurant on a nearby lake advertising clam chowda. Unfortunately, they only took cash. Fortunately we found a cool local pizza joint and played "pigs" while we waited for food. We had such a great time that we decided to break our unwritten rule of eating at the same place multiple times and went back later in the week.
Most of the week we just stayed around the campground, exercising (Cathy and I both ran a number of times) and riding bikes. We had big plans for the weekend so we took it easy.
Friday afternoon we took off for and went to Purgatory Chasm for a little rock climbing. It was great fun and Hali was really in her element. We were a little hesitant about Kira walking around and climbing rocks but after awhile she was fairly confident in her abilities. I held her hands the entire time as I was not confident in her abilities.
While in Rhode Island, we didn't get a chance visit Providence so we decided to backtrack over the weekend and hit the city. I checked the web Friday night for things to do in Providence and we hit the jackpot. Saturday was the FireWater celebration in Providence where they light the river on fire. Seriously, they light the water on fire.
So we got up Saturday and made our way to Providence. What a great city! The countryside is gorgeous and the city is old and new enough to be awesome! We lucked out as there was the AS220 festival that morning as well. Not really sure what AS220 is, but they had a ton of hippie arts and crafts for the kids, live music of every genre and local food and beer. The girls really had a great time.
Around dinner time we made our way down to the river and had some dinner in a so-so irish pub. Then to kill some time before it got dark, we wandered around the city and stumbled across Stephen Hopkins' house (he was one of the singers of the Declaration of Independence). We were sucked into the house for an hour or so before our guide finally let us go.
FireWater was a really cool event with much pomp and splendor. It was quite a production and had the air of a Mongolian restaurant birthday party. After we watched the water burn for awhile we headed back to the car and stopped by Trinity Brewhouse for beer and desserts for the girls.
Sunday morning we made the hour trip from Circle CG Campground into Boston. We ended up getting our tickets for the Duck Boat Tour and then grabbed a quick lunch at a local wing restaurant. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the Science Museum to catch our duck. The tour was a blast but for some reason Lexi fell asleep through most of the tour until we drove the boat into the Charles River. The highlight of the tour was all three girls driving the Duck boat around the Charles River!!
After the tour, we left the Science Museum and walked downtown to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall. We ended up at our favorite spot in Boston, The Black Rose, for dinner then walked out to the water to look into some of the whale watching tours. Unfortunately the schlep back to the Science Museum seemed to take forever!
Dates: August 6 - August 11
RV Park: Circle CG Campground, Bellingham, MA
