A quick trip North

Events of July 26-29, Connecticut and Rhode Island

We had planned to make a trip of four or five days to Rhode Island, with a stopover in Fairfield, Connecticut to see our friends in Tiverton, Rhode Island at their newly-purchased cottage on the water and John's brother in Connecticut, but John was being sworn in on July 30 requiring us to be in Washington that day.  He has taken a position on a commission that regulates post-secondary education institutions.

Instead of spending three or four days in Tiverton looking over Narragansett Bay and enjoying seafood and fresh farm-raised vegetables, we were limited to two with a Sunday stopover in Connecticut.  

Tiverton Harbor

We had an enjoyable evening looking out of Samp Mortar Lake from brother Andrew's back porch, enjoying spare-ribs and salads.  

Then the following morning we took the three hour jaunt from there to Tiverton, a small town in Rhode Island, south of Fall River on the far side of the Sakonnet River--a tidal part of Narragansett Bay.   Friends John (boy) and Jon (girl) have purchased a summer home there which has magnificent views of Tiverton's harbor, and storms as they move through.

Storm front arrives

Ten minutes later

John, (the writer--it's a trip having three joh(n)s in the house, spent part of the Tuesday morning heading into Fall River, the city just to the north of Tiverton, to visit Hartley's Pork Pies to purchase ethnically English food for lunch.  John (boy) had not had them since leaving England many years ago and was a bit reticent, but a huge nine-inch pie (22 cm) along with fresh tomato salad filled us wonderfully as we watched the gulls and terns fly over the water from their deck.  They will become an annual event.

That evening we dined at Red Dory on Tiverton's main road overlooking the water with lovely glasses of Portuguese white from Alentejo, and various shellfish, including local oysters, broiled Portuguese style sardines, lovely fresh salads, and the good company of friend Elaine. Red Dory has significant Portuguese influence from the large number of Portuguese immigrants into southeastern Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts just over 100 years ago. The meal was generally good. Most of us stayed with the small plates, grilled sardines, octopus, and oysters, battered with a very good spicy mayonnaise. One of us ventured into the large plates with an excellent clam and halibut meal. All in all a reasonably priced very good meal. In previous posts we have talked about restaurants in New Bedford. Red Dory was excellent, though the noise level is high inside.
John also went wine-tasting at Sakonnet Vineyards in the town of Little Compton.  He enjoyed a vidal blanc hybrid, which is a somewhat sweeter version of a sauvignon blanc mixed with chardonnay.  it survives northern winters and we have enjoyed it in Quebec as well.   He also passed gorgeous hydrangeas at a nursery along the main road and compared them to the hortensias we have seen in Brittany.   

Our trip back to Washington took all of Wednesday with a stop at our favorite Korean store and restaurant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and coffee in New Haven at Blue State.   Ben also found excellent coffee in Tiverton at Coastal Roasters, and he has made friends with the barista at Peet's Coffee in the Chesapeake House on Route 95 in Maryland.   They make his special coffee without a murmur now!