Weekend Getaway

Kate and I had a wonderful time on our Rhode Island & Cape Cod Getaway even though it rained for half the time we were there.

We headed south Thursday night after Kate got out of work stopping at Fat Boy Drive In on the way for our first Whooper burger of the season, delicious!  We arrived at our hotel around 930pm and got checked in.

We stayed at the Ramada in Middletown, Rhode Island.  The room was clean with a separate living room from the bedroom, good water pressure for the shower.  However the mattress was very hard, much harder than our bed at home.  Also included in our $48 a night rate was a daily newspaper and continental breakfast.  The hotel had no pool.  The continental breakfast was poor.  It featured stale bread, muffins, donuts, English muffins and the like.  The toaster was a 4 slicer that was broken with only two slots functioning.  Fruit was limited to old fruit salad with no apples or bananas or oranges.  The only real edible item was the cereal.  I’m sure in the summer when they have multiple guests instead of the two that were there the breakfast is better because the food doesn’t sit so long.  Regardless they shouldn’t even bother.

Friday we headed to Cape Cod, it was partly sunny but very windy.  Kate loved driving around the area and looking at all the little cedar shingled homes pointing out everyone that she like, there was a lot of pointing going on. 

We visited the Cape Cod Chip Factory for a tour and essentially it was similar to Covered Bridge factory in New Brunswick, Canada except instead of one machine to cook the chips Cape Cod has like 9 cookers.  It’s very impressive.  The Chinese group that was in there at the same time as us was very impressed by everything.  They have a contest if the take a picture outside the plant and tag them on Facebook, Instagram, or twitter they pick one winner for a prize, here is out entry by the broken arrow sign. 

Next was the Cape Cod Beer brewery tour and tasting.   For $5US you get five 3oz samples and get to keep a souvenir glass.  I tried their blonde, red, porter, milk stout, and black van lager, all very good with the red and porter being my favorites.  We bought a bottle of their red ale that is aged in bourbon barrels, we were excited to try it but the fridge at the hotel room was set too high and it froze the brew causing the seal to break and ruin the beer.  Thanks shitty fridge.

After lunch we traveled to Woods Hole stopping at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the country’s oldest aquarium opening in 1885 and it’s completely free!  It’s a nice little aquarium where the tank location hall is L shaped the tanks on the right side of the L and on the left different displays relating to ocean life and exploration.  At the end of the L you can go outside to view the two seals in their tank, too injured to be released to the wild or go out behind the scenes to view the backside of the tanks, a touch tank and other displays.  It’s quite quaint and we had a great time there. 

We made a quick stop at Nobska Lighthouse then continued to Sandwich to walk to boardwalk to the beach.  It was a nice walk and super windy!  We ended our tour in Plymouth at the famous Mayflower landing sight Plymouth Rock. It’s a rock in a mausoleum but it’s a historic rock.  For whatever reason we went into the gift shop right there and JACKPOT Kate found Maple Tea direct from Canada!

We picked pizza to eat at the room, a tradition we started on her family reunion vacation that must be carried on indefinitely. 

Saturday we picked up Jay in New Bedford before heading to Autorama’s World Of Wheels car show at the Seaport Convention Center in South Boston.  That’s right we went to a car show to meet a Wrestling Superstar in the “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels!  An exciting dream come true for Jay & I and a big who cares for Kate.  She was a good sport though and stood in line with us for over two hours to get me an extra autograph and also agreed to get her picture taken with HBK himself.  With this photo and these cards added to my collection I’m not really sure who’s next to meet. 

We left the show after meeting Michaels and didn’t even look at the cars, we had no interest.  We ate lunch at Boston Burger Company as seen on Diner’s Drive In and Dives and other shows, the burger was good but the appetizer was THE BEST!  We split something called The Pig pile, homemade potato chips with sausage, bacon, pulled pork, coleslaw, chopped pickles, bbq sauce, and ranch dressing.  So freakin’ good! 

We drove Kate back to the hotel, it started raining on the way and it didn’t stop until we drove home Monday.   Saturday Night Jay and I went a Top Rope Promotions wrestling show in New Bedford.  It was a really good show with 9 matches on the card; I would say 8 of them were really good.  Big crowd pushing 300 people and they were very lively!

Sunday it rained all day, we had a lazy day and explored Newport.  We had a great breakfast at the Atlantic Grille, drove around looking at the fancy Mansions, and briefly strolled on the Cliff walk during the brief moment the rain let up.  We played tickets games at Ryan Family Amusements where Kate hit the jackpot on the Wheel of Fortune generating 500 tickets for a scant 35 cent play.  We cashed in our tickets on some cool swag for us and the kids.  We had dinner at Lucia Italian Restaurant based on the online reviews that it was a great place.  Those reviews were wrong, very wrong.  Boxed pasta, frozen pre-cut chicken, tasted like canned sauce, not worth the money.

We went to Ocean State Job Lot, the Marden’s of Rhode Island, and looked around.  At the advice of a local we bought some Portuguese Bolo’s or English Muffins to try.  We later ran into her at Ryan Family Amusements.  She couldn’t say enough good about them and even picked out what she considered the perfect package of bolos.

Monday we took our bolos to the continental breakfast room and toasted them up, she was right, they are excellent!  We bought some butter at Stop and Shop as the butter at hotel tasted off.

We drove home in the rain that didn’t stop until we got north of the York Toll.  We didn’t stop until Famous Dave’s in Scarborough for some delicious BBQ.  

It was a wonderful getaway even with the rain.  It was nice to get away and relax and take in some sights.  I had always wanted to go to the Cape Cod Chip factory since I first ate them at Nana’s house when I was a little boy Canaan’s age.  I remember looking at the back of the bag and it said you could tour the factory and ever since then I always wanted to go.  It was nice to finally accomplish that goal.

I’m looking forward to plotting our next getaway!