My cousin Melissa and her beau of 7 years - Henry - finally tied the knot in Block Island. Bill and I went and spent a couple of days there.
Block Island is such a beautiful place! After doing so much work on the Nashaquisset web site it was nice to go to the neighboring island and get an idea of what it's like. We stayed at the Hotel Manisses in the Catherine Sullivan suite in the Dodge Cottage, a 700 sq/ft room with a full kitchen, piano and a few sofas. It was great!
The wedding was held on Wednesday, August 13 at the Southeast Lighthouse though it was a surprise when we pulled up and saw it was covered with scaffolding due to renovation. It was a casual, low-key ceremony. About 40 people showed up and most of the men were wearing Hawaiian shirts. It was threatening rain so Henry passed out some nifty umbrellas for everyone just in case.
After the ceremony we all went over to The Oar for mudslides and onion rings. We all hung out for a few hours and caught up with people we haven't seen for a while and Bill got to meet half of my crazy family. Later we went over to Henry and Melissa's boat for hotdogs and hamburgers and watched the lightning.
The next morning we all met for breakfast at the hotel and then went on a historical tour of Block Island which was very nice. Bill and I went over to the farm at the hotel and saw the baby camel. The family got together and had lunch at this awful tourist-trap place near the ferry (I don't remember the name). The food was over-priced and not very good. But it was fun hanging out.
After lunch, my mom and some of the other Long Island crew had to hop on the ferry to go back home so Bill and I rented a scooter for an hour and drove around the island. That was lots of fun! although after about 10 minutes my butt got numb.
We hopped on the 6:30 ferry back to Rhode Island and headed down to Norwalk, CT for a few days. As we hit New Haven or so I realized something was different - there were no lights. Yup, we got there in the midst of the northeast blackout of 2003.
We hung out with my friends John and Sally in Norwalk for a few days. We drove around and I showed Bill where I used to live, where I grew up, my old high school (which is *totally* different now, it was depressing and made me feel old) and had lunch with my father. Patrick was being in one of his weird anti-social moods so we didn't get to see him which really bummed me out. Saturday night we headed back to Cambridge and relaxed.
We had such a great time on this trip! Block Island is an incredibly beautiful place that isn't completely over-run with yuppies and snobby rich people. The wedding was one of the best I have been to - we still talk about it! - because it was just so casual and low-key. Hawaiian shirts, Tivas and mudslides. What more do you want?