Beitlers in NYC

This weekend our adventure mostly took place in Rhode Island, although we did sneak into Massachusetts for a small portion of the trip. My goal for the weekend was to get good lobster. Isn’t that the quintessential thing to do as a tourist in New England? Anyway, we started our touring in Newport, where all the old rich have mansions. After somewhat orienting ourselves in Newport, we turned down mansion-street (I think it’s actually named Bellevue Drive) and decided to park at the Astor’s place. To go into the mansion you have to pay $18. We passed. But we walked through the yard and ended up on a walkway that runs between the Atlantic and all of the mansions. We surprisingly saw some surfers, however, not surprisingly, none of them caught any waves. Then it started to rain. Again. I don’t think I have mentioned the rain yet, but the NE had a VERY rainy week. Up to this point we had been troopers in the rain, partly because we were driving, but this time we forgot our umbrellas in the car. With wet hair and running mascara, I was done looking at rich people’s houses and ready to retreat to the car.

Next on the agenda was lunch. We were told that Flo’s Clam Shack would have lobster, so after winding around Newport, we asked for directions and were off to Flo’s. Disappointingly, Flo’s did not have lobster. So, and this is for the Eckstein crew, we ordered FRIED CLAMS instead. We also ordered stuffies, which are quahogs stuffed with breading, sausage, quahog meat, and chiles. They are a Portuguese specialty and apparently Rhode Island has a large population of Portuguese people.

Lunch

After lunch we strolled around Newport (in the rain) for about an hour and were on the road again. Our next destination involved looping through Little Compton, an area in Rhode Island with quaint villages, wineries, and a lot of very old cemeteries. We stopped at one winery, Sakonnet, for a tasting, then we ran out of time. Everything closed at 5:00 pm and we didn’t get a very early start. Oh well, we were ready for lobster anyway.

Our next recommendation for lobster was The Back Eddy. Finally our tourist-inspired lobster craving was satisfied! Our platter came with a 1.5# lobster, sausage, little necks, corn, and new potatoes that were all boiled together. Tasty! We were stuffies all the way back to Scott and Maria’s house in Cranston, RI – a suburb of Providence. A big thanks to Maria and Scott for letting us stay in their house and drive their extra car. They saved us a nice chunk of cash!
Dinner