Daytrips, Rhode Island, and Beavertail State Park
Every summer my family and I sit down to create a summer bucket list of items that we're determined to check off before everyone starts back to school. We always dedicate at least one to our 'must do' list, but often we select a handful of places we'd like to explore that we've never been to. Sometimes it ends up being a day built around one particular spot we'd like to visit (usually a restaurant), but sometimes it's an unplanned drive that we take after getting home from work at the end of a long week. The latter usually ends up being my favorite.
Admittedly, I love Rhode Island. Probably more than one should! I grew up in Boston, and currently live in the Massachusetts suburbs, but there's something that I'm drawn to about Rhode Island, especially Providence. We've never been disappointed with their restaurants and I don't find it nearly as stressful or congested as Boston. The fact that Providence is only twenty minutes from my front door helps too. We've spent many days and nights in Newport, and we enjoy hitting up the Hope Street Farmers Market. We fell in love with the sunset at Napatree Point in Westerly, and most recently visited Knead Doughnuts in Providence. Knead is bad news in all the right ways - just take my word on making the trip there, you'll thank me later! The Peanut Butter and Jelly donut was worth the trip all on its own. Seriously.
Back to the bucket list. One of our items this year was to check out Beavertail State Park in Jamestown, RI and we spent a Sunday afternoon there last month. Beavertail has some of the most beautiful views that I have been fortunate enough to see in the Northeast. The park jets out on a peninsula with a lighthouse (fun fact: it happens to be the third lighthouse built in the US) and the land is bordered by the most incredible rocks that extend out into the ocean. The breeze there was phenomenal! Although there were a tremendous amount of people there on that Sunday afternoon, it didn't feel like it. It's spacious enough that no one seemed to be on top of anyone else. There were spots to sit and sunbathe, have a picnic, or even throw a Frisbee around.
Although we were just there, I look forward to when we can go back. This time it'll be with a picnic and cocktails. Hopefully our timing will coincide with watching the sun go down.
