summer vacation | rhode island

is there anything better than summer vacation? whether you're a teacher or student with a few months off or a worker bee with an extra long weekend, having a trip to look forward to is just the best! i love to travel and i love the beach...and i love spending extra time with family...so for us, this year, summer vacation meant a road trip to my hometown in rhode island. we make the trek up the dreaded 95 corridor about once a month, but this time we were there for more than 30 hours and brought some of mz's family along too!

unfortunately, the break of the extreme heatwave meant we were greeted with a little rain when we arrived. luckily we had enough time to build some rock towers before we got drenched!

dentists are great at fine motor skills...balancing rocks aren't necessarily in their wheelhouse though ;-). moments after the picture on the right, the boulder supporting that small stack of rocks gave way and we almost went home with one less foot!!

not sure if Ab was laughing at us, thinking about keith urban, or just genuinely having a good time being by the sea!

one of my favorite things about vacationing in a place you know well, especially with folks that aren't local, is that you get to explore places you normally take for granted. the beavertail lighthouse on jamestown is directly across from my grandparents' house and i've looked out at it a million times in my life...but i think i've only visited once or twice.  so we took the group on a little excursion, with hopes of picnicking and kite flying, and we managed to have some fun even though the rain and wind caught up with us!

note to visitors - both of these signs are fairly misleading.  the ranger seemed to be as much of a naturalist as anyone and the 'aquarium' could be rivaled by any seafood counter! the lighthouse museum is quite nice though and you can climb the tower on certain days (saturdays, i think?). you really can't beat the views or the quiet that overcomes you as you walk around the state park grounds.

way back when, people used to swim off of the beavertail point.  everyone in our crew thought that was kinda crazy since you're surrounding by unwelcoming rocks and are fairly unprotected from the open ocean. i, on the other hand, thought this looked like the perfect place to jump in! too bad i was wearing my rain gear instead of a bathing suit. maybe next time.

most of the group...nice photo work sis!

little miss chowder pot wasn't interested in taking in the views but i couldn't leave her out of the pictures, she's just too darn adorable!

we ended our day on jamestown with a lunch at Slice of Heaven. ahhh, nostalgia. i worked here when they first opened in 2001, which was also the first summer that mz and i were dating, eek so old. glad to see they're still around and that somethings just get better with time!

more of our summer vacation pictures to come! what's your favorite spot to bring RI visitors??

blueberry picking | hammonton, nj

there are some things that just make you feel like a little kid and help bring you back to that happy place.  that place where life was carefree and you didn't even know what it was to worry.  where summers meant a real vacation filled with sun, sand and sticky hands from ice cream cones or freshly picked fruit.

picking blueberries in the hot sun with my mom, with painted coffee cans around our necks, helped me find a moment of contentment and i may have actually smiled once or twice...a lot to ask after a tough week. it was perfect to be out in the lovely little field that the Lindsay's had in their backyard in hammonton, nj (blueberry capital of the world, in case ya didn't know).  farmer greg gave us the rules and history of his blueberry patch and sent us on our way to eat and pick to our hearts' content.  

we shared the space with many enormous spiders (can you spot him below?) but other than that, it was a very quiet place where the sound of the mosquitos or the shaking of the trees was all that filled the air.

i've nearly eaten through half of the 4 pounds i brought home and am hoping to get back again before the crops pass for the season.  there is really nothing like spending much needed quality time with family or enjoying fresh tastes of the season and there's nothing like having a few minutes in our busy lives to feel like a kid again.

can't decide which image i like better...so here's another view :)

xo pretty lady!

Lara Casey has this wonderful section on her beautiful website called 'what do you need today'....and this just happened to fit the bill.

That is all.