block island

We stayed in New London, CT on Friday night & had plans to catch the 8am ferry to Block Island. We went to dinner at a great mexican place right near the water w/good food & live mariachi band & "73 kinds of tequila!"...I avoided the tequila since we had an early morning...We got up at 7 to get in line for the ferry but once we got there we discovered it was canceled & they couldn't tell us if the next one would be running either. We took the chance and drove to Point Judith, RI and caught the 9:30 - good thing as it was the last ferry to attempt the crossing until Sunday. The trip over was flat out scary with the ferry pitching & tossing in "8 to 10 foot swells" - apparently, a sailor's life is not for me. I didn't get seasick though I think we all came close. Some guy sitting next to me kept saying "it's better if you're out in the air" - this as waves & spray were slapping the windows. I opted to stay inside and hold onto a bench until we were safely in the harbor. eek! Once on the island, we dumped our bags, wobbled around in the rain for a while and then headed out on a long hike to the South Point Lighthouse and the Mohegan Bluffs. I discovered that I actually enjoy hiking/trudging through the wind and rain. We also climbed the steep stairway down to the sea at the Mohegan Bluffs - definitely worth the effort. We managed to get back to town well before dark and did some small exploring around town (all 3 streets of it!). The island has a few galleries, two bookstores and some of great little restaurants along with a few tourist shops (t-shirts, etc.). Since the crossing was so rough, ours was the only ferry that made the trip on Saturday which not only left us feeling like hardened seaworthy travelers (ha!) but also meant that there were less tourists. We had grand plans Saturday night to hit 2 of the local restaurants - one for dinner, one for drinks but ended up going to lunch/dinner around 6 at the local brew pub (great locally brewed beer) and fell asleep watching TV - reading was out of the question. I slept pretty soundly despite the wind howling around the old hotel & the walls shaking a bit when particularly strong blasts hit (eek!).
We woke up wayyy too early on Sunday morning and got moving to do the much longer hike to the North Point Lighthouse. That was a mix of easy and tough trails - some just alongside the road (with no shoulders!). We took a cut off through the Nature Conservancy's "nature trails" that make up a large portion of the northern part of the island. Some of the hike was trudging through wind and rain and muddy trails but a lot of it was along the top of the massive bluffs that lead down to the sea. We only saw four other hikers during the entire hike - I'd assume due to the weather. Once we got to the lighthouse, we discovered it was "closed due to staffing shortage" but we had a nice time anyway playing in the freezing waves and relaxing after the long hike. On the way back, we followed the road which wasn't as nice as the nature trail but cut about 3-4 miles off the hike. By the time we got back to the hotel, the storm had cleared & we finally got some nice summer weather & played in the ocean for a few hours. That night, we headed up to the Hotel Manisses and had a really nice dinner at their Gatsby Room - the cheaper version of their formal dining room. It's a beautiful hotel - one of the old ones that was saved/restored. Monday morning it was clear and blue and 70 degrees with a nice breeze. Of course, this meant that ferries full of tourists started arriving & by the time we finished our morning hike, the town was full of people. We took an easy walk up to a beach that required a hard scramble to get to & had been nothing but massive waves breaking on rocks on Saturday. We had a great time just playing in the waves & then hiked a bit more & finally realized that we were both way too tired to attempt the final hike we'd planned. Instead, we walked around town, stopped at the better of the island's 2 bookstores. In an attempt to get away from the crowds, we grabbed some takeout from a great health food restaurant (Froozies) & walked out to the end of the jetty where we proceeded to get sunburns (ouch!). We took the 5pm ferry back to the mainland and once I realized that it wasn't going to pitch & toss anything like it had on the way to the island, I walked around taking pictures. The drive back was surprisingly painless - very light traffic all the way back.