Family Updates

Watch Hill

What do you do for a break when you live in a resort / tourist destination town? Well, we decided we should visit the next resort / tourist destination town over on the coast for a day. Actually the next town over is Stonington Villiage, but we go there on average once a week and it’s only 5 miles away so we really consider it part of our home turf. Instead we went across the border to Watch Hill in Rhode Island. All of about 12 miles by road. It would be much shorter by boat or swan though.

Originally our purpose for heading out there was to check out a Gallery recommended to us by a friend. Since we hadn’t been to Watch Hill yet (or even Westerly!) we decided to make a family afternoon of it and visit the beach as well. What a fun day it was too. We got there in the mid afternoon and while busy, being a Monday it wasn’t crowded. There was room on the beach to spread a blanket and create some castles without crowding anyone else.

The beach itself was much better than the local beach we have been visiting. The local beach that is 3 minutes away is a man-made public access beach for the town of Groton. It’s not bad, but it’s not a natural beach, and the cove gets muddy and silted in. Watch Hill is all natural with nice clear water and gently rolling waves (well gently rolling waves when we were there). The water was cold at first, but felt wonderful after braving the first dunk. Johann hesitated a bit about going in once his toes got wet and decided to build more sand castles and dig for treasure with Tammy.

After about an hour Johann decided it was time to take the plunge. He and I played in the gentle surf for quite a while. This is the first time he has been “swimming” where there were any real waves. The local cove is protected from anything but boat wakes. We bobbed in the waves and let them push us onto the beach. By the end of 40 minutes of playing in them he could identify which waves were going to be bigger and break harder on the beach: “Ooh! Here comes a big one! Let’s get ready!”

We couldn’t stop at Watch Hill without Johann wanting to ride the carousel. Right on the beach, the Watch Hill carousel was built in 1883. According to Watch Hill, it is the oldest outdoor carousel in the country. Of course the important part for Johann was that it was fun, which it was–fun enough to stay on for a second ride, which the nice young ladies operating it gave him gratis. We also managed to check out the clothing shops and determined that at least two or three were good leads, along with the Sun Up Gallery we originally went out there to see. All told it was a wonderful afternoon. The beach isn’t public access, it cost our family $13, but it is clean and family safe with lifeguards and ample changing / restroom facilities, which makes it well worth it.

There is a new album in the Gallery Summer 04, be sure to visit…