Rhode Island and Boston, MA Trips

We had a wonderful time in Newport, RI visiting Daddy while he was in SWOS.(Surface Warfare Officer School). Aidan and I had to get up before the sun to catch our plane to Providence. Even with a 3 hour layover in Newark, NJ, we finally made it to RI early in the afternoon. KC met us at the airport and we took the scenic drive to Newport. The base is beautiful with lots of views of the bay and its many sailing boats and yachts. I think geese outnumber the servicemen and women stationed here! Everywhere we went there were geese! The hotel on base where we stayed was nice but the bed was very hard. (It must be a military thing!) Most days, KC was able to eat lunch with us and finish just before dinner time!

We did alot of exploring by car. Thanks to the GPS, we found many backroads that were very beautiful and not too congested. Aidan and I even found a nice park to play in out of the main thouroghfare.

The one weekend while we were there we headed up to Boston and Quincy. We first stopped at the USS Constitution and took a trolley tour from there. We toured Boston getting off the trolley only to eat lunch at The No Name Restaurant, to check out Fenway Paaaark, and to go to the Boston Children's Museum. I highly reccommend the Children's Museum. The No Name Restaurant, not so much. It was not very "child friendly" and the seafood was so-so for the money we paid. KC went begrudgingly to Fenway, him being a Rays fan thru and thru. I loved it!It was too hot to stop and wander the Commons but we WILL do that next time!

As for the Children's Museum, we got in there for free thanks to their wonderful military discount! Aidan had so much fun playing there! They had exhibits on using "kid power", construction play area, and fun with fluid flow and gravity! (luckily not at the same time!)We finished up there and then it was off to find our hotel in Cambridge.

We stayed at the Hyatt! It was wonderful! I don't know if the bed was really comfy because I was so exhausted or if it was because the bed in Newport was so hard by contrast! We all got a good night's sleep and then woke up and did a little driving tour thru Harvard and Cambridge.

By then, it was time to head to Quincy to see the John Adams Nat'l Park. I watched the HBO series, "John Adams" on tv and fell in love with their story. I sent KC the book to read while he was deployed. He is really into history so he really enjoyed the book. Since we were so close, we had to stop in and see the houses where the Adams' lived their lives. Aidan was really, really bored, but he behaved like such a big boy on the tour, not touching anything! For those of you that don't have kids, that is a BIG feat! We were so proud of him! So back to Newport we went to rest and KC back to class for a few more days until it was time to head home to Jax.

There was alot to do in Newport if you didn't have a young one. The activities for families were very limited, unfortunately. We did find things to do. We went to a cheesy exhibit on the beach by Save The Bay. The best (and only) thing there was a huge touch tank. We walked on the beach nearby for a little bit. A few afternoons, we went bowling on base! That was fun! It was Aidan's first time! Check out the video at the end of this post! We also did lots of skipping rocks! There are lots of old mansions there to tour but we didn't want to press our luck with Aidan since he had already been tested by JA Nat't Park! We hit the Zoo in Providence. That was a blast. Aidan walked the whole zoo twice around! We were both wore out and ready to head home.

Unfortunately, the flight home was cancelled. NOTE: U should always check online BEFORE you wake up a 3 yr old to head to the airport! Lesson learned. What a mess. Our flight was scheduled to leave Providence at 630AM. We ended up on the same flight but on the next day. Thank God we still had the car and the hotel. So, we drove back to the base and took a nap and woke up and did it all over again the next day! We finally made it home and now KC is back to work and heading back out to sea for a little bit! In a few short months, it will be move time and our big trip to the UK is coming up, too! It never stops!