July 30, 2018 Exploring Bristol, RI

Dave had a dream last night that he was washing a camper.  When a car drove by, the road started rocking from side to side like our boat does when another boat goes by fast.  After a week without going to shore, he can’t even get away from the boat motion in his dreams. 

We went into Bristol to explore today and pick up a few groceries at a convenience store, only thing in walking distance.  There were many OLD buildings dating back to the 1700’s.  The center lines on the roads were painted red, white and blue.  They claim to host the oldest continuous celebration of Independence Day in America starting July 4, 1785.

St Mary's catholic church

We found a little Pizzeria for lunch.  We had calzones and our first “stuffie”, a quahog clam cake served on the shell.  

quahog stuffie cut in half

half eaten

outside of shell

We went to the water front to find the Maritime Welcome Center.  I think we walked by it 3 times before we saw the big sign saying Harbormaster.  It is open to the public, but felt time a marina club house with showers, laundry, tv, book exchange, free wifi, tables and chairs, vending machines and a change machine.  We’ll be back with laundry.  

We decided to stop at DeWolf’s Tavern for a drink.  It was an old stone building and looked pretty cool.  Inside was fancier than we expected, so we sat outside.  If you sat at the bar, you could get oysters for $1 apiece on Mondays.  So we shared a dozen with 6 from Island Park, RI and 6 from Duxbury, MA.  The other people at the bar were amazed that we were from South Dakota.

Next we decided to stop at the Judge Roy Bean Tavern.  It seemed like a bar in Deadwood.  We had their happy hour appetizers, a bowl of mussels and their Coney Island flatbread.  We met 2 couples that were here by power boat from MA.  We shared jokes with them, and I actually stole the show from Dave.  

 

 
Since we were on a roll, we decided to stop at Aiden’s Irish Pub for dinner.  I guess we were celebrating Dave’s birthday a day early.  We finally made it to the convenience store for milk, eggs and bread, where we started out 6 hours ago.   And we made it back to the boat before sunset (we didn’t bring any lights with us).