Mystic Day 6, Rhode Island Beaches

Josh had to work all day today so Tammy and I decided to explore the beaches of Rhode Island. We didn't have a set destination, but Josh had recommended Newport as a potential goal. He said he really enjoyed that town. We decided to head up US1 and see where it lead. The drive was beautiful. There are lots of farms and woods, curves, hills, mansions, and old houses. We stopped at Matunuck State Beach. The great thing about visiting beaches in New England in the winter is there is no admission charge or parking. There also very few people at what looks built for lots of people in the summer. The water is very cold though. We put our hands in it so we could say we went to the Atlantic ocean in New England, but then had very cold hands. The beaches are a mix of rock and sand and look like they would be good to swim in, in the summer. Each beach community has little restaurants and coffee shops and other stores that look fun to shop in. We headed north and stopped at Narragansett. We ate at a delicious coffee shop. I had toast on homemade bread with pumpkin, I think and avocado. It was really good and the coffee was delicious. We headed to Newport, paid the unexpected toll to go across the bridge and drove around the peninsula. The town was really cute. We liked looking at the houses, but spent most of our time at Brenton Point State Park. We could have spent longer there. We also visited Fort Adams State Park. It has really nice views of Newport, but the fort was closed for the winter. GPS misdirected us and tried to send us north through Portsmouth and Providence then back to Mystic. It thought it was faster to take the interstate. We caught it before we got too far off course, thanks to my sister's memory of which direction she came from. We reprogramed the GPS and had a nice country drive back to Mystic.