Bristol

There’s something to be said for staying longer than planned in any given place. This is truly the case with Bristol, Rhode Island. We arrived in Bristol at on Sept 11th and departed on Sept 24th.

Initially we thought we’d be a few days, long enough to arrange to have our life raft recertified. However, upon arrival, we discovered the Newport boat show was just getting underway, making it impossible to have the life raft picked up until a few days after the show was over. We had a decision to make, stay and wait, or leave and come back. We decided to stay and wait and explore Bristol.

We started by walking the town after locating the downtown dinghy dock, discovering it has an abundance of churches and schools. The church bells ring in sync on the hour (one following the other). No need for a watch in this town, just listen and you’ll know what time it is.

The following day we took the bikes ashore and cycled partially through Colt Park then made our way to the Seabra Supermarket for fresh vegies. I must say this market has the freshest vegies I’ve seen in awhile, the cilantro and parsley appeared to be fresh picked that very day.

The weather was favorable for both cycling and walking. There is a bike path that runs from Bristol to Providence (about 14 miles long). We cycled half of it one day, discovering a larger grocery store about 6 miles along so we stopped on our way back to buy things like tofu. With our back packs and baskets full we returned to the boat exhausted.

The only problem with cycling, is Charlie doesn’t get his exercise while riding in the basket and wants to play when we get back to the boat when we just want to rest. So we’ve learned to look for places to stop and throw the ball for him or to take a block or so and have him run alongside the bike (not as safe for either the rider or the dog). We opt for the field to throw the ball when possible.

Here’s what I like about Bristol
1. The church bells (and on Sundays they play tunes)
2. The cycling trails (basically flat and you can go far)
3. The quiet and safe harbour
4. The two dinghy docks (in low season lots of room, but I imagine fully loaded in mid summer)
5. Angela’s coffee shop, with nice red tables outside and they offer soy lattes
6. No street lights in the downtown core and traffic stops for pedestrians
7. No one is hustling and bustling, just a nice peaceful pace
8. Shop owners are super friendly and most have water bowls and treats for dogs
9. Hair Heart and Soul Beauty Salon click here to see their site, where Mandy fit me in for a haircut and did a fabulous job
10. Beautiful old homes well restored, many with dates of when they were built and the name of the original builder (one dated back to 1680)
11. More people out walking, cycling, sailing or fishing all the time. The local people here are fit, we rarely saw anyone overweight.

We do plan to return to Bristol one day to experience the big 4th of July events which we hear are not to be missed. Until then we have wonderful memories of this twelve day stop over. (pics to follow)