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It started raining last night. Given how dry it was here, that is really useful.
It also washes the pollen out of the air, so we could sleep with the window open instead of with the air filter.
The sound of the brook through our courtyard helped fill in the noise I usually hear when sleeping.

Since the knocked down the house and stripped the trees of the lot up hill from us, the stream has been running less clear.

I hope it is just mud from where all the trees used to be. But, I wish the had left the trees and made it a park instead of a bank.

Anyhow, we set off for the Misquamicut State Beach in Rhodes Island that my wife used to go to when she was young.
It was a perfect day for the beach.

Sadly going through Connecticut, the traffic just stopped.

We sat with the car in park for half an hour.

Some folks got tired of waiting and drove backwards or forwards down the exit ramp the wrong way.

Yes, that is a school bus backing the wrong way down an exit ramp while an SUV drives forward the wrong way down an exit ramp.

Sitting in place for a long time with the lights going, wipers going, defroster going and such gave my little Prius the worst battery level I’ve seen and the worst milage rating I’ve seen. Less than 1 mile per gallon.

Finally we started moving forward again. We’re still not 100% sure what happened, but what we saw was what looked like an unmarked police car that had gone off the road and hit a tree very fast.

And, as soon as we were past it, better driving.

Our route took us past on of the big casinos. This is the closest I’ve ever been.

Finally we got to Westerly Rhode Island and its airport.

And, the beach on the other side!

Going south from here, you don’t hit land again until Middle Caicos about 1300 miles away. So, there is a fair bit of water out there.

Just for

palusbuteo’s sake, here’s a picture of a mermaid.

(It’s the one on the right...)

The beach was pretty empty.

It was only about 60F/16C.

It wasn’t raining there, and there was one patch of blue sky.

There were even some people surfing.

(Good thing they had wetsuits, the water was cold.)

Near the beach is one of the hardest miniature golf courses I’ve ever seen.
The first hole isn’t bad.

But, by the time you get to hole 4, I have no idea how you’d finish.

We went walking on the beach with the few others out there.

I did not try to go in the water, but walking along the edge the waves decided I should try it.

As the surf was fairly high, there were a lot of things washed up.

The one marine biology class I took in 1977 did not really equip me for the things I found. So, I made up my interpretation of them. For those of you on my friends list who are or have been marine biologists (at least 2 of you) please do not take offense at my interpretation.

This is clearly the skeleton of a squid. Most of the tentacles have broken off.

Clearly a large shark tooth.

A blue footed booby must have shed one of its feet here when migrating.

The orange color shows that this must have come from the tail of a tiger shark.

Clams are known to breath through tubes under the sand.

This jellyfish is very scientific and even labeled itself!

Of course while I was taking pictures of trash on the beach and trying to come up with imaginary ways it could be things that weren’t trash, my wife was finding real sea based things.

We found several moths washed up on the beach.

Not sure what’s up with that.

A couple walking along the beach stopped and asked me if I knew what the orange ball was for.

I did not.

There was a whole lot of wood washed up as well.

Lots of it was burnt. Don’t know why.

Don’t know why there would have been pine cones at sea.

And, why would celery be at sea?

There is a carousel there my wife used to ride 40 years ago and wanted to try again. It was at the other end of the beach, so I walked back and got the car and drove to the other end to meet her.

Beach plums in bloom. Smells like the beach to me.

I had the car, so I got there first.

The carousel was still there.

There was a horse for sale.

The price was a bit high or we may have been trying to fit it in a PriusC...

The fun house mirrors did me no favors.

The carousel wasn’t going to run until 2 so I played some pinball.

We ate lunch at a place that had just moved there for the summer the day before.

They also had wooden swords on the walls.

But, the food was very good.

It is nice to eat seafood in a place where you can see the ocean.

I stopped back at the car to get a new camera battery. You can see we travel with everything needed. Printed google instructions, and iPad, extra shoes and socks and perogi.