Life by the Sea

We recently returned from a 10 day vacation with Joe's mom and dad that lead us onto the coasts of Maine and Rhode Island for the first time.  What a beautiful sight!  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and both agreed that if the Lord even called us to live out that way, we would jump in a heartbeat :)  I will try and post pics as I can, and give some details for each.  These next few pics will be of our explorations on the island of Jamestown, RI, where we stayed for 5 days.

Here is Beavertail Lighthouse, the 3rd oldest light house in America.  It greets ships that come sailing into the Narraganset Bay (it took me a few days to correctly pronounce that one).  There was a museum there (free, yipee!) and a small aquatic nature center.  We learned there that lobsters can live up to 80 years, and weigh up to 45 lbs!!!  Oh my goodness...

 A view of the rocky shores that the lighthouse warns of....

 Andrew wasn't too sure of the interesting sea weed we kept finding

 Family picture!

 One of the most special things about the trip was that Andrew and Joe got to hang out every day together, spending so much time playing, laughing, discovering.  He just adores his papa, and that was probably one of my highlights of the trip.  Just watching those two together.

 Later that day, we headed over to another state park that had 2 light houses at it...here is a pic of the tide coming into the rocky shore and filling the tide pools.

 Andrew became familiar with many sights of the sea, including boats, seagulls, crabs, and the beach in general.  We are checking out lobster boats that are hitting the waves at sea!  We learned that each lobster fisherman has their own color/design painted on each of their buoys.  This same design is then hoisted up on a pole atop their boat, so as to verify that they are checking the right traps.  Each buoy can have up to 10 traps beneath it!  Thats alota lobsta! 

Seeing what critters or cool shells might be hiding in the tidal pools.  The salty air was so refreshing, and brought back many memories.  The first time I experienced tidal pools was in second grade, when mom and dad and I took a trip to Hawaii.  I can remember dad and I going out onto the rocks and fishing around in the pools.  Looks like we are passing that along to the next generation!