fabulous 4th: part two

once we arrived in downtown newport, we took our time browsing through all of the darling shops on thames st. and on the various wharfs.  it started to rain, so we popped into a shop called island pursuits to wait it out.  and lo and behold, i found my own holy grail: the gold glitter toms! i have been searching for these babies for the past 3 months.  they're sold out everywhere online, i got zero response from the company when i asked about restocking, and found out from a fellow blogger that they're considered limited edition and won't be coming back.  i had completely given up.  these shoes alone were worth the trip! the beau bought them for me when he saw how excited i was {literally did a dance in the middle of the store. shoes do that to me.}. what a keeper...the beau, i mean.  the shoes, obvi.

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we had gelato at cold fusion {lemon custard for me, salted caramel chunk for him} and i picked up a christmas ornament {our travel tradition} and then we hopped on our sunset sail around the harbor.  it ended up being not much of a sunset because it was so overcast and foggy, but the drinks were cheap and flowing and we got to see hammersmith farm {site of jackie kennedy's childhood and of jack + jackie's wedding reception}.  the ship's crew were all super friendly and knowledgeable and it was so much fun to check out all of the ginourmous yachts in the harbor.  the beau enjoyed all of the trivia he learned.

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we had a nice, quiet dinner at benjamin's.  we had great seats for people watching busy thames st. below.  we had clam chowder {shocking}, lobster bisque, a lobster roll, and lobster stuffed flounder. are you sensing a pattern here? the food was good.  not anything haute cuisine, but we were starving and it hit the spot.  like total old folks, we were back at the hotel asleep by 10:30.  we had breakfast at the blue plate diner on the way out of town and after several hours in both dulles and the providence airport, i finally made it back to my parents' in time for fireworks and homemade strawberry ice cream.

all in all, i LOVED rhode island.  the beau and i are already making plans to return to newport at a less-crowded time of year and for longer so we can visit the mansions and have brunch at castle hill.  can't wait!