Block Island Journals

Share Pictures & Reviews

Block Island

An August 2005 trip to Block Island by ripplefan2

Quote: A nice, quaint island where you can forget everything else for a while.

My parents had called me and said that they were heading to Block Island and wanted me to tag along. My sister-in-law’s father owned a boat and offered to drive us over there and we would spend the day and head back at night. Of course I was down, so I jumped on the train and met them as soon as possible. We loaded up the boat with supplies for deep water fishing.

The boat that we took was a 30 foot motor boat and had a fishing chair attached to the back and underwater sonar that scanned for schools of fish. Unfortunately, there were no fish out that day; who ever said there were millions of fish in the sea wasn’t around that day.

Anyway, after being in the middle of the ocean for the one-hour trip, where the water was as still as a blanket and reflecting a black color making it look like an lake of oil, we finally arrived at the docks of Block Island. While tying the boat to the dock, we noticed that there were barely any cars on the island. Almost everyone that goes to Block Island seems to rent scooters for easy transportation.

I had recently broken my ankle while skydiving and was a little nervous about riding around on a scooter with my weight displaced on one side. But I got over it the second we hit the open road. At first, you have to take a little road test administered by the scooter rental people and if you pass, you have the whole day to explore this tiny island paradise. These scooters go a max of like 35 miles per hour, but they are such a rush.

One of the first places that we stopped at was a beach on the other side of the island that has a trash sculpture. As you descend the hundreds of stairs you come across groups of people who just came from this sculpture. The walk over to the sculpture is riddled with rocks and ledges (not something that is good for someone with a broken ankle) but totally worth it. The sculpture slightly resembles a house but is made of all of the trash that ends up on the beach from the water or that people bring with them. It's kind of a cool representation of how one man’s trash can become another man’s treasure.

After riding around for an hour or so, we decided it was time get some lunch and then head home. All over this island, there are restaurants with some of the best seafood one can find. The food was so fresh and the prices were pretty cheap, considering you have no other choices. I can’t remember the place that we went to, but the tuna sandwich was amazing.

After riding around a little longer on the scooters, we returned them and walked around the quaint shops that Block Island has to offer. The boat never seemed so beautiful after a day of riding around, eating and shopping and with the promise of a sunset ride back to Long Island, it was warmly welcomed. If you can, rent a charter boat to head over to Rhode Island’s little secret, otherwise there are plenty of ferries coming and going all day. It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there, right? Read Less