Karen, me and daughter Nancy at the Breakers in Newport

Banjo Man once told me he had 40 first cousins.  I found that hard to comprehend.  My side of the family is woefully short of relatives, but a second cousin–on my mother’s side– surfaced in Austin about three years ago and connected with us.  We even ended up having lunch together two years in a row.

Karen–my mother’s grandniece– had never been to Rhode Island and very much wanted to visit, so I picked her up at the airport last Wednesday afternoon and brought her home to our little place in the country. She has always been a city girl, so her first question was, “What kind of wild animals do y’all have here?”

Thursday morning, having survived a quiet night with no wolf attacks, we headed to Newport with daughter Nancy. It wasn’t the most beautiful day–cloudy, cold, rainy–to cross the bridges, but the Vanderbilt’s “The Breakers” awaited.

The ballroom:

We ate lunch at the Brick Alley Pub and shopped the stores lining the cobblestone street behind Memorial Boulevard.  Souvenirs were purchased.  As were cupcakes and coffee.

That evening we were at the Matunuck Oyster Bar with Banjo Man. Followed by family stories and a genealogy lesson. Banjo Man was fascinated with the colorful (to put it mildly), bewildering side of my family, with a cast of characters (bigamists, gamblers, dancers, shrimpers) light years away from his Nebraska roots.

We took her to the train Friday, as she was heading to NYC for a reunion with high school friends from New Orleans.

It’s always fun to play tourist and see this area through the eyes of someone from another part of the country.  Rhode Island has a ton of problems, but if you put those aside and simply enjoy the food and the ocean and the history, well, it’s a good place to visit.

Just ask Karen.