Block Island signals the beginning of our annual summer vacation, which is probably why it really hasn’t hit me yet what we’ve decided to do for the next year.

We always anchor in the Great Salt Pond.  It was a complete shock to arrive this year so early in the season and have our pick of places to anchor – mid season there might be hundreds of boats but this time of year there were only a half dozen or so on their hooks.

A visit ashore always starts at The Oar, a bar and restaurant right at the edge of the dinghy docks.  There are actual oars hanging from the ceiling and walls and we always stop to pay homage to two of ours hanging there.  Some of the best sunsets are witnessed over mudslides at the bar here.

I always need one day in town to shop and wander.  By ‘town’ I mean one main street with nearly all the shops, hotels, restaurants and bars that the island has to offer:

  • Ballards: good live music every afternoon and fantastic people watching of those on the beach getting drunk and making questionable swim wear decisions.
  • Spring House Hotel: lunch at the veranda café is one of the best views on the entire island.  They weren’t yet open for the season but we wandered through the picturesque hotel anyway.
  • Abrams Animal Farm and North Light Fibers: I have no idea how a yak, llamas, camels, and land tortoises make it over to the island, but the farm where they landed is fun to visit.  On the same property you can walk through an alpaca pen to the yarn shop which has all sorts of tempting yarns, needle felting supplies, and finished products.
  • Wild Flowers Boutique: all the shops are quaint, but this one has fabulous bargains.  I can usually find tops in here that cost $35 as opposed to $135 two shops down.

There’s lots more here I haven’t covered – Mohegan Bluffs, North Light House, Captain Nicks, Three Kittens, Elis – that we simply didn’t have time to visit this year.