Last Day at Block Island

We were kicked out of our rental at 9:30 this morning.  Our ferry ride was at 5:00 (we needed to get to the ferry dock at 4:00).  That meant we had over six hours to do more sight-seeing on Block Island before returning to the mainland.

For the third time on this trip, we tried to visit the beach at Mohegan Bluffs.

 After going down allllll those stairs and scampering down the rocks, we made it to the beach.

 I had checked the tide schedule for today, and I knew that we would have plenty of time to walk along the beach before high tide.

 I think this picture is worthy of a tourism brochure . . .

 After spending close to an hour on the beach, it was time to scale the rocks, climb the 150 stairs and mosey on through the brush, making our way back to the parking lot.  Whereas Mansion Beach was our favorite playing beach, Mohegan Bluffs was our favorite adventure beach.

 Not far from Mohegan Bluffs is the Southeast Lighthouse.  This rock shows where the lighthouse originally stood - with the Mohegan Bluffs on the left.

 The picture below was taken at the rock, and you can see how far the lighthouse was moved (in 1993), to keep it safe from the eroding shoreline.

 For a small fee, the four of us went on a short, 25-minute tour up inside the lighthouse tower.  The girls noticed how short this lighthouse was compared to other lighthouses they have been in.  Evelyn figured out why it didn't need to be very tall - it is perched high above the ocean on a bluff.  Even though the tower is only 52 feet high, the focal plane of this lighthouse is 261 feet above sea level.

 After eating lunch in New Harbor, we visited Abrams Animal Farm.  This little farm/zoo has an eclectic mix of all sorts of animals - tortoises, kangaroos, llamas, emus, ducks, rabbits and even a one-eyed zonkey (aka, a cross between a zebra and a donkey).  Since we had time to spare, we spent about an hour and a half wandering through all of the animal exhibits.  Evelyn found a creative way to feed the donkey - pour the alfalfa pellets into its open mouth.

 After checking in with the ferry, we girls ran over to the Dell's Frozen Lemonade stand to get a treat.  And what a treat it was!  While on Block Island, we had seen signs for Dell's everywhere.  But we didn't get a frozen lemonade until today.  Had we tried one sooner, that might have been all we ate!

 Our mainland-bound ferry departed promptly at 5:00.  Evelyn watched the shoreline get smaller and smaller, chatting about all the fun things she did in the past week.  Julia, on the other hand, gave Block Island a quick wave and then cuddled with Troy because she was sad to be leaving the beach.