Hey Jo, I saw your other post about Block Island. I used to live out there. What an amazing place! I love it.

Wow - I am jealous - I always wanted to ride out a hurricane on the bluffs of Block Island

Hey Jo, I lived out there from May to September in 2000 and worked at the old Harborside Inn (now Harbor Inn) then from May to October in 2001 and worked both there and at the National. I did my internship for college there and loved it so much I went back. I was out there on Sept 11th when the towers got hit.

One of my regrets was not staying full time when I had the opportunity. Being out there for months on end and then coming back to America (the mainland) it was like culture shock. Huge stores everywhere, fast highways, so many people. TV! That's part of the reason I barely watch it now was because of the time I spent out there and just didn't have it.

It was nothing to go a month and a half to two months without riding in a car. It was such a treat to ride in a car and be able to take your clothes to the laundry mat versus carrying them.

I've been back several times since I lived there. I've been to most nooks and crannies on the island.

Some of my favorite things to do on the island is to sit on the front porch bar of the national and drink a beer and eat a bowl their chowder. Which I have the recipe for, by the way! Mohegan cafe is nice and breakfast at the airport too.

I also love sitting on the front porch of the 1661 and eating their brunch and just looking out over the water, that's just a calm serene setting thats just burned into my mind. One thing about the island is that most photos are Kodak moments.

Ballard's beach, mansion beach. Dorries Cove, Gracies Cove. Walking to the point where the waters collide by the North lighthouse. The stone stockings!!!

NH Sailmaker, if you go to the Bluffs and walk down the large staircase that takes you all the way to the beach, take a left and walk out there a distance. There is a building that people have built set back into the Bluffs out of driftwood and broken parts of stuff that have washed up onto the shore. (You may have seen it during race week.) Everybody that goes there kind of adds something to that building, it's really cool. I know that it got damaged pretty hard with the hurricane several years ago, but I'm wouldn't doubt that people have rebuilt it. You should check it out next time you're there. The painted rock is also cool, I was up there two years ago and it is like three times the size of when I was first out there. Because it's painted almost every day.

If you walk out the jetty in front of the National, where the rocks turn the corner, there is a large section of rock that's kind of set lower than all the other rocks around it. We used to call that the hot tub. We would go out there and sit in the middle of the night and get ripped drunk. That was always fun.

Block island for me was one of the turning points in my career path. I lived in an eight bedroom two bathroom house and there were 16 of us living there. And we all paid rent. I remember thinking that holy cow, I have to get on the other side of these rent checks. I was 19 at the time.

The house we lived in was named Langdon and that is actually part of the name of one of my LLCs today. If you walk out the road that is between the Harborside inn and the Mohegan café to where it hits the stop sign. If you look to the right three sisters sandwich shop will be there and if you look to the left you'll see a house right on the hill that's on the right side of the road. That is the house that we lived in.

I wouldn't invest to do Airbnb here, but I would definitely buy a property out there to do it with. Except I d have to sell all my real estate here to be able to afford a down payment for a little shack out there.

Talking about it now is giving me the itch to go back.

Oh NE!! What memories you had!! How you describe everything is so wonderful!! I try to go every summer for a day or so. Some friends would run the yearly "Run Around The Block" road race and I would go for the weekend.

When my niece was in college, some 20 or so years ago, she wanted to work at one of the hotels for the summer and she asked me to accompany her because she didn't know her way around. We left on the early morning ferry from New London and spent the day together going to some of the big hotels.

She landed a job at the Spring House and went back to work there for many more summers, even after college. She met her husband on the Island. Now she is married with 2 kids, it they rent a house every summer on Block because they love it so much.

You're right, I would have to sell everything just to afford a shack there!

We get a 50' Charter yacht to be our housing for the Block Island Race Week and bring the wives and girl friends. The Racing boat is livable but we strip it down for the races and it would be too wet to try. I know some that do liveaboard and race it - YUCK

My favorite memory is a Nuclear Submarine that surfaced a frisbee throw from us during a race. We assumed they were out on sea trials from New London. 1st thought was they didn't believe their sonar when they saw over 300 yachts . In reality after hatches opened the senior crew was out with binoculars to watch the race. The cruised along side all the way from our Fisher Island rounding to our Montauk rounding

The Great Salt Pond gets mighty full as you have seen. WE sailors really do take over the island for our regatta and admittedly do party heavy every night

NH sailmaker, I've done a bit of fishing in the channel leading into the Great Salt pond. Access is down the road by the coast guard station if walking.

I have to admit Block is great - Its for real regular people not snooty - I feel that way about most islands that have a wee bit of commerce to make it fun and desirable.

Edgartown Harbor at Marthas Vineyard is great for Mariners - Nantucket SUCKs big time for Mariners - they dont like lowlife mariners amongst their elite. However, we do take over that town for a Memorial Day Regatta called the FIGAWI regatta. Original's races did not allow electronic navigation from Hyannis to the island. - hence the name

Yes, The Oar is a neat place! NH! Sounds like you have a great time during the regatta. Speaking of lighthouses, that same niece who worked at the Spring House, got married at South East light and had her reception at the Spring House.