'56 Jag

Monday July 20, 2009
This morning we got up ate a quick breakfast of cereal and then waited excitedly for a ride in Uncle Ernie’s beautifully restored 1956 Jaguar roadster. Mama and Aunty Up remember this car very well when, as children, they used to see it outside Kinematics - Uncle Ernie’s business. It sure has come a long way from the rusty body that sat outside. It was a dream come true just to sit in it. Each of us got to take a short ride! Uncle Ernie did an amazing job on the restoration work and it is truly beautiful! It was fun to zoom along with the wind in your hair. What a treat! We then packed the car again. Uncle Ernie checked our tire pressure and filled the window washing fluid for us. We set off to tour the Westerly Armory, where Uncle Ernie has been volunteering. It turned out to be a very interesting local history museum dedicated to service men from Westerly. We got the insiders tour and went from the top of the tower to the very scary furnace room in the basement. The kids enjoyed the collection of memorabilia which included uniforms, biographies of local military heroes, some awesome models of military airplanes, and even a GI Joe. Roberta, our tour guide, provided the kids with juice, soda, and donuts. It was an unexpected and interesting stop. We had Uncle Ernie lead us to a local grocery store and then we said goodbye, headed for Boston. The kids were hungry, however, so we decided to stop at a park to have a late lunch…well that somehow ended up with us back at the beach. Most of the kids had fun – Lydia is never excited about swimming – but it was a very crowed spot. So we arrived at a Holiday Inn Express quite late very grumpy and tired.