So the first week of school has come and gone. But was it really the first week? Well, Tuesday – I called out sick and Wednesday was our first day with our new classes. Thursday and Friday schools were closed for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. What a great week!

While many NYC teachers may have been spending their four days off, relaxing and preparing themselves for the first REAL full week of school – my friend, Alaa and I decide to go on a road trip. Well, not a car road trip, but a train-bus-ferry road trip for a New England experience. So, I left my husband at home and went for a girl’s weekend away.

Here was our itinerary:

9:07am – Metro North Train (MTA) from Grand Central Station to New Haven, Connecticut. Arriving about 11am, we decide we should go see the Yale Campus, thinking it is probably as pristine and gorgeous as Harvard. Not so. While the campus area is lovely, and the old buildings are immaculate, the surrounding area felt a little ghetto to me. We caught a few good photos, which will follow soon.

2:04pm – Amtrak to Providence, Rhode Island. Providence was not a destination, it was merely a transfer point. From there we took the RIPTA bus to Newport, a little harbor town with much charm. Upon arriving in Newport abou 6pm, we find the town to be already a little sleepy. Unfortuntely the tours to the mansions were already finished for the day, which part of what we were hoping to see. We were a little disappointed, but we had work to do. On this trip, we did not book any hotels. With the passing of Labor Day, we figured finding hotels for decent rates would be a cinch. And… we pretty right! You can also score a good rate if you ask for the “Teacher Discount”… Even though most places did not have teacher rates, they gave us cheaper rates, just to have someone in the rooms. We were satisfied with that. We got a very floral room at America’s Cup Inn. Super nice guy got us a super cheap room, and fed us a great continental breakfast in the morning. Our evening was spent walking  along the wharf and Thames Street. Since this was the first weekend in off season, the locals checked us out, wondering what we were doing there in our summery attire. The wharf was still busy with some tourists and locals, and as we wondered along Thames Street, we enjoyed looking at the little shops and pubs. We ate a great dinner the locals love called Scales and Shells. Great atmosphere, and decent food. Day one was full, and we slumbered well that night.

Stay tuned for Day 2 – Martha’s Vineyard

Day 2:

After a little morning wandering in Newport we take a taxi to New Bedford, MA to catch the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. While waiting in the ferry terminal, I noticed a face I’ve seen before. An 80’s movie star, a Broadway actor… That’s right Matthew Modine. Alaa tried to tell me it wasn’t him, but I knew it was. He was on the same ferry heading to Martha’s Vineyard on this random off-peak Friday.

Anyway, when we arrived on the island, we loved what we saw. Prisitine gingerbread houses, cute main street, and many scooter rentals! This was our goal on the island: to rent a scooter. Our initial impression of the rental guy was not great, but we got over it once we were on the road! We had a fabulous time puttering along on the highway, stopping at Sharky’s in Edgartown – where parts of Jaws was filmed apparently. Didn’t know! We froze our butts off, but the scootering around was definitely worth it.

6:04pm We took the ferry back to the mainland, but this time to Hyannis Cape Cod. Arriving in Hyannis we got a little worried we wouldn’t find a place considering the first place we went to was full. So we walked up the road and found a place advertising the cleanest rooms for low rates. Upon walking in the office, we were greeted warmly by Rob, who gave us a cheap rate to fill a room. Of course we asked for the “Teacher Rate”, half joking, mostly not! You’d be surprised the great deals you can get when you mention you are a teacher!! So Rob let us choose our room – a big, yet somewhat tacky country style room. We were a little overdosed on the flower theme from the night before at America’s Cup Inn at Newport, but we couldn’t turn down the low rate, large room, and super nice guy in the office.

Stay tuned for Day 3: Cape Cod and Boston…