Caleb's Vacation, 2007

Here are some pictures from my vacation in Warren, Rhode Island, where my mother lives.  What my customers don't know is that I am moving to Warren!  I have not enjoyed living in New York City for years now, and I saw my vacation to my mother's town as an opportunity to get out.  Consequently, I spent the entire time I was there looking for an apartment.

And I found one!  Below is the building I'll be living in, on Water Street.  Purebeads will continue to be a home-based business, so this is also where the business will be.  On the first floor is a store called "Summerwood" which sells gifts and large decorative items.  My apartment is on the second floor on the right.  The three windows on the right are mine, as are the six windows along the side.  My landlord, the proprietor of Summerwood, is a great guy.  He and his family live on the left side of the second floor.

Here is a side view of the building.  Each of the double windows represents a separate room.  The front room, which is at the corner, is moderately large, but the two back rooms are small.  The large room will be my office (the location of Purebeads), and one of the smaller rooms will be my bedroom.  Inside, where you can't see it, is a large centrally located kitchen with a bathroom in the back.  The door all the way to the right is my entrance.  (Purebeads will remain an internet-only business, so I won't be having customers up to the apartment.)

Here is a shot of Water Street looking south, with my new home on the right.

Unfortunately, not everything is perfect where I live.  The building I'll be living in is separated from the water by this huge, ugly warehouse.  If not for this warehouse, I might have a view of the Warren River.  However, I recently found out that the warehouse will probably be torn down to make way for a small apartment building complex.  There will be three widely spaced buildings, and there will be views to the river in between them.  The apartment buildings, however, do not seem to be in keeping with the Colonial character of Warren, and I have mixed feelings about them.  Nonetheless, they'll be better than the warehouse.

Here is another shot of Water Street; I'm not sure if this is looking north or south.  These streets are in downtown Warren, a town which dates back almost 400 years.  As was often the case in old towns, the houses were built very close together, so there are few yards in the old section, where I'll be living.  In the newer sections, the houses generally have yards.

Here is another shot of Water Street.

And here's a side street:

Here is a side street which ends at the river.  If not for that warehouse, I might have a view like this.  Incidentally, the Warren River turns into Narragansett Bay a little further south.

Here is a house which sits right on the river.  Can you imagine living this close to the water?  One wonders if the first floor ever gets flooded!  Or if the house will be under water after all the glaciers melt!  Notice the small windows, which are common to very old buildings, and the descending windows along a staircase.  (It appears, however, that the windows are new replacement windows.)

Here is a shot of some docks right next to that house.

Here is a shot of a really ugly little building on Water Street.  I wanted to show you that not all of the buildings are cute and quaint.

Here is firehouse no. 2.  The Coke machine kind of ruins it.

Here is a building on Water Street which has a really adorable apartment which I almost took.  The apartment is on the third floor and has windows on three sides.  The layout is nicer than the apartment I took, and it has a really lovely view of the water.  But the landlord needed time to check my references, and I didn't have time for that.  I was returning to New York in two days, and I didn't want to leave Warren without a lease.

Here is yet another building with an apartment I looked at.  The apartment is on the third floor and was too small for my purposes.  However, the building is old and quaint, and the apartment was adorable.  The building is in disrepair right now, but it is being restored by the Warren Preservation Society.

Here is Warren's post office.  If you've read other areas of this site, you know that the post office in Jackson Heights, NY, where I now live, has 40-minute lines.  I spoke to some clerks at this post office, and they told me that the lines are never longer than 10 minutes.  What a joy that will be!

Just as I have in New York, I expect to have a routine in Warren.  I will get up a little late, work on the orders until about 4:00 p.m., and then take them to the post office.  I will then stop off at a restaurant and have a meal.  I found this fabulous restaurant on Main Street called the Warren House of Pizza (on the corner).  They serve pizza, sandwiches, soups and other items.  The servings are generous, the prices are reasonable, and the atmosphere is good.  After eating there I'll probably visit my mother, and then go home and work into the evening.

Here is Warren's Town Hall, which is on Main Street not far from my mother's house.

This incredible building is Warren's library, which is right next to Town Hall.  I asked them if it had originally been someone's home, and they said the building was built to be the library.  It looks like it should be in Disneyland!  I used the computer here at the library to look at apartment listings on Craig's List.

Here is a monument that I passed at one point:

Here is a monument to Warren's war dead:

Here is my mother's house.  You'll notice that it's right on a corner.  However, the streets don't get much traffic.

Here's another view.  My mother has two home health aids, and there is a second-floor apartment which is rented to my niece.

And here's a view of the back, which is on the side street.  The first window on the left used to be the front door, so this used to be the front of the house (or at least, my mother believes so).  The house is an interesting mixture of Colonial and Victorian; it has been expanded on several occasions.  There is a chance that George Washington slept here once, though it is more likely that he slept in a tavern on Main Street.

Here is a view of the house from the long back yard.

Here's a view of the front porch, where my mother sits when she is feeling up to it.  There are no pictures of my mother on this page because she didn't want to be photographed at the age of 87.  Too bad!

Now for a change of scenery.  This is a house I saw in Bristol, a town south of Warren.  I photographed the house because I thought it was attractive, but also because of its wonderful location.  Behind and to the side of it is a Coast Guard installation, and a block away is Naragansett Bay.  This house is so close to the water that the wind must whip it constantly.  What a lovely place to live!

Here is a view of the coast from the Coast Guard installation.  Look at the size of those homes!

Here is another view of the bay.

There is one bad thing about living in Warren:  the population is 97% white.  I prefer to live in a city which has a mix of races and cultures.