For our last day we decided to go to the Norman Bird Sanctuary, a 300 acre wildlife sanctuary on the east side of Aquidneck Island (where Newport is located). We hiked out a ridge line along the Hanging Rock Trail. Once again our definition of "trail" has been extended: part of the way was really rock scrambling--and interesting rocks at that. Glaciers here created Purgatory Conglomerate, also known as "Puddingstone"--rather lumpy pudding, for sure. The Hanging Rock gives spectacular views overlooking the Sakonnet River, and we were surprised to see some windsurfers in the whitecaps below.
 Rock walls abound in New England, but what is this one doing in the middle of the sanctuary? |  Small pond where we saw some mallards and maybe an Eastern Phoebe |
 Trail??? Or rock scramble? |  Ken braves the "trail" |
 We were up there on Hanging Rock |  Lots of elongated rocks in this pudding |
We enjoyed the hike but saw few birds. A group of male mallards with their shiny green heads were feeding in the distance on a pond. Just as Ken said, "Where are all the birds?" a cute little one landed on a bridge post nearby and posed for us for a while. Looking at the bird book, I'm guessing it might have been an Eastern Phoebe.
Than we drove along a scenic drive along Bellevue Avenue where many of the mansions are located and continuing on Ocean Drive, past beaches, yacht clubs, and more mansions and castles.
We went to visit Terri and Blake and Molly one last time. Terri made a wonderful dinner of beef tenderloin (which Blake grilled) with a special herb sauce, cauliflower, and a fantastic butternut squash salad (recipe from the Barefoot Contessa), and for dessert, a delicious French Apple Tart.
We were sorry to say goodbye, since we don't know when we'll see them again, but it was a wonderful visit, and we're so glad we got to spend some time with them.
We'll be leaving tomorrow, headed towards the Cleveland area to visit and hoping to see some nice fall color.
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