The Southern Belle's Road to New England

When my Massachusetts sweetheart and I relocated back to his stomping grounds after we lived in Alabama for five years (I am originally from Florida), I was excited but also had no idea what I would be getting myself into. Since being with Shane, I thought I knew all there was to know about New England life before even moving here; I thought it would be a smooth transition and I would fit right in (mostly). Move-in day! Little did I know, I would often feel like a foreign exchange student in need of a pocket dictionary and language guide. I'm sure I often displayed a befuddled expression as I attempted to converse with the locals, as I am sure they also thought my "y'all" and slight drawl (at least as far as Alabamians are concerned!) was otherworldly. Now that we have successfully relocated and have been enjoying New England life for 10 months, I have picked up some local words and phrases. Caution: when attempting to understand the meaning of a word or p...

If you've known Shane and me for any amount of time, you know that we both nurse a pretty gnarly sweet tooth . We will make any excuse for desert or a treat any day of the week- especially when we are out of our normal routine on vacation or with visitors- or, in this case- moving from Alabama to Rhode Island and wanting to do as the locals do! Before we moved to Tiverton , I scoured Yelp for local hot spots and local's favorite restaurants (bonus for those with an expansive gluten free selection!). One common thread on reviews around Tiverton was ice cream. Being that I recently traded my dairy-free lifestyle for a gluten-free one (among 19 other things that my body despises. Long story for another post if you're really interested), I was excited to be in a position to try out all this famous ice cream touted by Tivertonians (I may have just made that up). One thing was evident: people in Tiverton had very strong alliances to either Gray's or Helger's ice c...

Before moving to Rhode Island , I scoured the internet for every list and blog that spelled out what local Rhode Islanders did for fun, ate as staples, and went for coffee (Dunkin, obviously, but there are other great choices too! Coming soon to the blog.) One of the  events I kept seeing pop up on lists about how great Rhode Island is was the Bristol 4th of July Celebration . Now that I live in one of the 13 original colonies, I am surrounded by so much amazing American history! The very first 4th of July parade strolled down the streets of Bristol, Rhode Island in 1785! That's 231 years of patriotic parading... I just knew I had to be there. Shane and I arrived in Bristol an hour or so before the parade was to start. As soon as we pulled off the highway, streets were covered in parked cars and peppered with pedestrians donning their red, white, and blue. After a little walk, we found a great spectating spot near the water and passed the time until the parade was to sta...