Last week I mentioned that on the drive back from Connecticut, I visited Tiverton, Rhode Island for a Craving Boston article. Well, the article is up now!
I hope you’ll go take a look and read about Sakonnet Farm. I’m sure you’ll enjoy learning more.
Friday night, I had the best time seeing Maxwell perform live at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Maxwell has been a favorite artist of mine for decades and I had never seen him before.
It had been a while since I had been to a concert at all. After Prince died, I resolved to attend more live shows. I will never regret seeing Prince in concert on the spur of the moment. There is nothing like a live performance.
I had to save and budget for this little trip. This week money will be very tight, because of course unexpected things always come up at the worst time. But I am so glad that I went.
A friend invited me to attend with a couple of her friends and I did not hesitate agreeing to go. We decided to stay overnight at a nearby hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Preston Casino Area, so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving back to Massachusetts the same night and just enjoy ourselves.
The Hilton Garden Inn is a nice hotel and in great location. On my drive down, I passed Mystic Pizza 2. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go in and try their famous pizza. Ever since I saw the movie, one of my all-time favorites, I’ve always wanted to try it and visit the Mystic area.
Also, since I wrote my Craving Boston article about modern Native American food, I wanted to try the food at the Pequot Museum in Mashantucket, which is just minutes away from the hotel. So I already have a return trip in mind.
Back to Maxwell. Before the show, we had a quick dinner at Fuddruckers, because we were running late. The show was a real treat for all of us. I forgot just how much I love Maxwell’s music. He and his band were incredible. And Maxwell is sexy as hell! Go and see him if you can.
You can tell that Maxwell was truly grateful when he thanked us for supporting him for 20 years. He kept mentioning how old he is at 43 and how much he has learned along the way. He knows and respects his audience and we all felt it.
He spoke about the racial tension in this country after the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the police officers in Dallas. The show was a momentary escape, but all that is going on right now was still not far from our minds. Before he sang Lifetime, Maxwell let us know that all our lives matter and yes, Black Lives Matter too.
By the way, I’m listening to his music as I write. If you have Amazon Prime, it appears that all his albums are available in the music library for free.
After the show, we stayed nearby in the casino area, had drinks, listened to music and danced. None of us are gamblers, but we still had a blast.
The next morning we had brunch at the hotel. It was good, reasonably priced and I’d recommend staying there and eating there too. Then we left.
It was a quick trip and I combined some additional freelance writing work with it as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that I stopped in Tiverton, Rhode Island on the way back home. Tiverton is quintessential quaint New England. Such a beautiful area! 
Milk & Honey is the cutest little store that I found. It has all sorts of local food products. I enjoyed the lemon Yacht Club soda. Delicious! Did you know that their brand is Rhode Island’s Official Soda? It is! I’m also looking forward to trying the Summertime Garden Honey that I bought. It’s from Sakonnet Seaside Bees at Hollygate Farm also in Tiverton. I could not find a website to link to for them unfortunately.
Anyway, while I was there I took many more pictures and did an interview for my next Craving Boston article. Stay tuned!
*Updated 2/15/2020: Unfortunately Power Café has closed.*
In case you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you’ll take a look at my most recent article on Craving Boston, where I interview Galit Schwartz. She opened Power Café, a new bakery in Watertown founded on good food and inclusion of those with developmental disabilities. Two things that are very important to me.
You may recall my fundraising for All Aboard The Arc! and my affiliation with the Brockton Area Arc, whose mission is “to work in partnership with, and for, the community to provide advocacy, information, and direct services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families.”
Speaking with Schwartz and learning how she became involved with the disability community and creating a cafe was so inspiring. I hope you’ll be inspired too!
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Screenshot: Craving Boston
Some of you may remember reading about a surprise announcement coming up. Well, here it is! Recently, I’ve become a contributing writer for Craving Boston! A new food blog! I’m so excited! For those of you not from the local area, WGBH is one of our local PBS and NPR media outlets.
I’ve been a WGBH sustaining member for several years and a fan for even longer. Most of my life actually! As a kid, watching Sesame Street on WGBH may have been one of my first ever long-term television watching experiences. So I’ve come full circle.
Craving Boston is a food blog exploring the deep connection between the New England region and its cuisine.
My first article for the food blog, Prison Gardens Grow Food and Skill Sets, came about because I learned about the large vegetable harvest from the garden at Bridgewater State Hospital.
Also, I have been thinking about the issue of incarceration. It’s been in the news a great deal lately. From President Obama being the first president to visit a prison to Pope Francis visiting inmates as well. A Washington Post article quotes the Pope’s words.
This time in your life can only have one purpose: to give you a hand in getting back on the right road, to give you a hand to help you rejoin society. All of us are part of that effort, all of us are invited to encourage, help and enable your rehabilitation.
The New Garden Society provides “therapeutic and vocational horticulture training” to the students as part of the facility’s Horticulture program. The Horticulture Society of New York talks about the benefits of gardening.
Horticultural therapy is an ancient practice that uses plants and gardens as tools in human healing and rehabilitation. Its benefits include stress reduction, mood improvement, alleviation of depression, social growth, physical and mental rehabilitation, wellness, and vocational training.
Since today is Halloween, I am especially reminded of a statement by one of the students. He said that he hadn’t seen a pumpkin in 20 years. I cannot even imagine that.
Seeing pumpkins is a signal for the change in seasons and something that we take for granted this time of year. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most important.
I hope you’ll click over and take a look at the full article. Happy Halloween!
*Updated 12/12/2020* I should have updated this post years ago. Craving Boston no longer exists, but most of the articles that I wrote have moved over to WGBH website. Unfortunately, this original article wasn’t moved over, but I found it archived on The Wayback Machine.
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Screenshot: WGBH
