Okay then! Nor’easters result from converging air masses. But what happens if you mashup two weekly theme/challenge things into one post? Does your blog explode? At the very least, it might help us organize our photos of Block Island, RI (we took a gazillion pics last week, the place is that gorgeous).

So we’re going to take our chances here and mix Ailsa’s Weekly Travel Theme: Above with the current WP Photo Challenge: Converge for (fingers crossed!) a perfect storm of images from our newest future fantasy-kayaking destination. Wear a hat.

From above, Block Island looks like 7-mile-long, 3-mile-wide pork chop. Speaking of chop… Ocean currents from New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts converge here. Below: Alex at the northern tip, high tide—his Navionics app reveals a half-mile spine of land that’s visible at low tide and makes for some bouncy paddling much of the time (note to selves!).

To the south, the 150-foot cliffs of Mohegan Bluffs. A few centuries ago, the local Manisses defeated a hostile tribe of Mohegan Indians with the help of (gulp) gravity. We took the stairs.

From up here, we could see all the way to Montauk, at the tip of Long Island, NY.

We spent all of Thanksgiving Day walking along deserted roads. Only 900 people live here year-round, compared to summer, when 12,000 tourists converge here daily! Nearly 400 miles of stonewalls keep things orderly.

Freshwater “kettle ponds” are everywhere, one for each day of the year.

Geeky fact: There are no squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, opossums or raccoons on Block Island. But behind the Hotel Manisses, we met this guy…wearing his winter coat.

“New Shoreham” pretty much means Block Island—it’s the smallest town in the smallest state. How many towns in the U.S. have a Main Street that overlooks the ocean, anyway? We bet none have a Xmas tree quite like this one, made of lobster traps and buoys and generations of local pride. 🙂