In the spring of 2016, my niece and I stayed overnight on Rose Island, on the first or museum level of the main house.

We climbed up to the top of the light and took beaucoup video of the views of the boats in the water and the Newport Pell Bridge, scoped out the old army barracks (which, gulp, we later found out was a focus of an episode of the A&E tv show Ghost Hunters) and also entirely separate Fog Horn Building (an all brick room that looks like something out of a Ralph Lauren ad with water views on three sides…srsly you could do a photoshoot just in THAT area), and settled in for a quiet night.

Back then, I was over posting about here and over on Instagram. (Oopsy…but I do think many people were intrigued.)

And if (like me) you follow local celeb happenings around the Ocean State, you know that it’s where in October 2019 Jennifer Lawrence and Cooke Maroney hosted their pre-wedding rehearsal dinner and party. (According to reporting from a variety of media outlets I’ve seen, attendees included Kris Jenner, Adele, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie, Derek Blasberg, Ashley Olsen, and the brothers Madden.)

Well, star-studded hollywood footnote or not, I’ve been wanting to get back to the island again for years and last weekend we finally made it by way of the Jamestown Hop On Hop Off Ferry, or water taxi as I like to call it.

Tickets for the ferry — which generally runs approximately every hour up until 3 or 4pm-ish this time of year — are available online and for an additional fee (a round trip adult tix is $26 and the Rose Island landing charge is an extra $12), you can disembark and explore for an hour or more, depending of course on the return schedule of the boats for the remainder of the day.

You could also pack a lunch. Be sure, however, to bring any remnants or trash back with you. In addition, you’ll be thrilled to know that there are public bathrooms that are fastidiously maintained and that run on repurposed ocean water.

It’s the perfect way to see everything (we were too chicken to climb the ladder up to the actual light but it is definitely an at-your-ownp-risk option for visitors) without committing to an overnight or weekend holiday.

As far as summertime vacays go, my great friend Christina was inspired to book a staycation with her kids in the summer of 2016 after seeing my posts and they had a blast. Pre-everything-that-went-on-last-year, they used to book up way in advance and were difficult to come by. As I understand, some families were known to reserve the same week or weekend every single summer.

If you’re a live music fan, then the benefit concert (proceeds go towards maintaining the property) they have coming up on Sunday, August 29th could be your jam. Tickets for members of the Rose Island Light Foundation are $50 and $60 non-members.

Only ticket holders will be permitted on the island that day (some exclusivity there for sure) and it sounds like it’s gonna be a swell time!

For info about the water taxi to take you over, go to ConanicutMarina.com.

For additional info about Rose Island, there’s RoseIsland.org.

As always, if you take the boat and visit Rose Island (or just take the boat) after reading this, please let everyone you know you heard about it via Patty J and PattyJ.com.