Bristol, R.I.

We should have known better than to think we could escape the iron hand of the past in Bristol, where main streets are painted with red, white, and blue lane lines, bunting drapes Colonial and Federal porches, and plaques proclaim the year and builder of most houses. Yet for all its Colonial trappings, Bristol is simply a fabulously salty village with a gorgeous Narragansett Bay harbor. The Bristol Harbor Inn looked like a yachtsman's berth of choice.

Our room (No. 225) was on the third floor, a curiously European affectation (the French start counting floors one story above ground level) given some support by the French Provincial leanings of the decor. Delft-blue walls in the bedroom were complemented by a blue and gold carpet, blue and yellow toile drapes, and a blue and yellow plaid bedspread on the queen-size bed. The small desk and armoire (hiding the TV) were in a pale blonde wood with a light blue glaze. The bathroom walls were bright yellow while the floor tiles and fixtures were gleaming white.

Because our corner room was on the harbor end of the building, we had splendid water views in two directions. Thames Street Landing has a wide boardwalk along the water, complete with an outpost of the wildly popular Tiverton-based Gray's Ice Cream, enabling us to sit in the sun and lick ice cream cones as sport fishermen cruised past in their outboard boats.

The hotel's ground floor is filled with small shops, so we perused Chinese antiques, Irish giftware, and upscale women's clothing. We could have booked a cut at the New Leaf Hair Studio or a few treatments at Alayne White Spa & Body Boutique, which professes to be Bristol's first spa. Instead, we strolled out Thames Street to Independence Park, where the last of the season's beach roses were in bloom. Granite blocks line the harbor here, making perfect perches for parents to sun in the falling angle of light while the kids cast for flounder.