Tag Archives: Rhode Island

Newport RI – Mega yachts, mega mansions and folk music

After Block Island we headed to mainland Rhode Island and the city of Newport. Newport is a sailing mecca bringing huge boats from all over to it’s port. You just don’t see this concentration of mega yachts on the west coast! Newport was also home to the America’s Cup for some time and you can see the graceful boats making their way around the anchorage. Watching a fleet of the old America’s Cup boats glide by really drove it home how Larry Ellison has pretty much ruined it for everybody. Ahh…for simpler times…

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To take a break from gawking at all the boats in the harbor we decided to go tour the gilded age mansions and gawk at all the fancy houses. We got to go through 5 of these “summer cottages” and take audio tours. The audio tours were really quite hilarious as they tried to describe the people who had built and lived in these homes. One was a party girl who built her home just for entertaining and when the parties dried up she went insane. Another was a crazy manipulative mother who tormented her daughter and tried to mold her into the perfect asset. At the same time this woman demanded a house of all marble and then divorced her husband just to set an example for all young women. They talked some of the business men and their life but it seemed that the hostess ruled the day in these houses. And the way these tours portrayed them they were not nice ladies. The Breakers was the fanciest of the bunch and was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt. These amazing monstrosities were really only used between 4th of July and Labor Day. Ryan and I decided they were a little too ostentatious for us, thank you very much. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take pictures of the insides of the homes but here are both of us seeing if we look at home in front of the Breakers.

The Breakers

The Breakers

This one is too BIG!

This one is too BIG!

Just right??!?!

A smaller mansion….  Just right??!?!

 We also had a lot of fun walking through town. As befits a sailing mecca there was tons to do and see. As we wandered around we also came across the tennis hall of fame. Made me think of you Thuy and John!

Can you believe I got Ryan to pose for this?!?  LOL!

Can you believe I got Ryan to pose for this?!? LOL!

Pic of downtown

Pic of downtown

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Tennis Hall of Fame

Tennis Hall of Fame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rented a car one day and were able to drive along the coast and do more gawking, this time at the scenery. The rocky coastline is very pretty, I could see myself living here potentially.

Pretty cool....

Gorgeous Coastline

It was a bit rainy during our time in Newport. It was actually a nice change from the humidity and heat of Long Island. We took our umbrellas and still went out. And one day we saw a rainbow.

Where the heck is my pot of gold?!?!

Where the heck is my pot of gold?!?!

 We ended up staying in Newport longer than intended because a chance meeting with a fellow boater informed us of the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend. What?!?! Of course we had to stay! We got tickets for Friday which was a wet wet day. We stayed dry as best we could and Ryan marveled how no one at the festival was complaining about the weather. I guess these Rhode Islanders are a hardy breed.  Old Crow Medicine Show was the last act of the day and as we stood in the crowd Ryan became agitated by all the umbrellas up.  How ever would we see the show?  When the band came on he started a chant of “Umbrellas Down!” that swept through the crowd until everyone had theirs down and we could see!  

Folk Fest!

Folk Fest!

Crowd thinned out between shows.

Crowd thinned out between shows.

Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show

More Old Crow

More Old Crow

 On Saturday, we didn’t have tickets but decided to wander over to where all the boats were anchored out and see if we could see/hear from there. Luck would have it we happened across a boat we had met in Port Washington and when they invited us aboard we happily said yes. We had a great afternoon listening to the music from their boat and then had them back to ours for dinner. Ahh….what a great time in Newport.

Oh and here’s some random sunset pictures….these never get old for me. 🙂

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Rhode Island – The Ocean State

Rhode Island was never a place I’ve given much though about. I knew it was the smallest state because that is one of those trivia facts you pick up in elementary school, but when we had Ryana pointed toward Rhode Island I had no idea what to expect. Our first view of Rhode Island was Block Island which we came to as we (finally) left Long Island Sound. Block Island was by far the busiest place we’d been to. We tried to get one of their 65 mooring balls, but all of them were full! Luckily the anchorage had good holding so we squeezed ourselves in between a huge catamaran and several other boats. We had a moment of excitement when our starboard engine cut out right as we were attempting to anchor but with Ryan at the helm we did just fine.  Once we got settled Ryan thought it was a little close for comfort, but we sucked it up and kept our fingers crossed. 🙂

Where did all these boats come from?

Where did all these boats come from?

We holed up here for several days waiting out some bad weather. The skies got very interesting looking.

The skies have eyes and they are looking at me!

The sky has an eye and it’s looking at me!

For the first few days we mostly did chores, but we did walk the mile and a half into town one day to mail a package at the post office. Block Island is apparently a big tourist destination and people were flooding off the ferries when we walked by town.

Downtown BI.

Downtown BI.

We also encountered this cruising catamaran and it just goes to prove that it’s not the size of the boat but…

Weight to size ratio is amazing.

Weight to size ratio is amazing.

Even staying on the boat though we had plenty of entertainment. One night there was a wedding on shore and to celebrate the joyous event that evening there were fireworks! After the fireworks I got very concerned because a lot of the boats in the harbor were sounding their horns. Ryan calmed me down by telling me that is how boats applaud. Ha!

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On our 3rd day on Block Island the weather turned nice so we went for a bike ride around the island. It is a very pretty place! First we went up to the north shore and checked out the beach and lighthouse there.

North Shore Lighthouse

North Shore Lighthouse

Lighthouse up close.

Lighthouse up close.

View from the lighthouse.

View from the lighthouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we turned back through town and rode to the south shore. We checked out the lighthouse there and then found this area where you can go down off the cliffs to the shore. It was gorgeous there and we enjoyed the view.

South shore lighthouse.  Which is nicer?

South shore lighthouse. Which is nicer North or South?

Descending the cliffs

Descending the cliffs

The other way

The other way

Rocks on a rock

Rocks on a rock

Our bike ride was about 10 miles and covered a lot of the island. What a nice way to spend the day. What could make it better? How about sushi and a beer after getting cleaned up.

Beer well earned.  I think Stanley wants some too!

Beer well earned. I think Stanley wants some too!