Rhode Island – Part I

We made it to Newport and back again and had a great time. We left mid-morning on Saturday and expected about a five-and-a-half hour drive. Silly us.

For those of you who live along the I-95 corridor, you have my deepest sympathies. We felt like we were back in L.A. We made it in just under eight hours. Somewhere between New York and Connecticut it took us near three hours to go about 100 miles. That’s insane! That’s also I-95 on a holiday weekend Saturday.

There was a big motorhome with NY Mets stickers all over it that we’d pass, then it would pass us, and we sort of played leap frog all the way to Newport with them. Every time we’d pass them Todd would hold this up either out the window or out the sunroof, point to it and yell, “Phillies, Baby!!!” And before you freak out, I was the one driving.

We passed this on the way to the B&B. I had to take this picture because I thought it was kind of funny. A cemetary on Farewell Street. No doubt that’s what was meant.

We drove through swarms of tourists in the very trendy wharf area of Newport and found our B&B in a quiet area a couple blocks from the beach.

It was absolutely lovely. Quiet and serene – the perfect place to relax. Some more pictures:

This B&B is a little different in that the breakfast is brought to your room. I had just made a pot of coffee when the owner, Noreen, knocked on the door. We were going to eat outside, but it was too cold. So we broke our fast (too many medieval books) at the cozy little table inside.

After breakfast we took off to enjoy the sites. We drove over to the Bellvue area where there are beautiful old mansions. There wasn’t enough time to tour them, but some day I’d like to go back and do that. Here’s a little sampling:

Most of the mansions back up to the Cliff Walk so we took a little stroll on the path and enjoyed some gorgeous views:

This is a picture of the Forty Steps, the wedding site, from up the trail a bit. That is not a wedding going on in the picture, however. Just a bunch of tourists walking up and down the steps.

We left that side of Newport and ran over to Fort Adams. And since a picture says a thousand words I’ll leave it at that.

And some local wildlife:

By the time we finished at Fort Adams it was time for lunch. So we found our way to this little cafe where we had a yummy grilled cheese, bacon and tomato sandwich.

After lunch we went back to the Murray House to wait for Glenn & Cristie’s arrival. We lounged around in the pool chairs and both dozed off for a bit. They got there safely and we visited with them on our porch while they ate lunch.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly – them going to the beach and us finishing our snoozes. It was Cold Stone for dinner and run through town before turning in for the night.

Yikes! This post is pretty long and I haven’t even gotten to the wedding. I think I’ll let you all savor the beautiful pictures on this post and finish up with the wedding at some point tomorrow.

[ARGH! Blogger won’t let me save my drafts and it won’t let me spell check, either. So please ignore any errors. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Sincerely, Jen.]

14 Comments

  1. Terri on September 5, 2007 at 2:40 pm

    Beautiful pictures! And, the post looks good from my end 🙂

  2. Angry Woman on September 5, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    Gorgeous pictures! By the way, were you subjected to the “essential” John Denver on the trip?

  3. Dev on September 5, 2007 at 6:47 pm

    Beautiful pics, Jen! Makes me wish I lived on the east coast.

  4. Monnik on September 5, 2007 at 6:48 pm

    The pictures are lovely. I love B&Bs where they bring you a basket of breakfast and you can sit in your jammies and eat scones and drink coffee with your hubby. The Hubby and I go up to Door County, Wisconsin to a B&B like that. Ahhhhhh. Wish we were going this year.Can’t wait to hear more about the trip!

  5. April on September 5, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    Jenster,We spent a day in Rhode Island and visited the Breakers Mansion. We loved it. It was definately worth visiting. Loved the pics and thanks for sharing.

  6. April on September 5, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    that should be *definitely*

  7. Shauna on September 5, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    Beautiful pictures, though the caption “some local wildlife” is right below the pic of a gorgeous boat. I had a good laugh before realizing you were talking about the birds!! Yeah, it’s been that kind of day. LOL!

  8. Jenster on September 5, 2007 at 8:50 pm

    Terri – thanks! It was gorgeous.Aim – I think I listened to one JD song.Dev – I’m ready to move to Newport! If only we could actually afford it. :o)Monnik – I totally missed having breakfast brought to me this morning. lolApril – I’m looking forward to going back some day and seeing the inside of the Breakers. And grammatical/spelling errors are excused here. :o)Shauna – LOL! Hope tomorrow is better.

  9. jenn on September 5, 2007 at 9:16 pm

    i’m jealous, this place looks gorgeous! on another note, u mention being a phillies fan. does that mean ur an eagles fan? or better yet… a STEELERS fan? LOL

  10. Becky on September 6, 2007 at 2:39 am

    Once again, Jenster…you should write for travel magazines. Your photos really capture the essence of the place, and what you write about them makes people want to go visit the places themselves. Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to go visit places like that? Or to get paid enough for writing about them to help cover the expense of the getaways?Shauna–I did the same thing about the local wildlife…

  11. radioactive girl on September 6, 2007 at 10:23 am

    It looks so beautiful and relaxing…can you tell what I could use right now? Some relaxing time?

  12. The Daily "B" on September 6, 2007 at 2:40 pm

    Beautiful photos! I have the traveling itch! Rhode Island looks like the perfect place to go.

  13. Jenster on September 6, 2007 at 9:17 pm

    Jenn – Eagles fan because it’s a prerequisite. lolBecky – Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to go visit places like that? Or to get paid enough for writing about them to help cover the expense of the getaways?That would be a dream job!!!Tori – It was very relaxing! I want to go back. NOW!Deb – Thanks! I was just happy to be on the ocean. I think if you’ve lived by the sea it’s in your blood or something.

  14. Gretchen on September 7, 2007 at 1:41 pm

    I saw the Cliff Walk 100 years ago when Big was on a consulting gig in CT. We did a mini tour of RI, CT, and MA. Loved it. Went to Mystic Pizza, too, because…well, we just had to.

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