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My husband and I took a day trip to Newport, Rhode Island, which is about 2 hours from our home. We went to view one of the most popular mansions by one of the world's most families, the Vanderbilts. Their mansion is called The Breakers, due to the water breaking on the rocks in their backyard.
I'm so amazed at how people can live in a "summer cottage" like the one we saw. It's Beautiful with a capital b. Even the children had their own house to play in. It's the size of a small one family house and they got to play in there. Everywhere you look, you see golden inlay this and golden inley that along with dolphins and acorns. I've been there before, but not a Christmas time. It was just decorated for the season. You walk into the main hall and all you can smell are the pointsettia plants that are all around. I never knew that pointsettias had such a scent. They even had a pointsettia ball there, but that wasn't made with real flowers. I was told they were fake, but everything else was real and grown in the greenhouse on the estate. You couldn't take photos inside, except for by the Christmas trees. However, I did shut off my flash and was able to take a few quality pictures. Even though you only get to see the first two floors, one has to remember that there is 2 more floors above the 2nd floor, for servants. I forgot how many servants they had, but there was a lot of them.
After about an hour and a half at the house, we went to The Red Parrot for lunch. It was good. I ordered a hot chocloate with a Buttershot. The second was better - it was stronger. However, I did not know that they were $8.50 EACH. I bought Dean a hot from there. So after a $43 lunch and $36 entrance fee for the 2 of us, we were tired and had a good time. I recommend anyone who's going to be in the Newport area, go a see the mansions. Their website is http://www.newportmansions.org/ There's more than just the Breakers, but I've only been to the Breakers.
I hope you enjoyed this daytrip of ours. I know I did. The next day trip is in a few weeks to the Boston Science Museum. We're taking my niece too. There's a Harry Potter exhibit that I would like to see and my niece would love to see it. I'll make sure I blog about that too.
Thanks. Happy travels.
Kathy

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