A day In Newport, Rhode Island

---

We left Albany around 6 am, driving over to Newport, Rhode Island. The drive took about 3.5 hours including a breakfast stop in one of the rest areas. As we neared the Atlantic Ocean, the views were spectacular. We reached Newport and parked our car in the Long Wharf area and roamed around the historic downtown for a while. It’s a quaint little town with lots of inns and pubs, very historic, reminding us of the Gilded Age, about which the entire place is all about.

Then we took the trolley tour of Ocean Drive. This is a 10 mile drive that took us past the historic downtown to 10 miles of spectacular wide-open views of the Atlantic Ocean and miles of magnificent million-dollar mansions. This roadway first led us down Belleview Avenue. There we saw the mansions - "The Breakers" and "The Rose Cliff" among many others. Continuing down Belleview Avenue, the drive took us closer to Newport's waterfront and past the yacht club onto the most elite private properties on Ocean Drive. We passed Gooseberry Beach, and then came upon Brenton Point Park, a gorgeous bayside park on Ocean Drive in Newport, where kite enthusiasts gather almost daily to enjoy this breezy hobby. I wish we had done this drive in our car itself, because there were many places to park the car and walk along its rocky shoreline. It was truly awesome.

Newport is famous for its natural seaside beauty and for the magnificent mansions and gardens built there by the industrial barons of America’s Gilded Age. Newport was the playground of the wealthy (like the Vanderbilts and Astors) from the 1880s to the early 20th century. Their fantastically elaborate mansions along Bellevue Avenue - the Breakers, the Elms, Marble house, Rosecliff - are open to tours. We were not interested in touring any of the mansions. Yachting and boating remain deeply ingrained along Newport Harbor and at the city’s Museum of Yachting.

We completed our trolley tour and ate lunch at Panera’s sitting out on their patio. For simpler fun, it is a pleasure simply to walk around the tightly packed, Colonial-period houses of Newport’s downtown and to sample the offerings of its many charming shops and restaurants. There is a cliff walk, a 3.5 mile path of rocky beaches dropping off to one side and the lawns of the mansions rising to the other. The winding path along Newport’s shoreline had breathtaking views of Narragansett Bay and the rocky coves below. The walk skirts the edges of some of the mansions, including Beechwood, Rosecliff, Marble House and other mansions. We strolled at our own pace, enjoying the view from the heights, and clambering down to the rocky shoreline below. Newport was truly a wonderful place to visit and spend a nice warm perfect summer day!

---