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Published: November 2nd 2008
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We woke to the wind blowing the camper a little. There's also a little rain and it's cold. Places around us got some snow, but there's none here. We decided to go look at the bridges and the houses in Newport, today. After we got going, the sun came out and it was a clear day, but the news said Long Island Sound had gale warnings. Along the way, we noticed stands of trees dying in swamps. We've been noticing this since New York. Why are there trees in the swamps in the first place? Is there that much extra water? We asked a park ranger on Cape Cod about it. She said there has been so much rain this year, that there is standing water where there isn't usually, so the tree roots are rotting. Everywhere else has lovely colors. The big oak trees have finally changed. There are still stone curbs everywhere, even on entrances to the Interstate. There are lots of walls made of piled up stones cleared from the fields and yards. Today, we saw dairy cows and hay (with a sign that said "Milk in Progress"), and CORN. We crossed over the 2.3 mile Newport Bridge
that was renamed the Claiborne Pell bridge after the Rhode Island senator. He is the same senator that started the college grants called Pell Grants, and he started the National Endowment for the Arts. Next, we went to the Visitor's Center in Newport and got maps and brochures. Then, we drove out to look at the amazing yachts in the harbor. Some of their masts are taller than a six story building! These are the kinds of yachts that sail in the America's Cup races. (Hi, to the J.M. Guthes.) As we started out on the loop to see the big, fabulous houses, we stopped at Fort Adams. Nancy took a picture of the big bridge and the lighthouse under it. Also in the park, was the house that Fort Adam's commander lived in, at the top of a hill. After the fort closed, President Eisenhower used it as the Summer White House because it is close to a major golf course. Then we started out on the mansion loop. Look up some of these houses on-line. They were used for the eight weeks of the Newport summer "season". Now, many of them are museums or used for buildings of
The Breakers
from the sea side the Salve Regina University. We wondered how so many huge mansions could be part of a university. So Nancy looked it up. Salve Regina is a private Catholic university. The first mansion was donated. The others were "acquired" or "purchased". About 2500 students attend and they get to live in or go to classes in some fabulous old mansions! (To be fair, there were some new buildings, too. A LOT for such a small school. Carson High has that many students!) Some of the mansions are still lived in, and there are plenty of "smaller" homes in the neighborhood that are occupied. The Astors had Beechwood, built in 1857. Now, some interesting tours are offered by a theater company. You can be given a tour by the Astors, or by the servants. You can go on a tour when the house is decorated for Christmas. Nancy's favorite was described this way: " If you visit during late winter or early spring, you will come to apply for a position on Mrs. Astor's summer staff. You'll be shown about by servants who will explain the responsibilities of the household and give a behind-the-scenes look at what it is really like to
work for the Astor family. Experienced housemaids and footmen with references preferred!" Wouldn't that be a fun tour? Belcourt Castle, 60 rooms, was owned by Oliver Belmont of race horse fame and his wife, the former Mrs. Vanderbilt. Nancy took a picture of the most opulent, The Breakers, from the Cliff Walk along the beach. It was the 70-room summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Elms was built for a coal "king", Edward Berwind. Marble House was built for William Vanderbilt in 1892. It cost $11,000,000 then! Imagine all the schools, libraries, low-cost housing, and food for the poor that the money COULD have been spent on. Rosecliff was built in 1902 by Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs, whose father discovered the Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada. (Should we know that name?) Rough Point was the home of Doris Duke, who, at twelve, inherited her father's fortune made in tobacco. Her house wasn't too hideous, and she was a philanthropist. So, were we awed and impressed? As we drove into the grounds of one place, Rich was admiring the stonework in the wall surrounding the yard, and Nancy was wondering what kind of tree was in the front yard. Yes, the interiors
were lavish, (We didn't pay to go in, but we had the brochures.) but we thought the outsides of most of them were UGLY, and who needs all that? Is that just because we could never afford it? No, we found some smaller houses that we really liked and we couldn't afford to live there either! In both Cape Cod and in Newport, one of the main realtors was Sotheby's.
After the loop drive, we drove down tiny streets in Newport that had quaint houses and stone block streets. We ate lunch in a little cafe near the waterfront. We found the Old Colony House, 1739, where the French General Count de Rochambeau met with George Washington. The Declaration Of Independence was read from its balcony, and the Constitution was ratified inside in 1790. We really liked the feel of Newport.
On the way back, we decided to stop and see if the gale-force winds that morning had caused monstrous waves at the same place we had stopped a couple of days earlier. Nope. The Sound was as quiet as a lake, so I guess the other day really was an unusual day for big waves. Down the road, we
passed an entrance to a house called Dunmere. Now that's a house we would like! Throughout the drive, we kept seeing road signs that said "NO Turns" and "U-Turns". Rich finally figured out what they were about. Instead of taking a left turn, a right turn, or a u-turn at an intersection, you leave the road a little early on an extension, and turn a little ways down the way when you get to the cross street. No clogs at intersections that way I guess. We passed a truck that worked on doors. It 's sign read, "Dobs Does Doors, Dobs Does". Crossing one bridge, we saw the remnants of an old bridge next to it. Maybe people use it for fishing now, but it was really a Bridge to Nowhere. Then we came to the road to Nowhere. The highway stopped abruptly and you had to take an offramp! Our favorite sign of the day was "House For Sale. Smart Car Included" and the funny little car was parked in the yard. Our last stop was another lighthouse, run by the Coast Guard and Homeland Security. It was the Watch Hill Light.
Well, by the time we got back, our heads were filled with buildings. We slept, contented with our own home in Carson, and our little house on the road.
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Chris Koch
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been there too!
I couldn't believe it when I opened up yesterdays blog and you were in Mystic. Been there, did laundry somewhere. The next day we also went to Newport and walked through the Breakers. Your right, a little over the top but interesting kind of like Hearst Castle Hey, we finally got some rain here. I think it is the first parade we have sat through that it rained.