Monday (June 10)

All packed up and hit the road heading to Newport, RI today. It was cool (61 deg) and raining when we left. Miserable drive – mostly due to the weather. Thankfully, we didn’t hit any major snags so that was nice. Made it to the hotel (Atlantic Beach Hotel) around 5pm. Just walked across the street to a little local dive called Tickets for dinner. Both had fish tacos that were tasty.

Tuesday (June 11)

We knew it was going to rain all morning so we bought tickets in advance to tour two of the mansions – The Breakers and Rose Cliff. The Breakers, we knew going in, was so over the top in the construction and decorating. I was prepared not to be impressed simply because I cannot wrap my head around such waste. This place is so way beyond gaudy. I’m not sure there is a proper description of it. I don’t even know how one would think of the ways to spend money decorating like these people did. Apparently it was an era where everyone that could, did. Flaunting money between families was a status symbol. Takes a certain kind of person to want to live like that and enjoy it.

Rose Cliff, as mansions go, was much more down to earth in style. It was smaller and much less ostentatious. It seemed to me to be more like plantations down south. Beautiful home and grounds though.

Rosecliff has been used by Hollywood for lots of movies and events. These pictured are but a few.

All of these mansions now belong to the Preservations Society of Newport County. They costs millions to build back in their day but then got too costly to maintain and little by little they were let go by the families and were either donated to or bought by the Preservation Society, who now offer tours to help fund the upkeep.

By the time we finished going through Rose Cliff it was almost finished raining. The Ocean Drive was another box we needed to check so we drove that 10-mile drive – not overly impressed. We didn’t even stop to take one picture. Just wasn’t that much to see honestly. So moving on we went to find Benjamins for lunch. There are a lot of one way streets around here so it takes some getting use to learning how to navigate these streets. Our server at Tickets last night suggested this place. Food was delicious. Bob got some kind of tuna wrap and my sandwich was a lobster grilled cheese. Mmmhmmmm. Was good. Confession – Bob did help me finish it. I had left a few pieces of lobster and he took care of that for me. Such a considerate guy. After all those calories we consumed it was time to go walk some of them off.

Forty Steps is a popular place to start the Cliff Walk so that’s what we did. It was a nice walk along the water. The views in this spot were nice, the rain had stopped and the sun was out. It was actually a little warm, but thankfully there was quite a nice breeze.

We got a couple of miles in and then went to Castle Hill Inn to sit a spell and enjoy the view. It was really nice. They have lots of Adirondack chairs on their lawn for guests to just sit and chill. We ended up eating dinner there (an appetizer of hummus and bread was delish – fish tacos for Bob that were to die for and a watermelon and burrata salad for me that was amazing). We had just about killed enough time so we could go check out the Castle Hill Lighthouse for the sunset. We didn’t expect a dramatic one since there wasn’t any clouds at all in the sky to help with color. It was all beautiful blue sky by now. But the sunset was still pretty and we enjoyed just being in the moment.

Back at the room, we’re regrouping. Packing up and taking off for Portland tomorrow!