Rhode Island - Ocean State
We decided to rent a house in Newport for our experience in the smallest state in the US. Our daughter, Marnie, son-in-law Terry, and two of our grandchildren, Quinn and Mackenzie, joined us. Newport is known for the Gilded Age mansions lining beautiful Bellevue Avenue, some of which are now museums that attract visitors. The most famous is The Breakers, an 1895 mansion patterned after a Renaissance Palace. It was built as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family. It is a 70-room mansion, covering five floors in the Renaissance Revival style of architecture. It was a fascinating place to visit, with over-the-top opulence throughout. I especially liked the kitchen with countless copper pots hanging from a metal frame. The gardens were also extraordinary, the driveway lined with maturing pin oaks and red maples. The borders paralleling a wrought-iron fence were planted with rhododendrons and dogwoods – our favorites flowers! – and many other flowering shrubs which, we were told, screen the grounds from street traffic and give visitors a feeling of seclusion.
Our house was very comfortable with a nice kitchen where Marnie and I could cook together. Just down the street was St. Mary’s Church, which was founded in April of 1828 and is the oldest Parish in the Diocese of Providence. President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier were married there in 1953. The church was lovely, and it became my routine for that week to walk to the 8 am Mass every morning, then stop for coffee and pastries on the way back. The others were starting to get up just as I returned.
We visited several of the other mansions, and it was fun to try to imagine what it would have been like for these industrialist families, in the time before there was such a thing as income tax, to live this lifestyle. Magnificent beech trees imported from Europe in the late 19th century dominate the grounds of many of the historic properties. Weeping beech trees, many as high as 80-feet, are icons of Bellevue Avenue.
Another day we visited the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, and an indoor tennis facility. Very swanky, indeed!
We rented bikes one day and road all around the city which was fun and had lunch on the patio of a seafood restaurant with ocean views. That was our warmest day. Even though it was June, the weather was surprisingly cool, so we didn’t spend as much time at the beach as we had anticipated. But we did take the ferry to Jamestown, which gave us glorious views of the houses and yachts and the coastlines of both locations. Jamestown was incorporated in 1678 as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and transferred to Rhode Island in 1746. Today it is a coastal peaceful gem with historic farms, award-winning restaurants and locally owned shops and art galleries. We spent a leisurely afternoon shopping and buying souvenirs.
One morning, Marnie and I decided to walk the Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile National Recreation Trail, which is world famous as a public-access walkway that combines the natural beauty of the Newport coastline with the architectural history of Newport’s Gilded Age. Wildflowers, birds, and unusual geologic formations made this my favorite Newport excursion.
But it wasn’t the only special walk we took. We drove one day to Little Compton, a small town bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. We took a walk on the Dundery Brook Trail, 1.8 miles over boardwalks because it is a wetlands. Plants and trees were in abundance, and we also saw birds of many species. Marnie had read that there was a winery in Little Compton, so we set out to find it. Carolyn’s Sakonnet Vineyard was a delightful stop. We took a tour of the winery and enjoyed a glass of wine in their outdoor “tasting room,” surrounded by flower boxes filled with primrose, lavender and other flora. A perfect way to spend part of an afternoon.
Leaving this area, we drove to Providence. Quinn was going to be a junior the following year, so it seemed like a good time to expose him to some campuses that might interest him. We did a self-guided tour of Providence College and were impressed with the buildings and the grounds. Brown University, an Ivy League college in a different part of town, had its own distinct vibe but we liked that campus, too. Thus ended our Rhode Island experience, a small state but well worth the visit with its sandy shores, seaside colonial towns and Gilded Age mansions.
