Today was hot, humid but dry. We took advantage of the weather and headed out to Newport, Rhode Island… I know I said Providence yesterday, but today it was Newport.
Newport is about 90 miles away and took us a couple of hours to get there. As we crossed over the large (300ft high) bridge across Narragansett Bay we saw one of the larger Princess cruise ships at anchor. This coupled with the fact that today was the first good day for some time meant the place was likely to be crowded.
First stop was the Tourist Information office, although Lyn had made up a list of things to do and see we still needed local maps. As we started down the main street we saw just how crowded the place was with both cars and people.
Once we had local maps in hand we set out to find lunch, ideally we would have liked to try and find a seafood place on one of the many wharves but parking was at a premium so we moved on a bit further. We finally found a place next door to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. We sat munching overlooking a well kept grass court!
Next stop was to go see the mansions on Bellevue Avenue. These mansions were built as summer homes for New Yorks high society in the late 1800’s. Surprisingly these mansions were built inland and not on the coast. Many of the homes are now open to the public.
Next was a slow drive around the Scenic Ocean Drive. As the name suggests this was a route around the coastline south-east of the city. There were many look-out points and small bays where you could stop and go down to the waters edge, unfortunately there were no sandy beaches. The Scenic Drive finished near the marina area of Newport where there were boats of every shape and size.
Next we went across to the other side of the island to the Cliff Walk. This is a 3.5 mile walk along the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. The city have created a paved walk right on the cliffs edge.
Once we started walking we saw many more mansions, these with a spectacular ocean view.
We decided that we would sell the trailer and move into one of the mansions, the only problem; which one should we choose?
