Fun and Games

Okay, every day is not dull and uneventful.

My hard working hubby worked really hard and long on Saturday so we could take Sunday afternoon off. We hopped in the truck and started to drive east and didn't stop until we got to the edge. The edge of the country. This is the bridge crossing the Narragansett Bay between what you might call the "mainland" of Rhode Island and the little island or Newport. There is a lot to see in Newport and we didn't have time to see and do much. We took the trolley to The Breakers. It is a mansion that was built in 1895 by the Vanderbilt family. It cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 million to build it--way back then. It was their "summer cottage." Here is the entry gate.

Here is the front of the house. It covers one square acre and is--well you can get an idea of the height when you look at all the people standing in line waiting to get in.Here is a side view. It was hard to get the whole "cottage" in one picture.And here is the back of the house. The back yard was large enough (several acres) for me to get far enough away to get the wide shot. The inside of the house was something beyond my imagination. They wouldn't let people take pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it. Picture 70 rooms of "Look how much money we have!" built by a guy who was worth more than 100 million dollars at the turn of the century. The bathtub in the mater's bath was carved out of a single piece of marble. Pink alabaster was plentiful and the chandeliers--indescribable!Here is Rick standing on the porch of the children's play house that was in the side yard. It was complete with a large fireplace, a wood burning cook stove, a miniature piano, small furniture and real china. The tour guide told how the generations of children and grandchildren were taught responsibility. Even though they each had their own personal servant, each child was expected to hang up their own clothes. Poor mistreated little kids! Here is what us southerners would call the back porch. I tried to get a shot of the yard and porch at the same time. I couldn't get it all in my viewfinder.The grounds covered many acres. Some of the trees were imported from Japan and various other countries. I don't know what kind of tree this is or where it came from, but I wanted to take its picture because it was one big tree!
As majestic as the house was and as beautiful as the gardens were, none of it could compare to the view from "the back porch." The Atlantic Ocean in all its glory! The shoreline here is a rocky cliff. As we stood at the edge of the property and watched the rough sea, I tingled from head to toe and tears filled my eyes. The wind coming off the water was cool and the waves thundered when they crashed against the rock cliffs below. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ... Who enclosed the sea with doors, when bursting forth, it went out from the womb; When I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it, and I set a bolt and doors, and I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop?'" Job 38:1-11.
There were many more mansions to see but we didn't have time or enough money to take them all in. They could not have been any more beautiful than the ocean anyway.

Newport is the Yachting Capital of the US. We made our way down to "the club" and took a few pictures of a BUNCH of boats. I'll post them tomorrow, so check back.

I apologize for the low quality of my photos here. We don't have Wi-Fi in the campground so I am using a cell card to post. It is so SLOW ! I have to reduce the quality of the photos to get them to upload. All you have to do is ask and I'll go back to posting higher quality, but this saves me some time and frustration.