I’ve never been to Canada but am well acquainted with their geese.
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Seriously, these birds don’t play.
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We love the noisy little devils and see them often in our part of Maine.
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Because honestly, who needs ICE when you have geese?
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A photo of our local ice fishing camp at sunset.
I have no desire to sit on a stool in a frozen shack and stare at a hole in the ice waiting for tiny, oily smelt to swim by, but it’s hard to argue with the optics.
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Okay, I admit it. My husband came home from the “gift store” … aka the dump… with a treasure.
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A brand new Star Wars Death Star cheese cutting set that we’re going to give to a friend who’s obsessed with the movies.
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$86 at Macy’s and the husband got it for free.
He was grinning from ear to ear…. while I was horrified at the dangerous precedent this is going to set.
Newport, Rhode Island is famous for its Gilded Age “cottages”. These stately mansions line the waterfront on an avenue appropriately named Bellevue… ‘beautiful view’ in French.
And cruising down that graceful tree lined avenue is indeed a beautiful thing.
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Ornate wrought iron gates guard impressive estates.
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Some are owned by the Preservation Society and open to the public …
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Some are still privately held.
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Some look like the Addams family could live there, but trust me… they’re all spectacular.
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It’s like stepping back in time.
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Before all those pesky taxes, regulations and workers unions ate into the homeowner’s stash of cash.
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We were told Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle) just bought two adjoining properties, tore one house down and is doing 150 million dollars worth of renovations to the other. In a city that worships its history, this is akin to wholesale slaughter.
Needless to say he will not be receiving a welcoming apple pie from his neighbors.
Continuing down Bellevue Ave, we took the scenic route on Ocean Drive.
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Where large waterfront homes and properties rule the day.
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Jay Leno has a big spread here.
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And is said to drive his cars around town, popping into local restaurants and pubs quietly and politely.
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This is a gorgeous area.
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Scenically beautiful.
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And if I had that kind of money?
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I’d live here too.
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Stone is a favored building material. And turrets are popular.
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Because who doesn’t love a turret?
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Continuing across the bridge, we headed for Jamestown.
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First established in 1678 by the Massachusetts Bay Company on Conanicut Island, it’s the second largest island in Narragansett Bay.
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And though it has impressive waterfront homes like Newport…
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It’s a quieter, more laid back, rural town.
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I’m not sure why you’d want a deck around your chimney, but these people did.
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The coastline is very similar to ours in Maine.
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And they do love their stone walls.
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Crossing another bridge, we ended the day at a brewery in Middletown.
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Where I had a blueberry beer with actual blueberries in the glass. Shame it didn’t taste anything like fruit.
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An old photo on the wall paid tribute to the popular beers of days gone by. And though we were surrounded by Narragansett Bay on all sides, and Narragansett beer was on every tap in every restaurant…. the brewery itself is inland, in Providence and run by a New York company.
Boo to that.
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After an excellent clam chowder and French onion start…
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And the annoying lack of adverbs, the meal was sub par and not close to photo worthy.
The tour of the fort starts in front of this granite block facsimile.
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It represents the current fort which replaced the original build from 1799 that was named to honor President John Adams. Construction began in 1824 and was completed by 1857, though soldiers were stationed here in 1841. Designed by a French engineer who was an aide to Napoleon, it was a temporary site of the Naval Academy before the Civil War.
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Entering through the east gate you’re surrounded by granite, shale and brick.
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The grooves my husband is examining were cut to give traction to the mules and horses who were dragging supplies and canons up the ramp.
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Fort Adams is an impressive place.
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The parade field alone is over six and a half acres. For reference… Fort Sumter, Fort McHenry and Fort Ticonderoga could all easily fit inside.
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Behind the bust of John Adams are the officer’s quarters.
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Some still in their original condition. Every room of the fort was defensible. See the light shining through in the back? That’s a rifleman’s slit.
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I love history and have visited all the forts mentioned above, but strategically and for sheer firepower? Adams puts the others to shame.
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There were 117 canons on three tiers mounted in the west wall alone. This is a 32 pounder. A serious boomer and the reason most of its 8 man crews suffered severe hearing loss.
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I won’t bore you with all the facts I find fascinating. For those who are interested, the full history is here.
Back in the day, enemies who couldn’t breach the fort’s walls tried to tunnel underneath them and blow them up from underground.
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So a half mile network of tunnels was built and manned.
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Ready made holes on the side made it easier to start a countermining attack.
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It was dark and damp and the farther you went, the smaller it became.
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A few people in our group had to turn back due to claustrophobia.
Rats?
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This one was fake, but it was put there to remind tourists they’re never truly alone down here.
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I could have happily explored the entire system…
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But our guide brought us back to the light.
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Fort Adams was designed to garrison 200 soldiers in peacetime and 2,400 in time of war. She could hold 468 cannon but was never armed or staffed at full strength. As a testament to her superb defensive planning, the fort never saw action and was decommissioned in the early 1950’s.
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If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend the tour. It’s ten dollars well spent.
Leaving the fort, we passed a home with a stone wall.
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A stone wall that wrapped around the entire property…
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Lined the driveway on both sides…
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And seemed endless.. like many we would discover on our tour of this area.
Next up on the list was Fort Adams, a coastal fortification built in 1824 at the mouth of Newport Harbor. On the way there we passed a memorial to Portuguese sailors, which of course….
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Was surrounded by geese.
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We live in Maine.
Canada is our neighbor.
We have a lot of Canada geese, but I swear Rhode Island has more.
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Fort Adams State Park is a lovely area.
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But unfortunately you can’t tour the fort by yourself and the ticket office didn’t open until 10:00am.
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Since we had half an hour to kill, we explored.
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And took what turned out to be one very cold walk.
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This is Narragansett Bay…
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This is the fort.
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And this is the husband ducking against the gale force wind.
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There was no escaping it, and had I taken a video you wouldn’t have been able to hear me speak.
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My jacket is zipped up to my neck and my nose is red. I have half a smile, but inwardly I was cursing the nonstop buffeting.
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The husband might have been thinking about jumping and ending it all right here, it was that bad.
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Did I mention Fort Adams is the site of the famed Newport Folk Festival? Where Dylan notoriously plugged in and went electric? After experiencing the strength of the wind, I no longer think he was making a statement. He was simply anchoring himself.
At 10:00 we happily stepped inside the small museum.
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It was previously used as the fort’s jail.
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And the cells were pretty grim.
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Not to mention small.
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Really, really small.
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The first tour was at 11:00am so I’ll give you one guess how my husband passed the time.
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In deep conversation with the tour guide.
It started with my spouse comparing those cells with the cells he patrolled as a brig guard when he was stationed at the Portsmouth Naval Prison in New Hampshire many moons ago. That was at the tail end of the Vietnam era, which led to stories about my guy’s time in the war.
In his element, the stories continued for the full hour. When it was time to start the tour, the guide was so impressed with my husband’s gift of gab… he offered him a job.
It’s a shame we live too far away because talking all day would be right in my husband’s wheelhouse.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny and our visitors wanted to check out the Manor House at the Historic Powhatan Resort.
The smallest of our group thoroughly enjoyed it.
Especially when she found a pint sized door just her size.
Shame it wouldn’t open.
But the game room was a good second choice.
I had occasion to use the rest room this trip….
And immediately fell in love with a sink.
Is that wrong?
Sadly, it was Sunday….. and that meant it was time to change resorts.
When we time share travel and I’ve never been to the area? I usually choose 2 different resorts for our 2 week stays in case one of them is a dud. Of course we adored this first place and hated to leave….especially when Gracie found this under the bed when we were packing up.
Proof positive there were no dust bunnies.
But, ever onward.
I was slightly appeased when we drove across town, found the road that led to the new resort and saw this on the corner.
Ample tequila in walking distance is never a bad thing.
The Wyndham Kingsgate actually got higher reviews than the Powhatan we’d just left, so I was expecting something special.
On first glance?
It looked like a school.
And their pond was totally goose-less.
Strike one.
The closest thing they had to a Manor House was the activities center which consisted of a few pools, a gym, and numerous video game machines.
Strike two.
The buildings were much closer together with more units per building and though it was empty in this picture…. the parking lots were filled to capacity the whole time we were there and didn’t have reserved spots. We circled and hunted for a place every damned night.
Strike three and we hadn’t even been inside yet.
Thankfully the 2 bedroom/2 bath unit was pleasant…… albeit smaller than the first resort.
But the furniture was nice quality….
The kitchen well stocked….
And though the balcony was the bare minimum….
The king sized beds were comfortable.
I did take issue with the fact the master bathroom was smaller was than the guest…..
And while the shower was attractive it only had that one tiny shelf which barely fit a bar of soap. What’s a girl supposed to do with her shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, loofah, razor etc.?
Piss poor planning if you ask me.
And while the guest bath was also attractive, there wasn’t a heck of a lot more room to move around.
See?
There isn’t even an entire horse in the picture…. that’s small.
But we did get the second floor that my husband always has to have. Which Destiny was actively cursing when she offered to drag my suitcase up to it.
I believe her grimace is in direct proportion to it’s weight.
The girls relaxed while we put the food away…. and Gracie drew me something to put on the refrigerator.
I was thinking something like this would be more appropriate….
Before I regale you with yet another day of our vacation adventures….. a little personal history.
In case you hadn’t guessed? The husband and I don’t have any children. It was a lifestyle choice we made many years ago and haven’t had cause to regret it. But back in the early 90’s we took a neighbor’s child under our wing when her single mother was having a hard time.
She was the child we never had….
We helped raise her…..
And since she had no contact with her real father, my husband took over the role.
Attitude adjustments et al.
She wasn’t ours biologically…..
But she will always be the child of our hearts.
We’ve watched her grow into a beautiful young woman…
And now she’s happily married…..
With a child of her own….
And we feel like we have a grandchild as well. They still live in North Carolina so whenever we’re near…. we get together. She loves that we have a timeshare and enjoys staying with us at the various resorts. On Day 8 of this trip? She and her daughter joined us for the weekend before Christmas.
When they arrived? A goose traffic jam…
I love me some goosers… so pardon the ridiculous tone of voice I use in the video.
As well as me cursing out the idiot who was honking their horn at those sweet little waddlers.
After their 4 1/2 hour trip, Destiny and Gracie were hungry so we took them to that great seafood place we’d found… Fat Tuna.
We stuffed ourselves silly with hushpuppies, cornbread and shrimp and grits….
While the husband opted for a seafood pasta.
This was in anticipation of where we would be spending the afternoon and evening… because when you have a 7 year old? Sitting around chatting with a cocktail isn’t going to cut it.
So the husband and I did what we never… ever!… do.
We went to a theme park.
And it was just as awful as I knew it would be.
We stood in a long line to board the shuttle.
We crammed onto the shuttle like sardines.
We waited on long lines to buy overpriced tickets…. and not even a funny spare tire cover could make up for what we were about to experience.
(I hope he was talking about the jeep and not his wife.
I really do.)
But yes…. the husband and I shelled out $240 frickin’ dollars to visit Christmas Town at Busch Gardens.
No senior discount, no military discount, no under 12 discount.
Suck it Santa!
Did I mention it was also $20 to leave our car in the north 40, somewhere south of bumblef*ck Egypt parking lot?
$260 just to walk in.
Kill me now.
But we were there with people we loved…
And my husband… who never wants to pose for photographs?
When you visit Williamsburg, Virginia? It’s all about American history. Everywhere you go, everywhere you look… and that was fine with me. I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to that subject and couldn’t wait to experience it all.
The pinnacle in this area is Colonial Williamsburg. 300 acres of historic sites and museums filled with people in period costumes waiting to tell you their stories…. from an 18th century point of view. Loyalist and patriots, tradesmen and legislators. Is it any wonder this was where I headed on our first full day of vacation?
You enter through the massive visitors center.
Where we learned that Williamsburg is the heart of the Historic Triangle which also includes Jamestown and Yorktown. Tickets can be purchased for all 3, or individually, but we lucked out when a volunteer spotted the husband’s USMC hat and told us it would actually be cheaper to buy a year long Veterans pass for unlimited access, which we did. We also got bright blue stars on our passes which entitled us to 10% off everything.
Sweet!
There’s a shuttle bus that runs every ten minutes taking you all around the site, but it was a beautiful day and we decided to walk.
Back in time….
The walkway was wonderful….
And filled with facts….
That put things in perspective.
The farther back you went?
The more you appreciated what you have now.
Some facts were startling.
Some, hard to imagine.
And then…
We were there.
The first thing we saw?
A windmill…. and the split rail fences we would see numerous times on this trip.
Then… a plantation.
Which wasn’t anywhere near as grand as you’d think.
In the 1700’s?
Things were pretty basic.
First fact learned?
A farm grows multiple crops. A plantation? One.
Yes dear readers, for the next few weeks months? my posts will be filled with colonial factoids.
Try to control your excitement.
But wait, that’s not all we saw at the plantation.
After touring the Manor House of the Historic Powhatan Resort in Williamsburg, I knew our condo would be a bit of a letdown, but as timeshare units go…. it was quite decent.
We requested a top floor, since the husband despises people tap dancing above him at 2:00am.
Our previous upstairs neighbors
It was a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit…
And like many of the newly renovated suites we’ve had lately…. heavily yellow and beige-d.
But the king size bed was extremely comfortable….
There was a working fireplace…
A full kitchen with hardwood floors and granite countertops….
Large bathrooms…
A full size dining table….
And a place for evening cocktails.
The buildings were well spaced and far enough apart to limit noise, which is a plus for light sleepers like me.
Heck, this condo was almost 1,400 square feet…. which is about 300 more than our first home, so I wasn’t complaining.
We unpacked, or rather I did. Husband just threw his suitcase on the bed and called it good. What is it with you men?
Then we decided to grab a quick bite at the on site coffee shop.
It was next to the Manor House, and attractive in it’s own right.
With a large outdoor seating area….
And a view of the ever present geese.
Unfortunately…
It also had a big fat closed sign next to it’s front door.
First the bad restaurant, then the shut up tight coffee shop. Clearly it wasn’t our day for eating out.
So we ended our first day in Williamsburg at the grocery store, stocking up for the 2 weeks ahead and wondering why no one was taking advantage of the free chicken coffee.
Buy 2, get 3 free?
I don’t drink the stuff… but geesh.
How bad can it be to still be filling the shelves? The packaging alone should be worth the price of two.
There aren’t too many timeshare resorts that have a Manor House…
But ours did.
And for guests….
The doors were wide open.
So before even finding our condo, we explored.
She was a charming old girl.
And fully decked out for Christmas.
Yes, there was even some funky chicken portraiture.
Ya gotta love that.
Traditional Williamsburg colors took center stage.
And board games were set up on various tables.
It really was quite lovely.
And I certainly wouldn’t mind having a meal or two here.
But we were burning daylight…
So, needing liquid refreshment….
We left the Manor House and were pleased to find a restaurant/bar on the property.
Not all resorts have this, so it was a plus.
The friendly bartender introduced the husband to a local beer, and we ordered some appetizers to test the menu.
French Onion Soup for the other half…. which was absolutely horrendous. Croutons instead of French Bread, over salted broth and a glob of gelatinous cheese.
Blech.
My margarita was made with cheap mix and even cheaper tequila…. and the cheesy crab dip? Tasteless, as well as crabless. I couldn’t find a single piece.
Needless to say we passed on ordering dinner there. (Sorry Martin, that’s all the food pics you’ll get today.)
But ya know what?
The resort was beautiful.
They had a Manor House…..
And geese.
I forgave them their bad food.
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