A few more amusing regional maps for your consideration.
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Lewiston, Maine is an old mill town gone to seed. It tries to put on a pretty face with downtown rejuvenation projects but to my mind will always be a poor, sad relative to its coastal cousins.
If I lived there? I’d be drunk as well.
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This is a map no one really needs to see, but Italy?
What the utter hell!
😳
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Proud to have the most trees, that’s me!
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Most excellent.
I love cows.
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Though it seems a little strange Wisconsin was singled out for cow ratio when it turns out they didn’t make the top bovine tier.
Since it was still raining on our fourth afternoon in Newport, we opted for more indoor entertainment.
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And who doesn’t love an aquarium?
Yes, this one was small and heavily geared to children with various petting pools… but there were fish.
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And I love watching fish.
Almost as much as this turtle loved watching me.
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Watching fish lowers my blood pressure.
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And watching this small ray float back and forth made me smile.
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Especially when he surfaced for a few close ups.
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See?
He’s smiling too.
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A few days before we visited, I saw a printed advertisement for this aquarium in a local magazine. It showed a surround tunnel and I love walking through those!
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Of course the ad…. ⬆️
Turned out to be a bit different than the reality… ⬇️ .
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Yup.
That’s the tunnel.
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And yours truly is a little too large to have made that enjoyable.
😒
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But back to the fish.
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I fell in love with these little weirdos.
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And yes, I think we had a moment here.
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They were fascinating fellows to watch.
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All with slightly different markings.
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I turned to see what my husband thought of them but as usual… I’d lost him.
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You know he had to find someone to talk to besides me.
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So while he made friends with the marine biology student attendant…
I made friends with a shark.
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Who, it turns out, isn’t supposed to pop up vertically and greet guests… but I must be irresistible because he did it on multiple occasions.
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Kevin on the other hand, is a very friendly dude.
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And enjoys the occasional back rub.
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The lovely and quite special thing about this aquarium is that all the marine life comes locally from Narragansett Bay. Many… like Kevin who is blind in one eye… are disabled in some way and will have a permanently safe home here.
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The other creatures do a six month rotation for exhibition and are then released back to the wild.
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Once in a while invasive tropical fish are found …
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And are not released back in the bay to upset the natural order.
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Is that guy on the bottom waving?
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Tilt the picture slightly and I see an owl with a sharp beak.
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This poor fellow lost an eye.
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There’s the husband, still chatting.
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Fish.
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Fish.
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And more fish.
And though my spouse was still talking, closing time was 5:30 so we were politely scooted out the door.
Dinner was a local Chinese restaurant with very fresh and tasty food.
I’ve never been a big fan of Pierce Brosnan but his steely portrayal of an Irish gangster in this new (raw and violent but extremely watchable) series may change my mind. The fact that it also stars Helen Mirren and Tom Hardy doesn’t hurt.
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I was hesitant to start this quirky Irish comedy/drama but was hooked from episode one. Equal parts tragedy and heartwarming comedy, it’s family at its best.. and absolute worst. The stunning scenery of coastal Ireland alone is worth a look.
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There’s been a lot of buzz around this fast paced medical drama so I thought I’d give it a whirl. At first glance it seemed formulaic. Set in an overworked, understaffed emergency room in Pittsburgh, it had the usual stressed out doctors and nurses with personal problems and an over abundance of medical terminology. Each episode represents one tragic hour of a single day and though I didn’t see anything ground breaking or unfamiliar with this particular show at first, the heartfelt, poignant and often tragic scenes make for an intensely watchable show. Its portrayal of the gritty horror inner city E.R’s face on a daily basis made me admire the real medical personnel even more than I already do.
Kudos to all the real doctors and nurses who literally hold our lives in their hands.
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I’ve stuck with this bizarre train wreck of a series from the beginning without really knowing why. The story line is crazy, the characters far from from lovable… but like a highway accident, you can’t seem to look away.
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Loving season one, I was all in for another deep dive into the Yellowstone origin story. And while some parts were equally as good, overall I was annoyed at the endless (bring them home already!) storyline and (spoiler alert) very unhappy ending.
So we headed back to the base to check out the Naval War College museum and hopefully find someone familiar with its recent history to talk with my husband about his time there.
On the way, we passed the required geese.
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Rain doesn’t bother them a bit.
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The museum is a fine old building with a unique back story.
From Newport Poor House to Founders Hall
Coasters Harbor Island was the site of Newport’s Asylum for the Poor. Built in 1819, the stone and brick building provided shelter for the town’s homeless. At various times it also served as a quarantine site during epidemics, as a holding area for minor criminals and as a facility for the insane. By the early 1880s, the overflowing facility was taxing Newport’s resources. In 1881 the town relocated the inmates to other institutions and the State Assembly of Rhode Island ceded the island and the building to the federal government.
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As we walked around, we found it had some interesting exhibits.
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But we soon realized we were the only people there…
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Aside from this headless fellow.
No staff, no docents, not a single person for my husband to engage in conversation.
Oh, the horror.
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From the first submarine…
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To a sailor enjoying his projectile a bit too much.
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Past a torpedo boat that just looked… wrong.
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And a WWI listening device that appeared to be George Lucas designed… the place was as quiet as a tomb.
There were marvelous model ships.
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And some history that made me laugh.
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The close ups will explain the laughing.
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Oh, those crazy colonials.
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A civil war drum.
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Some lovely memorabilia.
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With a sailor who knew how to work a parasol.
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We saw a portrait of an admiral who was a dead ringer for Ben Kingsley.
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And propaganda posters…
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As well as a death mask with some ceremonial silver.
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There was even a possible ancestor of the Charmin toilet paper spokesman.
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But not a single historian with whom my husband could chat.
Feeling badly for him, I suggested we take the elevator to the top floor office. We did, but only found a 30 something secretary who hadn’t even been born when my husband was stationed here.
We enjoyed the museum, but I know my guy was disappointed.
And when you’re disappointed?
There’s always beer.
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Newport craft brewery to be exact.
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Which had an excellent tasting space…
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And some very tasty beer.
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I liked the Ungourdly Hour so much I brought some home.
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We were hungry enough for a nibble and discovered they had a satellite station of Wally’s Weiners, a Newport favorite.
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I can’t say I was overly impressed with the corn dog bites or garlic Parmesan fries…
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But the beer was good… and my husband had an hour long conversation with the bartender, telling stories of the old days so I know he was happy.
Finished with our internal tour, we walked back outside to the rear of the property.
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The mansion was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt and was patterned after a small palace within the grounds of Versailles in France.
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The mansion is U-shaped, and though it appears to be two stories, is actually four levels. Clad in white Westchester marble from which it gets its name.
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The view is pretty sweet.
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As is the tea house I spoke about earlier.
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Sadly it was locked up tight and we couldn’t explore inside.
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But as far as backyard buildings go, it beats our shed hands down.
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To the left you can see some other large waterfront homes.
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And don’t you just hate it when the neighbors build one larger than yours?
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All in all, Marble House is quite something.
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The side facing Bellevue Avenue has a Corinthian portico, a curved marble carriage ramp, and a semi-circular fountain.
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And as with everything else, is quite ornate.
Done with our Gilded Age cottage tours for the day, we made a pit stop back at the resort to refresh and change then headed down to the waterfront for dinner.
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On the recommendation of some locals the husband met for breakfast ( did I mention he found a cafe across the street from our resort and became a week long regular eating there every morning? The man has to talk! ) we tried The Black Pearl.
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And when they say black?
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Everything was black.
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My pomegranate margarita and wild mushroom roasted chicken were wonderful but the husband was unimpressed by the menu and protested by just having chowder.
Whatever.
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An evening stroll along the marina was required as we had to park what felt like a mile away…
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But the scenery wasn’t half bad.
This boat was available for charter and I instantly imagined a fabulous pirate cocktail party.
And a memorial room to his youngest child and avid yachtsman, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt. Harold successfully defended the America’s Cup three times and is known for inventing the rules of contract bridge. When a subsequent owner of Marble House put it up for sale in 1963, it was Harold who stepped in and donated the money to the Preservation Society for its purchase.
Thank you Harold.
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Down an impressive mahogany paneled hallway…
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My bad knee ached at the thought of the servant’s stairs, but down we went.
And how do you know they’re the servant’s stairs?
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Because there are locked bars at the base to keep the riff raff delivery people from mixing with the family.
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I’m not sure why the butler’s office has a parrot, but there he is.
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My husband got a huge kick out of this water heater and its primitive but effective level indicator.
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The kitchen.
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I can’t imagine how stifling and busy this space must have been for the 6-8 weeks of summer residence.
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Husband loved the old coffee grinder.
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Someone still polishes those copper pots today.
No thank you!
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A French chef and 6 assistants prepared the meals.
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On the 15 foot coal fired stove.
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Alva, at a costume party.
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The annual auto parade, where cars were covered in flowers and driven on parade.
The Grand Salon of the Marble House was very much that.
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Also known as the Gold Room for obvious reasons, the walls are covered in 22 karat leaf.
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Move the furniture and it serves as a ballroom as well.
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The decorative elements are borrowed from Versailles, that other simple cottage across the pond.
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Heading up the marble front stairs is an experience in itself.
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You tend to run out of adjectives and simply gawk.
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Here’s the husband, doing just that.
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It really isn’t hard to imagine giant skirted ladies, dripping jewels, floating down the stairs on the arm of someone fabulous here .
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Consuelo Vanderbilt’s bedroom. Eldest child, she married Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough.. and clearly loved the color red.
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The lady of the house’s boudoir.
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Alva married well and took New York and Newport society by storm, elevating the Vanderbilt name to the highest rung on the social ladder.
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Oddly enough she was a feminist and became heavily involved in the women’s suffrage movement, building a tea house on the property to hold rallies in support of women winning the right to vote.
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Her bedroom is ultra feminine and covered in silk.
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The HBO series The Gilded Age filmed in quite a few of the Newport cottages and used many of the rooms in Marble House as set decoration inspiration.
When we visited the Breakers on our third morning in Newport and bought our tickets for entry, we purchased the multi pack which allowed us to tour three of the Preservation Society’s properties.
So that afternoon we parked off Bellevue Avenue and walked to number two.
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Past ornate wrought iron gates….
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Past houses with extra large lawn ornaments….
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Along giant slabs of slate sidewalks…
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To our destination.
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Marble House was built between 1888 and 1892 as a 39th birthday present for Alva Vanderbilt from her husband, William. At a total cost of $11 million, ($384 million today) it consists of 500,000 cubic ft. of marble that cost $7 million alone. Considered the most lavish house in America, this 50-room summer residence was still called a “cottage” in the Newport tradition.
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And yes, there was a whole lotta marble.
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On the floor, the walls and the ceiling.
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Gold?
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The dining room has that in spades. Even the chairs are covered in it.
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The library/morning room.
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Alva loved France, French art and French architecture.
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And because she acquired a collection of Medieval and Renaissance art she had a gothic room built to display them.
River's world..... 