Realized upon leaving NH we didn't get any pictures of Steve so I snapped this picture in the car on our way out. The leaves were most beautiful in NH and Steve's house had a beautiful setting. We drove nearly 3 hours down to Rhode Island to see the Newport mansions. There were only 5 left to tour because "the season" was over, but they were the best 5 to see! Also it took us the entire day to see all five of them, our feet were KILLING by the end of it. But so worth it. Phenomenal architectural structures built in the gilded age of US. Those Vanderbilts had some serious money. Helped me understand why when property taxes and equal rights started becoming a thing they couldn't afford to keep them up anymore and the mansions had to be sold to and kept up by the Preservation Society and shared with the public masses through tourism.
We toured the Rosecliff, the Marble House, The Chateau Sur Mer, The Elms, and The Breakers. And not just the mansion, the grounds! So beautiful. We learned that RI Newport is a sheltered coast line so it attracted the most wealthy people for building land, and probably the estates employed hundreds of people when you think of what it took to build and run them back then. We felt like we were in Downtown Abby the whole day.
We went to Applebees for dinner and relaxed at the hotel, again since it gets dark so soon up north we had to wait for the sun to come back up to see more.
Day 6
We got up early enough to walk the coast line before church, and it was the most calm shore line I've ever walked! I couldn't understand where the wind was, the waves were breaking but the air was calm around me. It was beautiful to see the sun above the ocean and the view of the large estates from the shore line. We walked back through the neighborhoods and passed by Regina Salve University, a catholic school that established by nuns who took advantage of large Ochre House becoming too much for its owners to handle. Beautiful.
We attended church in Middletown RI and then drove to Plymoth MA. We had a delightful time at Plimoth Plantation, a replica of a 1630 establishment and the second English settler city in the US after Jamestown Virginia. It was like stepping back in time to see those homes and the way they lived, and they even had actors dressed up in period dress and talked to us to explain their situation there. We got to attend a Puritan meeting in the Fort and sing an old Psalm. I loved it there.
Everywhere you go in new england its a history lesson! We stopped by the Grist Mill and learned all about how they ground corn for their animals and their bread. It was so pretty. Then we drove to Plymoth rock and walked around that area. I was feeling pretty worn down this day so we retired early to the Comfort Inn, the nicest hotel stay of our trip, and had our humble food from a grocery store to keep the sabbath.
Day 7
Boston! We stopped at the commonwealth museum at Mass U to learn about the evolution of equal rights in our country which as a social worker I loved. They had some original amazingly old documents there too. We then dropped our bags off at the Air B and B we were staying at in Boston, and took the car to the rental return. No trying to navigate downtown Boston by car! We utilized shuttles and the Silverline bus to get back to town for our walk of the Freedom Trail.
We learned so much on the Freedom Trail too much to write, but our stops included the State Capitol, The old statehouse where the declaration of independence was read, the old meetinghouse beside the site of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's house, a Church of England chapel with personal pews, a graveyard where Paul Revere was buried, and the Faneuil House. We bought a trolley tour which included a harbor tour, so we got on a boat and learned about the Old Chapel which had the highest steeple in Boston for over a century and from where Paul Revere saw the two lanterns. We got off the boat to step on the WW2 destroyer "Cassia" and got to see inside and out that huge navy ship. The trolley guides told us all about history, but also recent development of Boston, which has grown immensely in just the past decade.
We found a subway line back to the Air B and B and both plopped in front of a movie so worn out!
Day 8
Thankfully we had two days to do Boston, because there was way to much to see in one day. I snapped a picture of Jared in front of the subway stop or T-line, so many people all over the city all the time it was amazing. We found a great local cafe for breakfast, Scali's, and I enjoyed a veggie omelet and Jared a reuben sandwich.
There was a lot of waiting this day, waiting for the trolley or the tour or the Tline, but we still enjoyed the ambiance and tried to savor our last day. We walked around the Boston Tea Party museum and gift shop and bought a little boat for my souvenir shelf. We got back on our Trolley tour and stopped at the USS constitution, the first commissioned naval boat in the US, called "Old Iron Sides" and enjoyed the museum there and walking on her deck and under deck. We troured the rest of the city on the trolley then took the T-line up to Harvard. It took us a minute to find the student-led free campus tour starting point, wanting to get the right one, but we made it and got our names on the list. We had a wait so we walked around a little on Harvard Square and ate more food. The tour was awesome! What an amazing campus so rich with history, and again amazing architecture.
We rested our feet on campus for a while before returning to Downtown Boston to see the public gardens at Boston Common. Beautiful replica of a London park, Jared fell asleep on the park bench there. We walked to the original "Cheers" bar which was Jared's favorite part of the day and went inside there. Then we trolley's back to Market Square and went through a huge shopping mall and food court, it took us 20 minutes just to walk through it and decide what we wanted to eat. Then we T-lined back to the closest station to our rental room, and took the 10 minute walk one last time. We watched Newsies, packed up, and prepared for an early rise to get to the airport by 5:30 am. We caught an Uber at 4:45 in the morning, and it was there in 2 minutes! That service really is amazing.
New England we loved you! What a wonderful blessing and treasured memory you will be. Well worth every penny and the work it took before and after to make it happen.
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