Wednesday, September 2, 2015
My head is swimming tonight!  I saw so much history today, that it was mind boggling!  We drove down to Newport, Rhode Island and walked the 3.5 mile Cliff Walk, which means we did 7 miles. It is along the rugged cliffs on the Atlantic Ocean, and offers some of the best views of the Gilded-Age mansions. The Cliff Walk was developed by the estate owners, and was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1975. The most elegant and prominent mansion is, The Breakers, home of the Vanderbilt's.  They amassed their fortune in steamships and later the railroad.

The Breakers was built in 1895, and was the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II.  Its elegance surpassed all other Newport mansions in extravagance.  It cost 10 million dollars to construct.  Today they give tours through the mansion and they have 400,000 visitors a year.

This mansion is called Ochre Court and today, it belongs to Salve Regina University in Newport.  It cost 4.5 million to build it in 1892 and is the second largest mansion in Newport.

We walked between the homes and the ocean along the Cliff Walk, and many of them had hedges so high that you couldn't see them, until you got a distance away from them. 

After our 7 mile 'walk', we went to the older section of Newport and had lunch at the oldest tavern in the nation.  It is the White Horse Tavern and it was granted its liquor license in 1673. At one time, state legislators gathered here before sitting at the Colony House.

This is the entrance to The White Horse Tavern.  The dining room was to the right and also, upstairs.  They also had a few small tables in the bar room, which was quite small.  We ate in the bar room, next to a very huge fireplace.  Notice the flag on the wall, and the black and white 'rug' on the floor is painted.

This is the dining room of The White Horse Tavern.  Everything was very immaculate and the food was delicious.  We both had a lobster croissant BLT and of course, a beer.

This was our bartender/waiter, and you can see that the bar isn't very large.  We enjoyed kibitzing with him, and so glad we came to Newport, RI today.   We're ready to move tomorrow (I guess).  We have enjoyed this area, and we could have stayed another week here.  We will be in Phillipston, MA for the next week, and we hastily booked that, because of Labor Day Weekend.  It's busy out here, and will be crawling with people on the last big holiday weekend of summer.  I always say that, we will find something in every little town that interests us.  So we'll see if this holds true this time. 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDSON, GREG, TOMORROW!